Hi everyone. I have been planning to get my textile art website up and working again for quite a while and I finally got things organised.
The new website address is: www.waiyukkennedy.com
Please check out the site. I am planning to add more new content soon
I am stepping my pace of making again after spending almost all of this summer in the garden. These are some examples of my recent new brooches.
Two brooches I’ve made that seem suited to the warm weather!
The garden is bursting with pinks and reds at the moment, as well as fabulous shapes, so I’ve had plenty of inspiration.
One of my recent necklaces was a new design (though based on an earlier style.) I was very pleased with how it turned out and think that the gold/white colours work really well.
Hi, I have not been posting here for a while but I hope to get back to adding regular updates soon.
Meantime here are a few of my recent textile jewellery pieces.
A cuff bracelet
Matching textile necklace
Another, distinctly asymmetric necklace
Brooches are not the fastest sellers but are still my favourite objects
And this winter I have been making a lot of earrings!
More earrings
Yet more earrings!
I have made many more – It has been a long (wet) winter!
Usually I like to start a new project from scratch. Reworking pieces that I have previously made is always difficult and a little less satisfying than creating a whole new piece of work.
If you make things by hand for a long time, you inevitably end up with a growing collection of odds and ends lying around. These can be from experiments that did not work out, or were abandoned, or even finished works never sold and you were never completely satisfied with. Once in a while I make an effort to use some of these pieces to develop new work and I recently produced a number of things that I am quite pleased with.
The neck-piece shown below is an example where I have combined various parts to make one new work that I think works quite well.
I have also been producing some completely new neck-pieces and have included photographs of a couple for comparison.
I thought I would share a few of the pieces I’ve been working on lately. With these brooches I have focussed on creating lines that flow and echo within the shapes.
We’ve been experimenting with different lighting when photographing, but it’s sometimes a struggle to reproduce the original colours in photos. Let me know what you think!
Hi everyone,
I would like to apologise for the lack of new posts here in the run up to Xmas. We will try to get back to normal in the New Year.
Merry Christmas from Cornwall.
Wishing everyone a safe, happy and prosperous 2013.
All the best
Wai-Yuk and Alex
A recently completed textile brooch
Recently I have been producing a lot of work in pinks and purples.
Here are images of just some of the pieces in this very pink theme.
A new choker with lots of pink velvet
A pink and purple version of the blue neckpiece I made a little while ago.
Close-up of the new neckpiece
Back view of the neckpiece
Matching earring for the above
Another pair of earrings in a style inspired by seashells
Apart from being the greatest example of late Chinese dynastic architecture, the Forbidden City is also a very fine museum. Or rather; there are a whole series of museums devoted to different types of objects, scattered over the vast site; some being permanent displays and others being for temporary exhibitions.
Large vase with fish decoration – Qing dynasty
One of the best displays is the Palace Ceramics Collection, which is situated in a building well off to the side of the main tourist route and therefore very quiet. The building is very dark with only the ceramic objects themselves being strongly lit. While this should produce ideal viewing conditions it fails because the objects are displayed behind glass which catches lots of distracting reflections and rather spoils the experience.
Tang dynasty horse sculpture – note the reflections from the display opposite
The ceramics display features work from all periods of Chinese history but the bulk of the pottery is from the Qing dynasty (not surprising in a Qing dynasty palace.) Although the Manchu dynasty is not the greatest period in Chinese ceramic history, the display has many fine examples.
Qing dynasty pot in the form of a gourd
Much bigger crowds are encountered at the Imperial Jewellery Collection where a degree of pushing and elbowing can be required to get a good view. Most of the visitors are Chinese, however, and they are mostly preoccupied with “oohing” and “aaahing” at the biggest precious stones and the biggest lumps of gold, leaving lots of pieces of interesting design relatively ignored. In fact much of the jewellery is fairly uninspiring, design-wise, consisting of many (large) precious stones formed into naturalistic arrangements of flower or fruit shapes. Some of the most unusual and interesting items are not the grand jewellery pieces but the accessories such as decorated belts.
Silk belt decorated with pearls and precious stones
Torque necklace in silver with gilding and coral inlay
The Forbidden City has many other displays, such as one with European clocks and scientific instruments from the Imperial collections and another with objects connected to the day to day life and rituals of the Qing Imperial household. These included some nice textile objects, though it is impossible to say whether these were originals or reproductions.
Phoenix embroidery on a large long-handled fan
Ceremonial parasol
Apart from the buildings converted into modern exhibition spaces, beautiful objects can be seen in many other parts of the Palace. My favourite is a “connoisseur’s wall” which displays many beautiful ceramic treasures.
Wall display of ceramics (photographed against the sun!)
Finally, there is beautiful design to be found in many out of the way corners. While the main facades dazzle with their clashing gold and polychromatic extravaganza, other parts of the buildings have much more subtle decoration, including some fine window grill designs.
Window grill design
Related post: The Forbidden City, Beijing
Here are some “steampunk” earrings produced by my son, Gregor.
Gregor’s first attempt at making “steampunk” earrings
Over the last few weeks I have introduced you to my daughter Isla’s photography, so now I thought I should show you my son Gregor’s creative work. Both Isla and Greg chose to follow an academic, rather than an artistic education but the creative impulse still seems to have rubbed off on them.
Greg working at my husband’s jewellery bench
Greg manages to combine his very rational, mathematician’s mindset with a belief that he can make anything he puts his mind to. Over the past year he has been working with silver and combining it with recycled watch parts to make some striking jewellery. He made his first pair of these “steampunk” earrings last winter when he came home to visit and made use of his dad’s jewellery bench and tools. I took some photographs of his progress during that first effort.
Working out how watch parts could be added to the cut-out silver blanks
Greg is a very methodical person and worked through a lot sketches to refine his ideas.
Greg worked out his ideas in sketches
Close-up of the finished earrings
I also have a few shots of some of his other pieces, though some are just of works-in-progress, rather than the finished items.
A later, similar earring under construction
A cat pendant
Unfinished leaf-shaped earring
Pendant with two giraffes
You can see my daughter Isla’s photographs in “Orkney Skies” and “Orkney in detail”
I recently finished making a textile neckpiece for this year’s Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Summer Exhibition. You can find out more about it in this post.
Detail of the finished neckpiece
Last night (25thSeptember), Alex and I went with a friend to attend the Private View of the art exhibition at the 2012 Quartz Festival. The Festival is an annual event held by Queens College, Taunton, in Somerset.
The 2012 Quartz Festival
The exhibition runs alongside a programme of performing arts events which this year includes performances by singers Lesley Garret and Elkie Brooks, along with sessions featuring comedy, poetry, magic and performance art. Space is always made for more serious cultural topics too and this year there will be a talk by Chris Larner, who in 2010 accompanied his chronically ill wife to the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland.
Sculpture by Melanie Deegan
Photograph by Ingrid Hesling
The exhibition was an interesting and eclectic mix of painting, sculpture, photography and crafts from artists in the South-West of England. I thought that some of the sculpture by Melanie Deegan and photography by Ingrid Hesling was particularly strong.
The crowds at the Private View
The Private View was very well attended right from the opening and a good number of sixth-form students were on hand to assist with greeting visitors and supplying the canapés and drinks.
My jewellery on display
More of my jewellery at the exhibition
Queens College was founded as a Wesleyan Methodist School in 1843. Today it provides co-educational facilities for pupils from 3 to 18 years as both a day-school and boarding-school. The fine main building was built in 1874.
Queens College, Taunton
Wisteria over the main entrance to Queens College
The exhibition runs from Wednesday 26th September to Saturday 6th October. For further details see the Quartz Festival website.
A few weeks ago I received a link from Nicole at Tiaras and Trianon, who was blogging about royal jewellery. The post she linked was about brooches and ended with the question – “Does anyone wear brooches anymore?”
Since I make and sell brooches on a regular basis the answer must be yes, at least for some people, but this does seem to be a question that a lot of women are concerned about. Certainly my daughter is not convinced that wearing a brooch is an acceptable fashion statement, though of course she is at an age where most people think fitting in is much more important than standing out. This concern does seem to be more widespread, as it only took me a few seconds to find a string of blogs and forum threads discussing the subject.
The big fear expressed again and again is (whisper it) the “granny look” and I sort of understand what is meant. (Please note that this is not an attack on grannies. I am already well into the age range where I could be one myself!) I suppose we are talking about a sort of genteel and conservative look that seeks to avoid any strong personal statement.
I have a beautiful little gold brooch that I inherited from my mother-in-law, but I could only wear it with an outfit that somehow changed its context, or was “knowingly” retro. I do wear gold or silver brooches on occasion, though I think precious metals and gems tend to look best against my skin. If you want precious jewellery that makes a statement when pinned to clothing, it really needs to be a bold bit of bling, but this can easily slip into tastelessness.
(Mind you I took a wander through the precious jewellery department of Harrods recently and it’s clear that many people have no worries about tastelessness at all!)
I wear brooches all the time, and while nowadays these are mostly my own creations, I also wear other pieces I have bought or received as gifts. Most brooches I wear are either colourful or quirky, or are made from unconventional materials. Few are small and they are generally selected to make a bold contrast when worn on a jacket or top.
This leather brooch is a fun accessory
I believe a brooch is as valid a weapon in creating a personal fashion statement as any other accessory. A dull, conservative “granny look” results from dull, conservative choices in creating your outfit, not from the category of any individual element. Dressing up well is all about self-confidence and conviction, not following a rule book.
A conventional brooch like this can still be work well if the outfit is well chosen
I have a friend who went through much of her life dressed in a quiet, restrained and very conventional way, then around the time when her son had grown up and left home, she transformed herself. She swapped her long straight hair for a fiercely short crop (which looks stunning in her steely grey) and began wearing the boldest, most colourful clothes she could find. This was not a desperate attempt to recapture lost youth, but instead a form of liberation. Clearly, there had always been someone with a personal style sense hidden away inside her and she just reached the point where she had the confidence to let that secret person out. The transformation from camouflaged moth to colourful butterfly was a shock at first but she is now much admired, by young people as well as those in her own age group.
What I am trying to say is that when deciding to wear a brooch, or any other item, fashion can be a trap. I am referring to fashion in the homogenised, high street, mass market sense, which is not about dancing out on the edge (what fashion used to mean) but about giving people a safe set of rules to hide behind. Far from helping you to stand out, the fashion industry today is all too often about giving people a new conservative place to hide.
Blue green and purple brooch
This post is probably me letting my “grumpy old woman” out for fresh air, aided and abetted by my “grumpy old man” husband. If you have any thoughts on this subject, whether agreeing or disagreeing with my viewpoint, I would love to hear them.
Related posts:
Are brooches popular? When do you wear them?
Do you wear pins/brooches?
Wear red lipstick and a brooch
What to do with brooches
If any of you are interested in the technique side of my work, then please take a look at a new article on my website on Creating a Textile Brooch, with a good set of work-in-progress photographs.
Textile brooch in blue with purple and lime green
Photo of brooch making in progress
A few posts ago, I showed you a photograph of a new brooch I had made. Now I have completed another version of the same brooch in completely different colours and was struck by how different the two pieces look. I thought that people might be interested in seeing the two together.
The first brooch I made in blue with green and purple
New version of the brooch in red and gold with salmon velvet appliqué
With its “cloud” motif, the design felt quite Chinese so this version is executed in overtly “chinese” colours, though I added some salmon velvet appliqué in the end just to give some more variety and richness.
The blue brooch being worn
I would love to hear any opinions on the design, or preferences between the two colour schemes!
Wai-Yuk Kennedy Textile Art 