worth your time?

I bought these four place mats with tatted edges at the op shop on Khyber pass. A lot of what you find is machine made but these are authentic crafted one of a kind masterpieces. I feel so sorry for women...

Victorian Gilt

For the past six months i have been travelling through Epsom on a bus every single day. The bus stops right outside a shop called Victorian Gilt,(<----Don't go to their website it uses comic sans) it looks like an op shop but you can tell it's expensive so I never went in there until yesterday.

THE LACE!!!! oh my fucking god was there some lace. every kind you can imagine in varying stages of decay, completion and skill. From handkerchiefs to table cloths, tatted collars, shirt cuffs, e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. It was intense. The shop looks a little bit like my bedroom, masses of organised piles of amazingness, The lady who owns it knew exactly where to find everything which was amazing you can't even see the walls and only small sections of the floor.

Looking through the piles of lace it was a little overwhelming, hundreds of thousands of hours of work were right here in a jumbled pile in Epsom. $8 for a little irish lace doily that would have taken weeks to make with a skill and neatness that would have taken years to perfect. $8? It's not art is it? One lady in the store who was looking at a hand made lace tablecloth was shocked when told it was $250. If you were to pay someone what they were worth to make that i hate to think what it would cost. She probably then went to living and giving and bought a mass produced pile of synthetic prettiness that was oh so not contemporary. I wonder how much machine made lace can be produced in the time it takes to make a lace handkerchief? One particular one i saw was made for a wedding, the thread was finer than strands of my hair and I could barely see the stitches it it was so elaborate. Dizzying. I tried to think of this handkerchief while i was stitching with hair earlier today and the hair was breaking and catching on things and i was frowning and fuck fuck you-ing. Ladies don't swear. I have realised I have absolutely no patience.

I want to go back to the shop and ask her if I may photograph some of the laces because they are just tooooo beautiful for words. There is also an unfinished piece there which would have been huge, it had many different styles of lace within it and i would bet $8 that the woman who was making it was too blind or too dead to complete it. It was great to see the process involved, the outine, the backing on the lace, the drawn pattern template. awestruck

Andres Serrano

Pretty, reminds me a little of the colours in Nicholas Lampert's work, the surreal landscape that is formed from extreme close ups of objects. I wish he had come up with a better title. I would have suggested Fecoids. The titles of the individual works are awesome though; evil shit, Freudian shit, mother shit, self portrait, Hieronimus Bosch Shit... the list goes on.
His photos are quite intense and involve a lot of bodily fluids and rude bits.

Ever heard 'rude box' by robbie williams? ridiculous.

Serrano does not digitally manipulate his photos, they are all technically excellent and he is right to say that 'effects are always better when they're real'-source


Andres Serrano on Artnet is the best place to see images and find information on this BC.
This article is also what i would call ka pai, 'The interpretation of Dreams'... gives a good description of his latest works and what it is like to see them in real life and larger than a computer thumbnail.

Melanie Bilenker

Melanie Bilenker

Brooch (2004)
1 3/8" x 7/8" x 3/8"

Materials: Gold, sterling silver, ivory piano key laminate, epoxy resin, hair
Thanking you Emily!
I love the everyday MUNDANE AS scenes depicted in Bilenker's works, and the delicate thin lines of hair make them delicate and liney. You don't realize how thin hair is until you try to weave or sew with it using singular strands what a fucking mare i may as well sew it in to my fingertips i prick them so often.

In Bed: Brooch (2004) Still In Bed: Brooch (2004)
7/8" x 1 1/8" x 5/16" 7/8" x 1 1/8" x 3/8"

I prefer her earlier works to her more recent ones from 2008. I'm not such a fan of the faces and portraits in her work i think the more abstract ones appeal to me. This woman must be so incredibly patient as would be the case with any jeweller. I think her hair is straight which would make things 100 times easier. maybe i should straighten mine then try and work with it? I think the curliness is important because if i am adamant that i use my own hair i may as well incorporate features of it. The curls make it form wicked swirly patterns, fluffy ball and crazy 3D chaotic shapes. My hair is so not mundane maybe i should make trippy ridiculous patterns with it. so art.

mummies

Neo-Maternalism: Contemporary Artists’ Approach to Motherhood
by Sharon Butler

I came across this article from a link on Kate Kretz's blog page. I'm not about to go and have children but from looking at feminist art and what it means to be female i think pregnancy and child birth is quite relevant. Its crazy to think that Judy Chicago worked for five years making 'The Birth Project' and yet never had any of her own children, it almost feels like she is lying? The birth project included artists from... wait for it... as far away as NEW ZEALAND quote unquote well how about that! I can't find the name of the NZ artist though. tear.Birth Tear/Tear from 'The Birth Project". 1982
Thompson, Jane. 20"x 27" Embroidery on Silk

History. its necessary i guess.

Victorian Hair jewellery and hair in general, read this website---> CLICK ME! i'm not going to type a summary of it because
a)can't be fucked
b) pointless
c) im listening to music and typing would distract me
Ladies! Ladies use to keep their hair from their brushes and put it in a hair receiver. odd. the hair was then used to stuff pin cushions or make the afore mentioned jewellery. mean. Another use for this dead hair was to make ratts, which essentially are giant hair balls that were stuffed inside your hair do to make you look like Amy Winehouse. This was because back in the day they had very little in the way of makeup and everyone was heinous so they would style their hair elaborately in hope of attracting the male gaze. Sounds kind of eew but then again it is your own hair and it was dead on your head at one stage its just that its now in ball form. om nom nom?

LACE IN FASHION
Well.... before the 16th century lace was for decorating household furnishings, by the 17th century it was all lace collars, cuffs, veils, you name it... It had no function whatsoever than to decorate, enhance, embellish and distinguish the upper class who wore it. It required great skill and great lengths of time and patience to create lace so it is no suprise that it became a symbol for the wealthy. With the industrial revolution beginning in the late 18th century many lace makers lost their jobs as they were replaced by machines... their craft was rendered almost useless. In the 20th century lace began to be used more for undergarments and subtle embellishments on clothing rather than flambouyant cuffs and collars. The 1980's ruined lace making it tacky and whorish. I'm talking out my ass but its kinda true

original flavour means what exactly?

Sara Bomans

Coolest hair embroidery ever, very contemporary, digital influence, themes of abjection, reading her artist statement on the saatchi site she covers a lot of the issues i want to explore in my own work. Her embroidery is more like drawing, and the hair still looks like hair trailing of the page with a life of its own. She has a facebook page made of hair, and a second life symbol. She pretty much ticks every box there is to tick in the whatamandalikes category.The Artist. Human Hair and paper, 30X30cm. 2008

Kate Kretz

Insane textile works, Dita will love them! vagina dentata om nom nom nom scary... her hair embroidery is amazing! inspiring... it has a repulsive feel to it, and of course very feminist themes. Read this post she has written it is so beautiful!!! makes you think, and makes you take a second look at her work and your own, what inspires you, what is real, what matters and what you feel like you are qualified to say... read it and you'll know what i mean :)Threat of Heavy Weather (detail). 20X30X10" Human hair on pillow case, pillow. 2003

Laura Normandin

Best website design i have seen today, usually craft sites look like word document and have bright red text and are horrific to try and navigate but this one was epic! You can tel she doesn't work with hair specifically as the works she has posted pale in comparison to others i mention... they're still quite nice though. Trivet 1. 4X6" Human Hair on Linen. 2003

hairyness is godliness

Here are some websites i found where people have uses hair to craft things, embroidered, woven etc.

Lindsey Adelman
LOVE her work, need to spend more time looking through her blog... more performance is involved and her work moves away from craft a little. Her drawings are cool, they look like the patterns you find on 60's formica bench tops. I wonder how different curly hair is to straight hair when you try drawing with it???

Lush 01. 6X9". Human Hair on Paper. Lindsey Adelman

Jennifer Perry
I love her 'container' works, the clean lines with stray hairs shooting off in all directions are beautiful. I don't like her embroidered versions of Goya's 'Los desastres de la Guerra' so much, they just aren't as interesting! They are too much like the hair works of the presidents i mentioned below, focused on looking perfect and not really letting the hair do its own thing and look like hair. HAIR
Container, detail, 2000, 22" x 30", human hair sewn into paper


Portraitr Of American Presidents (Egnlish Vresion)
they use comic sans. booooo. boourns.

Nina Sparr

This makes me cry, my work will never be this good!!! Where the fuck do you get that much hair from? I guess she would be using hair that has been cut from your head and not manky shampooey tangled malting amanda hair collected in a falafel container.


These are exactly like the Victorian hair jewellery i have seen photos of, so detailed and beautiful, the hair is so smooth! Maybe i should try straightening mine then malting as it tends to just curl up and go spastic when i try working with it. sigh.

Anne Wilson

Stumbled across this woman through a google picture search of lace, then stitchin fingers, then forums, then then then and THEn here is her website.
She uses hair, lace, wore, thread- very domestic crafty materials CRAFT
She created a website for her art project Hairinquiry from 1996-1999 that asked the questions, 'how does it feel to loose your hair? What does it mean to cut your hair? After reading a few of the stories it seems that it is not that uncommon to collect hair you have been shedding. I'M NORMAL! now i want the biggest hairball i don't think i'll top this lady tho.

lace on your face

so, this looks so hard i hate to think how shit house it will be trying to do this with hair. i like the narratives within some of the ,ace, the plain decorative stuff i find boring although it is very finely made. my lace will have some big D&M story woven in to it, not saying that these don't of course but yeah. art

Carson Fox

Carson Fox 'Pink Slut' Mixed media, 30w" x 32h" x 5 ½d ". 2004

Brooke showed me some works by this lady, the above is less relevant to my own work but totally awesome. She makes these for people she knew that have passed away, i think they're great. reminds me of the song by that aussie comedian, 'even cunts turn in to top blokes after death' or whatever it says. funny.Filigree #8 (installed at Jersey City Museum)
7’ x 30’, wire, artificial hair, 2006

Her filigrees are made with synthetic hair, here is her artists statement taken from her website

I am interested in beauty, but I mistrust it. Instead, I look for beauty that exists in tension with the materials or the circumstances that invent it.

The selection of material is very important to me, and no material is too mean or humble if it is expressive. I appreciate non-traditional items, and I work on several things at once, often in series. As a consequence, my work usually falls into distinct groupings based on my material or media choices.

My series of “filigree” sculpture was originally inspired by Victorian hair sculpture and jewelry. Historically, these objects were crafted out of the hair of a deceased loved one and acted as a memento of the departed. My own sculptural works are elaborately crafted tapestries of delicate, hair-thin wire that bring to mind lace work on a large scale. Often these objects are hung in such a way that allows the resulting shadows to become important elements of the work. In these sculptures, while the decorative patterning may soothe, the hair like materials impart a sense of dread and mourning.

I Know About Your Broken Heart
wire, artificial hair, 25.5" x 106", 2004

I like the words woven in to thefake hair, if i were to do this it would be a lame quote of some sort thats meaning is subverted by the use of material... or something... just... whatever....I realised today that i will have to work on a much smaller scale than what i had planned to unless i want to spend 80 hours a week fiddling with hair. ufuk.