the blue path - lost & found

If ever there were a tale of a treacherous journey across the seas, then this is it! And how very apt, considering the imagined stories that have inspired these works.

Let's back track a bit... Renilde De Peuter of AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS is a wonderfully talented gal who makes all sorts of things, and is probably most well known, particularly through the blogosphere, for her delectably poetic needlework. I fell in love with her practice a little while ago, posting a small example from her worm hole series here, and have continued to follow her career. So it was to my absolute delight to discover that Mr Kitly, a super fine shop and gallery space on Sydney Rd in Brunswick (beautiful wares by the way... driven by a strong Japanese aesthetic), has also taken a fancy to "our" Renilde, and now carries a range of her mobiles, pin cushions, cushions & pot holders. It's no surprise that I was even MORE delighted to hear that Renilde had been invited to participate in the exhibition 'Denim' at Mr Kitly, a material investigation into the use of denim in craft, art and design curated by Dell Stewart. All the planets seemed to be aligning!

But alas, disaster struck. Renilde's contribution 'The Blue Path' didn't arrive from Belgium, and infact became officially 'lost'. Terrible stuff.

Fast forward... two and a half months after the exhibition opening, lo and behold, Renilde's package finally arrives! Fortunately, the exhibition that was scheduled only occupied the floor and the middle of the room, leaving the back wall available to hold a kind of satellite exhibition dedicated solely to her 'The Blue Path' series. The lovely folk at Mr Kitly even held a scumptious afternoon tea of homemade goodies to celebrate.

I popped in the following week, and it was sensational to see her thread & fabric pieces in the flesh. A couple had already sold, including the large cross stitch (which was so great), but fortunately one of my faves was still available - one of the 'St Elmo's Fire' squares - check out the top image. There was no doubt that the right thing to do (despite of course a questionable bank balance!) was to purchase it without delay! It is beautiful and delicate to handle and such a well considered size (kinda large denim pocket scale) - with two tiny little hoops made from cotton to hang it. How lucky am I.

> Renilde's beautiful blog
> Renilde's flickr
> Mr Kitly
> Maker's profile @ Mr Kitly
> 'Denim' exhibition blog

takashi iwasaki

Oh my... Takashi Iwasaki. Where do I start... how I chose these three from his vast folio of embroideries (which these are), paintings, drawings and collage is a mystery! All I knew is that I needed to post something bright, playful and outstanding!... coz it's been a biiig week. I'm back on the 8.30am-4.30pm office wheel, which unfortunately does awful things to my psyche, I've said goodbye to my partner for another six week period and I updated the Blogger editing interface which is giving me more than a headache. These works introduce a little light and equilibrium!

> Takashi's website

ana & renilde

I'm discovering the amazing world of contemporary stitch/needlework, and the artists who incorporate it into their body of work, or who perdominantly play in this medium. And the talent out there has blown me away. I'm a complete convert, and would love to at some stage dabble myself. I remember mum's gorgeous needlepoint work when my first nephew was born. She didn't think she was being 'creative' because she was working from a pattern, but it was all truly truly lovely. For the moment, I'm just going to focus on two artists for this post because they seem so well suited to each another. Plenty of time for the others!




I profiled Ana Botezatu's work recently, but as I try not to clutter each post with too many images, I just included a selection of her drawings. She's such a talented gal, who seemingly works effortlessly with different materials, and her little cross stitch works are just superb. If you head here, she'll acquaint you with her textile work, but I recommend scrolling through from the beginning, because all her work is wonderful.




Renilde Depeuter's gorgeous blog is 'at swim-two-birds'. Her incredible works have been covered quite a bit across the blogosphere - as they should! There's a wonderful abstraction to her Worm Hole series which are also quite rustic (an interesting mix), while the Metropolis series are more pictorial like Ana's.

> Ana's blog, website, Book By Its Cover sketchbook feature
> Renilde's worm hole series on flickr, her blog, nice interview I found on Fine Little day blog