the lace lady

By the time I got to the studio today to take photos of my work it was too dark to get any good shots so it will have to wait till I get back from Paris. In the meantime, I wanted to show pics of the lace lady’s booth at the market in L’Isle sur la Sorgue. This is one of my favorite markets and she is an expert on antique handmade lace and embroidery and had so many things to show us. Enjoy!

Handmade lace is made using a template, pins and bobbins of string. They would pin the template into this pillow, then wrap the pins with the bobbins to create the pattern.

 

 

This is the template she gave me as a gift when I bought 3 of the small bobbins. Its paper but almost looks like leather.

 

 

 

 

Notice there is no “W” on the embroidery sampler. From what I understand, the English brought “W” to the language and it is not used in French.

I will be back in 4 days hopefully with new inspiration and lots of photos to share!

studio and bedroom shots

My friend Christy and I did this tea bag installation in our studio window. After people heard I save my tea bags they started giving me theirs from the cafe.

I like the little cheesecloth ones.

A little sailboat embroidery.

This is a view of my bedroom from the doorway. I am really lucky to have my own room.

Mom, see that scarf hanging from the wardrobe? I hope you like it!

I think I might be the only one here with a double bed. It is hard as a rock but I guess it beats a twin and sharing a room with 3 people.

We are leaving for Paris tomorrow! I am going to try to photograph some of my work and post later today because I wont have my computer with me and limited access to the internet. Have a great day!

matali crasset

During Matali Crasset’s workshop we were given the assignment to build a new world only using paper. Our concept of this world was that the earth was no longer able to create seasons, so in order to avoid a year long summer in desert conditions, the humans created robots that lived in the clouds and manufactured the remaining 3 seasons. We were split up into 4 groups to work on things like architecture, transportation, nature, and robots. I was in the robot group and had a great time creating them and thinking of specific tasks they would perform.

Installing the structure

 

The robots. One makes water by combining hydrogen and oxygen, one holds the water, one condenses the water into ice, one is a fluffer to fluff up snow, one distributes the water/ice/snow to earth, one creates energy, and one communicates to the robots. They all have an orange engine with a yellow communication device built in.

 

My robot, the “distributor.” Other robots can dock at any of the 4 docking stations around the bottom and the distributor would shoot the rain/ice/snow out the large cone.

 

 

Matali with the cloud world.

What I learned from Matali:

I learned to ask questions. To dig deeper to find the most basic and underlying parts. Keep it simple, form should follow function. Color is a universal language.

 

quarry graffiti

One of my favorite spots in LaCoste so far is the quarry. It is beautiful and peaceful down there and also a nice walk. I was really inspired by the graffiti. A lot of it is really old, from the early 1900’s.

Christy

 

Sharon

 

 

These vessels inspired a stitching I did for my Stitch Diary class. I think they will also be a theme in my work here.

 

I am.

 

 

We had such a busy first week and I am exhausted. We had a very interesting workshop with Matali Crasset, a brilliant designer. It was a challenge working in groups to create a cohesive piece but I learned a lot from the experience. I will post photos of the (imaginary) world we created tomorrow, along with photos of the rest of the weekend and some of my work so far as well. I will really try to keep the blog updated better, Ive just been trying to settle in and find the time to do it. I hope you all had a great weekend!

views of lacoste

View of LaCoste from the road

Olives on an olive tree

View of the valley and Bonneau in the distance

Walking in the village

The chateaus at the top of the mountain

week one in paris

The Champs-Elysees and the Arch de Triumph

The ferris wheel at the end of the Champs

Tour Eiffel

Eating at a bistro and a cat jumped in my lap

From the metro

Chatlet

An exhibit at the Pompidou Centre

A love carved tree

A boy pushing his sail boat

The coolest sail boats ever

I have been having a great time exploring Paris. These photos are only the first half of the week. Ive taken lots of photos but it doesnt feel like enough. Im glad we are coming back with the group at the end of January because we didnt go to any museums. We went into the entrance of the Pompidou but didnt get tickets to see the exhibits because it was so crowded. Ashton and I did go to some galleries which was very cool.

Paris is a wonderful city. It is beautiful and has so much culture, not to mention the people are extremely stylish. I have mastered the metro system but still cant speak any French except a few words. Ashton’s friends are so great and have been showing me a really fun time.

Tomorrow morning we leave for LaCoste, meet up with the group and get to work!

to paris!

Hello! Or should I say Bonjour?! This is my last post before leaving for Paris tomorrow. I know Ive been super lame and havent updated in a long time and I am even lamer because I dont have any pictures of my finished Christmas gifts to show for my long absence. It has been a whirlwind since mid-December and I feel totally unprepared to be leaving for 2 and a half months.

I got a new haircut for France tho!

My family barely recognized me haha.

I am going to miss these boys so much. I am looking forward to my adventure tho and I will be sure to update often to let you know what Im up to over there.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I will be back soon with photos of Paris!