The Street

Photograph by Patrick Lears

A year long series of artists commissions by the Whitechapel Art Gallery in and around Wentworth Street, London E1.

Selvedge

Cover photograph by Fedor Van der Valk

The latest issue of the textile magazine Selvedge is out. There is an article about the history of Dutch wax resist fabrics in this issue. There is also a piece about a remarkable artist called El Anatsui - you will not believe your eyes when you see his work which is made from recycled aluminium bottle tops - he has an exhibition on in London at the October Gallery near Holborn until 12 May.

Yinka Shonibare

Feather Pink 1997 acrylic paint on fabric, 25 12x12 inch panels, 98x98 inches. (c) Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare uses Dutch wax resist fabric in his work. I particularly like this series of panels incorporating fabrics and painting. I found the link to this piece at The Art Institute of Chicago

Material resource

The quilt is coming together nicely and everything is much brighter today (except the weather !). Thankyou again to everyone who left such lovely comments yesterday - this is the main reason to have a blog - to connect and share with people. We live in such a fragile environment in all senses, ecologically and emotionally and I am a 60s child (old hippy) at heart - love and peace and all that jazz - so I thought I would share one of the best fabric shops I know. I have been visiting Nasseri fabrics for the last 25 years - they started as a stall in Brixton market and then opened a shop round the corner at 38 Atlantic Lane. Most of their materials are Dutch wax resist fabrics produced for the West African market. And not only are they the most gorgeous designs and colours - they are really cheap ! They only sell them in 5 metre batches, starting at around £10 for 5 metres. And the selection is vast ! Most of the fabrics in the quilt I am making came from there.