Fab Fibers in Grasscloth

Grasscloth wallcoverings are what I would call another form of wallpaper, and they showed up in the latest Phoenix Magazine. They interest me, because they are the epitome of a 2-dimensional art form - as is wallpaper - but have the added benefit of catering to the interior of the home, and of being made of natural grasses: "Versatile and chic, grasscloth wallcoverings take root in interior design" .....

"Such plants as jute, sisal, flax, and raffia....are being noticed for their aesthetic qualities as they take center stage in a new breed of grasscloth wallcoverings." Grasscloth offers such designs as screen-printed florals, embroidered patterns, and solid colors in flag-like "flavors", apparently available in 29 colors!

Wallpaper is of course susceptible to repetitive patterns, and vignettes, both of which I have always thought of as quite charming, as can be fabric design or surface design.

ee - ko - sheek

Fabric is another 2-dimensional art form. One dimension one way, another dimension another way. That makes two! (It sometimes comes under the heading of "surface design".) Fabric is certainly a 2-dimensional aspect of our life, and worthwhile considering as an art form.

The other day I came across a fabric line called "Eco-chic". This is a fabric full of small, circular holes, and they described it as a "punched-out holey grid pattern" which says it all, except for the "ecological" part. It actually consists of holes; I would call it a "tweaked sheer" in a systematic grid. Definitely something you can see right through.

It was hanging in a looped curtain, like an aurora borealis seen in the sky during the Northern Lights-Show, and my imagination envisioned it, not just only in a beauty salon, but in a young girl's bedroom, and as a party decoration, and as part of a theatre set or a TV set, or by the pool, or as department store or retail decor, etc. Pieces of it, or scraps, could also be used effectively in design collage......

One of the many fun experiments you can conduct with calligraphy is using this double pencil described in my last entry....you can change it to two ballpoints, or two marker-tips, or two different colors.

Now make some doodles that you feel like making, or even try a one-letter image, like a lower case "a", not letting the pen-angle change (see my last entry) as you "make your marks". Feel free to go back afterwards with a single implement to correct things: bring loose ends together as you want them. (Nobody is perfect the first time.)

Now the fun part is filling in the spaces you that you have made with your calligraphy: you can go to another media altogether, like a colored pencil or a marker, or a ball point, or watercolor, and you can make stripes, or polka dots, or wiggly lines or solid color, or whatever your heart desires, fear not! If you feel like attacking a whole word, or your name, or the name of a loved one, or a logo, you'll have even more fun.

Basic Surface Design

Three other 2-dimensional treatments involve photography, greeting cards, and collage. Each field has always held a fascination for me.

How can a person ignore the fact that with a camera (and thanks to my oldest son for the gift of a camera several years ago) you can transform any form of reality into two dimensions in an instant. This is not why it's nice, of course. What's nice is the focus, the composition, the emotion, the event, the contrast possible, the color, the location, the timeof day, the memory preserved, etc.

And I love magazines, especially fancy ones, glossy ones, ones filled with advertising using photography. There I see such beautiful handling of everything: the human form, fashion, landscapes and landscaping, furniture, architecture; even close-ups of products for sale are dealt with artistically and graphically. I see again, composition, fonts and scripts and lay-out, montage, beautiful natural lighting, beautiful artificial lighting, etc., etc., etc.