So they appeared by the dozen last Saturday at my doorstep as they do every October as part of the VCC Textiles Studies class under the tutelage of our bestest friend in the whole world... Patricia Kramer. Shouts out to Patricia who understands the importance in keeping students engaged in their work while exposing them to the new and exciting... her students are VERY lucky!
Interior Design today is more about branding, trending, emulating, formulating and less about quality, craft and the simple pleasures of living beautifully. Sewing and soft furnishings are among those simple pleasures and believe it or not are of little consideration to today's interior design curriculum. Projects are increasingly becoming more and more complex, technology is more important than human connection and we are slowly losing our attention towards simplicity. Patricia is a one woman army looking to change this in a big way and kudos to her. I try to show the students the benefits of living with softness, that a huge part of comfort today comes from our surroundings and our furnishings and that a larger part of one's decorating budget should go towards the creature comforts that make homes comfortable to live in. I would like to think they leave with a greater appreciation of something simpler.
Here I am discussing a set of curtains Anna and I had just finished. These remarkable curtains are made from a heavy crushed velvet. They are silk faced, a very luxurious finish. The curtains themselves took over a week to fabricate, by hand and I stress this to the students that it is simply impossible to rush this kind of luxury, it takes time to sew stitch at a time. Including linings these curtains had over 72 yards of cloth, in three layers entirely hand sewn. Look at how perfectly the curtain on the right is hanging, and I just hung it! Each fold falls perfectly and the best part is that these will only improve with time. Often time people will mask poor fabrication by laying blame to the cloth or the lining or the weather.... Learning to be a curtain maker is learning how to tame the wildest of fabrics.I encourage students to examine these details and try to understand why things look the way they do. I teach them that curtains are structure, they have foundation, support. They are designed to move, and yet be still. There is much to be learned about curtain making as an art form. And I am encouraged by their enthusiasm.
Thank you all for visiting.
