CoRkErS BaKeLiTe ArTkNiT ~ HoMaGe To SoNiA DeLaUnAy

The Corkers Bakelite knit originated from a favorite Sonia Delaunay textile design that i have previously interpreted in other colour ways as long ago as 2012.
Since my arrival in France, many enjoyable Sunday mornings have been spent on the elusive trail of bakelite jewellery at numerous Brocantes, Vide Greniers and Vide Armoires. I now have quite a collection ranging from spinach to cherry through ochre and  eggshell to butterscotch bakelite. Although my very first one, the green one above, came as a surprise find in a bag of old jewellery and  beads given to me by the grandmother of a former student when i taught Art and Drama in Oxford. There was a cream one too but i gave that to Lou who was my Art Assistant at the time. Each colour has been represented in the Corkers Bakelite Art knit.
The geometric pattern of squares reinterprets one of Sonia Delaunay's Simultaneous textile designs from the twenties.

CoRkErS HoMaGe To SoNiA DeLaUnAy - RhApSoDy iN bLuE

CoRkErS HoMaGe To DeLaUnAy -RhApSoDy iN bLuE ArTkNiT 

The RhApSoDy iN bLuE CoRkErS HoMaGe To SoNiA DeLaUnAy ArTkNiT evokes for me the early years of the JAZZ AGE with its knitted horizontal bars of blue tones, neutral spaces and red high notes.
Gerschwin's  1924 composition Rhapsody in Blue was scored for a solo piano and Jazz band. It mixed classical music with Jazz effects.  I can easily imagine Josephine Baker dancing in my >RhApSoDy iN bLuE< ArTkNiT to any number of Gherschwin's Jazz rhaps in between performances at the Theatre des Champs Elysees. Josephine an American born French dancer came to success at the same time as the 1925 Exposition des Arts Decoratifs in Paris where the term ARTDECO became linguistic currency.
 Gerschwin's Rhapsody in Blue almost didn't happen as he thought he would not have enough time to make revisions before the performance date. However on hearing that Vincent Lopez was conniving to steal his idea for an experimental Jazz Concert he became determined to finish it. Thank goodness also for Vincent Lopez who unwittingly gave our hero Gerschwin the fire he needed to complete his masterpiece for all to admire, enjoy and be inspired.

SoNiA DeLaUnAy

CoRkErS ArTkNiT detail

CoRkErS HoMaGe to SoNiA Delaunay -RhApSoDy iN bLuE

ThE CoRkErS HoMaGe To SoNiA DeLaUnAy ReTrOsPeCtIvE

Corkers Homage to Sonia Delaunay Artknit

  Et voila mes amis ! Here are my Homage to Sonia Delaunay Artknits on Madame Bovary's Morning Papers . Enjoy the mini flash back to Les ANnEeS FoLLeS!
I originally designed them during the Sonia Delaunay exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York in 2012. The exhibition has since toured to Paris and London and I am still working on a knitted  interpretation of yet another of her wonderful designs.

Corkers Homage to Sonia Delaunay Artknit

Corkers Homage to Sonia Delaunay Artknit





Sonia Delaunay

CoRkErS >Homage to Sonia Delaunay< OpErA ArTkNiT

CoRkErS HoMaGe To SoNiA DeLaUnAy  OpErA ArTkNiT

At our Art House studios in Verteuil during Spring 2012 we ran an Art and Textiles workshop for which I spent a very enjoyable time researching the textile paintings of Sonia Delaunay. To develop my research  further I simultaneously embarked on a  >Homage to SoNia DeLaUnAy<  Art knit project. This venture is still ongoing in 2016 and continues to bring me immense pleasure and deep satisfaction. The London exhibition catalogue has provided some extra fuel for new ideas.

Sonia Delaunay

 

Sonia Delaunay

In the Belle Epoch and during the Roaring Twenties Opera was the Venue one haunted to admire all things operatic .   

Sal in my Atelier wearing one of my Homage to SoNiA Delaunay OpErA ArTkNiTs 

CoRkErS OpErA ArTkNiT

CoRkErS HoMaGe To SoNiA DeLaUnAy ~ ThE ArT DeCo ArTkNiT

CoRKeRs HoMaGe To SoNiA DeLaUnAy ArT DeCo ArTkNiT

 My >Homage to Sonia Delaunay< project continues over here on Madame Bovary's Morning Papers. I have delved deeper into the Delaunay archives and treasures of that revolutionary era in Art and Textiles. I love swimming in the collective sea where Russian and European Cubism merge and the Jack of Diamonds, Wienner Werkstatte, Bauhaus, Cabaret Voltaire and Omega Workshops, Bloomsbury and Charleston collide.
 This Corkers Artknit is derived from another geometric design by Sonia Delaunay in greens. The term ART DECO was coined during the Exposition Internationale des Arts  Decoratifs et Industriels in Paris between April and October 1925 where Sonia Delaunay had a pavilion called BOUTIQUE SIMULTANE. It was the same year that Josephine Baker was dancing one arrondissement away at the Theatre des Champs Elysees.

Sonia Delaunay

CoUrQuEeN'S Augustus Sempus TuLiP MaNiA Art Knit

In the 1630s the price of a Tulip bulb in Holland rose to ten times the average earnings of a skilled craftsperson. It was a Dutch Golden Age that was later termed  Tulip Mania and has become a metaphor for the bubble and burst of economic booms.
 So the tulip has a significant history and attributes of rarity and momentous value. As a consequence it was the flower of choice in many 17th and 18th century Dutch Masterpieces.
This was the starting point for my >Augustus Sempus Tulip Mania< Art knit.



Augustus Sempus

Viceroy

CoUrQuEeN's HoMaGe To SoNiA DeLaUnAy CoMpOsItIoN No.9

SoNiA DeLaUnAy

I have been having lots of fun knitting a series of vintage jumpers called Homage to Sonia Delaunay. This one is the > triangles composition <  worn here with coral beads from my friend Barbara and green Bakelite opera beads from the grandmother of one of my Art pupils in Oxford before we moved to France. The butterscotch Bakelite beads were picked up for a song at a local brocante.

Earlier compositions from my > Homage to Sonia Delaunay < series can be seen at the following blog address http://simultaneousrazzledazzle.blogspot.fr/ .



CoRkErS ArTkNiT



Sonia Delaunay

Side and front views. The cream silk block printed backdrop of butterflies and fans is original art deco fabric. It was one of many surprises in a box of treasures given to me by an actor who is enjoying her retirement in la belle France.
The skirt and top I am wearing are an original Raoul Dufy print from the same era as Delaunay's textile design.