House Decorating Archives - Meaningful Designs

Antillean Décor and Home Goods Company draws inspiration from the Caribbean

on January 5, 2016 by Jacqueline in Antillean, Caribbean chic, Caribbean living, Design, handmade mats, Home Goods, House Decorating, Interior Design, Jamaican proverbs, Sign Paintings ⋅ Leave a comment

So, you may have been wondering where I have been for the last few posts? I have been off, dear readers, indulging a personal desire of mine in founding Antillean, a décor and home goods company that draws its primary inspiration from the colors, craft traditions and vibrancy of my native Caribbean. I have finally indulged a long held wish of mine to produce products that will see homes enveloped in the warmth and magic of the Caribbean, products that will create a sense of Caribbean chic and Caribbean living, wherever in the world someone’s home may be. We at Antillean do this by working with practitioners in the region to encourage, develop, revitalize, and sustain the craft traditions of the Caribbean.

The Craft traditions of the Caribbean

In fact, Antillean has been a long time coming, and, quiet as its kept, I realize that all along, in profiling craft traditions and craft practitioners from around the world, I was asking myself one simple question: Could I, as well, follow, indeed indulge in my passion for hand crafted home goods and start my very own company? The more I thought about it, the more the idea took hold and, little by little, this is exactly what has happened. I started working with creators in the region to make my home goods dreams come alive. I realized that in so doing that I might, as well, be able to revitalize and sustain some of the craft traditions that I grew up with on my island home of Jamaica, and elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Of course I have gargantuan dreams for my little company. I mean, which mother does not look down at her child and not see her, or him, going out into the world and making a place for themselves? Which mother does not see her little one moving from a seed to a sapling and then a gigantic many-leaved tree? But in the meantime I am starting with manageable goals for my little one. A baby after-all learns to creep before she walks. And it is the same with Antillean.

Sign Paintings

A few years ago a friend of mine came to see me in Kingston (Jamaica) when I was home for a visit. He took along with him a gift for me, this friend of mine who is also a well-known visual artist. He was driving by a sign painter on the side of the road whose signs were so arresting that they caught my artist friend’s eyes. One of those signs was the gift he brought me, a Jamaican proverb in vibrant red, blue, yellow and black colors, “Rain Ah Fall But Dutty Still Tuff.” Meaning, the earth is still hard despite the falling rain. Meaning there are difficulties even in abundance. Of course I immediately fell in love with the hand painted sign on recovered metals and ordered more. Before long I found myself working with the sign-painter, via my artist friend, to broaden the range of his paintings and he would subsequently deliver to me, in addition to proverbs and tall handsome Jamaican police officers, paintings of local fruits and flowers that I simply adore. I hope that you will browse and subsequently purchase some of these wonderful paintings.

Kitchen Goods

Speaking of signs, one of the signs of good ‘broughtupcy’ for particularly girls in the Caribbean is our facility both in the kitchen and with a needle. We share this “broughtupcy” in fact with many other women from around the world. But I remain fascinated with the way that this ‘broughtupcy’ is expressed in the Caribbean. There is, of course, our love of the many-colored madras cloth, which harkens back to the multiracial identity of the various islands of the Caribbean. The madras cloth probably originated in India, but has now become idiomatic of Caribbean cultural expression and is often used for head dress and in national costumes. I started imaging this cloth on kitchen goods and before long, the madras cloth had found its way on potholders, hand towels, table napkins, aprons, and on placemats. Then there were the handmade rugs from my childhood in the rural district of Nonsuch, hidden in the high blue Portland mountains, where women would be “turning their hands to make fashion” out of small seemingly useless bits and pieces of cloth.

Ultimately though the story of these home goods products is one of mainly women reaching out their hands to other women. When I approached a cousin of mine about making the beautiful multi-colored mats, someone else saw her making the mats and remembered that she too could make the very mats, and before long the two women were off making the mats. Similarly, my aunt, who made the kitchen goods, ended up working with another woman to make the potholders, hand towels, table napkins, aprons, and placemats that Antillean sells. I was quietly amazed at this, one woman giving a helping hand out to another woman, but as I started entering more fully into the word of handmade things, I started to realize how, as Jamaicans say, “every mickle make a muckle” and that this is an inclusive world that pulls people closer together, particularly women.

Yes, we are starting small at Antillean, but we hope to become big and strong. We hope to become a gigantic tree, and with your help in purchasing our products, we can get there.

Visit the Antillean site at: https://antilleandesigns.wordpress.com

Until next time,

jacqueline

A Chinese Glass-Making Master Strives for Innovation in his Work

on April 20, 2015 by Jacqueline in Chinese colored glass, Chinese liuli master, Crafts, Dyes, Fan Li, Figurine, Home Goods, House accessories, House Decorating, Liuli, man-made crystal, Master Xu Yuezhu, Shandong Light Industry Association, treasures of Buddhism, Xi Shi, Xu Yuezhu ⋅ Leave a comment

By Kaisi Chen

“Art involves many personal emotions. You can only make a great artwork if you are truly passionate about it,” says Xu Yuezhu, a Chinese liuli master who strives for innovation instead of imitation in his artistic practice.

Liuli is Chinese colored glass or man-made crystal. Thousands of years ago, liuli was known only to court and liuli products were extremely rare and precious; “common people” had little access to it. Things have changed somewhat these days. Liuli still ranks high among other valuable materials (gold, silver, jade, ceramics, and bronze) in China, but today liuli is more accessible to a wide cross-section of people. Indeed, liuli is one of the seven treasures of Buddhism and many Chinese people believe the beautifully colored glass has healing powers and can, as well, protect one from evil. Some even believe that the glass attracts wealth.

But how did the glass get its name?

The term has a sad but also beautiful origin. The story is told that one Fan Li, a craftsman for swords, discovered the material after mixing crystal. When Fan Li fell in love with the beautiful Xi Shi, he worked hard to turn the colored glass into a beguiling piece of jewelry that was a fitting token of his love and affection — which he eventually presented to his beloved. Xi Shi, unfortunately, was forced to marry another king in the midst of warfare and returned this gift to Fan Li upon her departure. Liuli was named after Xi Shi’s departing tears that are still believed to be visible today in every piece of liuli created.

“Liu” in this case refers to fluidity and “Li” means glass.

For several decades now Master Xu Yuezhu, of the Shandong Light Industry Association, has been carrying on the family legacy of liuli production. “I have a passion for art since I was little,” Master Xu recounts, “and I used to play around in the workshop that my father worked in.” His early exposure to the glass works and his father’s influence caused him to develop an enduring interest in liuli-making at an early age. In 1980, when Master Xu was only sixteen years old, he began his career by studying under such Chinese masters such as Kong Fanyi and Liu Chishan. From 1995 to 2005, he worked as a product developer and then an art director, mainly designing and producing small-scale liuli objects for display and decoration. He has since moved on, focusing on larger products. In 2011 he was recognized, in the form of a national title of “Master” in China, for his achievements and contribution to the liuli industry.

But how exactly is the glass made?

Liuli usually requires ten steps from designing to molding and heating to cooling, which includes smoothing the surface and refining the details on the final artwork. Master Xu explains, “There are several methods to create a liuli artwork, including lost-wax casting, blowing, and hand work. Lost-wax casting is similar to the process of creating bronze work, in which a wax mold is made ahead of the time in order to be used in the heating process to shape the raw material.” In that regard the glass we make in China is similar to glass made in other places around the world. What separates the work of Master Xu, however, is the sheer beauty and the splendor of his works. It is a breathtaking experience seeing his vases and other home goods products. In addition to which, Master Xu’s recent artworks now combine blowing and handmade techniques, which allows him to utilize the fluidity and flexibility of the material under high temperature in order to create even more enlivened pieces.

“To make a work such as a vase,” Master Xu explains, “one has to first draw his design on a piece of paper. The execution relies on a team of people, especially when the design includes multiple parts.” Master Xu demonstrates what he means by holding up a blue vase decorated with six fishes. He continues, “One person can only make one fish at a time, so together we need six or seven people to create the fish and the vase and attach them together. For the last number of years I have worked with a group of seven to eight craftsmen to bring my designs to life. The execution of a liuli design, many need to know, is actually quite physically demanding. One fish alone can take about three hours to make.”

Yet Master Xu wants to push liuli creation even further. “I want to create things that do not exist in glass artworks around the world … or use glass to revive what is no longer present.” His recent project — “Ink Wash Liuli” — does just that. His ink wash liuli is inspired by the works of Han Meilin, a renowned Chinese scholar and art master, who is known for the Olympic mascots used in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Explains Master Xu, “Ink wash liuli incorporates an entire ink wash painting into a liuli product, which is unprecedented around the world.” In so doing, Master Xu incorporates two traditional Chinese art forms, the colorful highly pigmented ink wash along with glass-making. In one of this mixed-genre work, Master Xu depicts a stylized horse with thick brushstrokes outlining the horse’s form. The fading of black ink at the end of each brushstroke creates a sense of motion. The artist uses vibrant ink colors to denote vitality.

Rejecting the transparent quality of traditional liuli artworks, Master Xu explores new possibilities in the visual experience with color and ink, creating an abstract landscape or a pattern inside the smooth surface of liuli. When I asked him if this was difficult to do, Master Xu only smiled. “Liuli-making is never a challenge for me,” he shared. “I think of the production as an innovation. The challenge is to make artworks that surpass the works of other masters. I work hard every day to create artworks that I hope will be the best in the world. In China, too many people who make crafts where they only imitate the works of others. That is not what I am after. I want to push myself. I believe that the best artworks come from personal innovation rather than imitation.”

I couldn’t agree more.

To see more of Master Xu’s work, visit his website at http://www.liulichina.com/ (All images in the article copyrighted to Master Xu and used with his permission)

Revitalizing, Sustaining and Propagating the Crafts in India

on March 13, 2015 by Jacqueline in Akshara project, artisan, Baskets, Calligraphy, Crafts, Dastkari Haat Samiti, Design, Dilli Haat, Embroidery, Female Empowerment, Gifts, Home Goods, House accessories, House Decorating, India, interior decorating, Interior Design, Kashmir, Organic Products, patachitra, Scripts, Scroll painting, Textile ⋅ Leave a comment

What I have done so far in Meaningful Designs is conduct an interview, then write a feature based on the interview. This time, however, as I sat reading and rereading the insightful interview with Mrs Jaya Jaitley, the founder of Dastkari Haat Samiti, an organization that works to revitalize, sustain and propagate the crafts in India, I realized that I very much enjoyed having the interviewee’s voice as part of the conversation. I also felt that Mrs. Jaya Jaitley could represent an organization she started more than twenty years ago perhaps better than I would be able to write about it. And so in this issue of Meaningful Designs I am the backdrop to this very passionate and dedicated advocate of Indian arts and crafts. So here forthwith is my interview with Mrs Jaya Jaitley!

Can you explain what the name of your organization means?

Dastkari Haat Samiti means Crafts Market Association.

How did you become interested in crafts?

I have loved art, craft and textiles and the beautiful aesthetics of traditional forms and design since I was a child. Combined with that is a strong commitment inculcated in me by my parents to improve the lot of those less privileged in society. The value of handwork expressed in philosophical, economic and political terms by Mahatma Gandhi also influenced me. I am not an artist, though I do passable sketches and have a parallel interest in literature and writing…hence all the books on crafts. Since I can recognize skill, good design, aesthetics and the potential in creative people it combined perfectly with my desire to engage in social and political work for the benefit of crafts people.

Why did you feel it was important for you to start this organization?

I felt the need to create a platform that united crafts persons from different areas, communities, castes and religions to promote their common need for marketing. Once there is a market other inputs take root. Craft skills and livelihoods can be sustained by creating opportunities that widen the market space for them. It also helps to accord them better respect and appreciation. Our crafts members fund the organization so there is a sense of empowerment and partnership in furthering common interests.

What are some of the groups that you work with?

The Samiti works with every kind of craft group or individual or household that becomes a member of the Samiti. Members work with clay, wood, metal, grasses, bamboo, glass, paper, cane, utilizing a vast variety of textile skills, and traditional art forms. We provide inputs for improving skills, design and product diversification. We organize three major marketing opportunities a year through temporary crafts bazaars in different cities. We create new openings like book illustrating, teaching workshops, participation in fairs organized by others and linking them with architects and interior designers. We conceptualized and partnered with different government agencies twenty-one years ago to establish a hugely popular permanent crafts marketing space called Dilli Haat in New Delhi where crafts people are offered space in rotation to sell directly to customers rather than through middlemen. Its success set off a spate of such spaces, both public and private.

Are the craft forms in India gendered?

In some cases men and women work together on pottery and weaving although their roles within are generally defined according to tradition. Women weave in the Northeast but mainly men are weavers in the rest of the country. Men do embroidery in Kashmir but women do so in the rest of the country. History and cultural traditions have defined these roles but, as with everything else, there are now crossovers that are good to see. Our common marketing platforms where the producers get together help erase gender divisions.

Are craft forms localized in different regions of India?

Specific forms, designs and production processes are localized. The beauty of India’s huge variety of craft skills is that each carries the identity of its region. Occasionally it is obliterated when producers begin imitating something from elsewhere, in which case it loses its authenticity.

I would like to know more about the calligraphic art forms. What history can you share with us about this art form?

India, along with Egypt and China were among the civilizations that were the earliest developers of script. In later years, Chinese and Persian scripts were developed into calligraphy and spread everywhere among those who used similar forms like Korean, Japanese, Arabic or Urdu. India had the Brahmi script that transformed into Pali and Sanskrit. Religious texts carried on being written in Sanskrit. Unfortunately, because of colonization and other reasons, despite having over 700 spoken languages/dialects, and currently 22 official languages and scripts, these never developed into calligraphy, partly because literacy levels also fell drastically and most things indigenous lost value under British rule. There are old stone inscriptions on temples, and fine illustrated writings on paper, parchment or silk, but calligraphy as a separate art is still minimal.

Is there a specific group of people who make this art form?

The artifacts created through our Akshara project were encouraged by me introducing the concept of calligraphy to a variety of crafts people. None of them knew calligraphy before. There are a few traditional calligraphers in India who create works in Urdu/Arabic or Tibetan/Bodhi. These are dying out. My purpose was to encourage literacy, an appreciation for our regional scripts, and using their existing crafts skills to give these scripts an artistic form. This opened up a whole new area of design experimentation in calligraphy for crafts people who otherwise felt unqualified because they were non-literate or did not know English.

Let’s turn our attention to some of the gorgeous paintings that you sell. What can you tell us about the history of these paintings?

All these paintings rest on traditional styles. They have been tweaked in colours or layouts to make them contemporary. Each style has its own history rooted in the local culture.

The long scroll called patachitra is used by artist balladeers in West Bengal to sing stories to an audience. The parrot series is a new version of Odisha’s patachitra. Most stories are religious but this one guided by me is contemporary. It is about a caged parrot being educated and helping an astrologer earn his livelihood. The lady painting the table is based on the tradition of painting murals on the walls of homes in Bihar during celebrations. Art shifted to paper and now to wood, metal and even cloth. These are not considered miniatures although there are male and female miniature artists who took part in the Akshara project.

Akshara, Crafting Indian Scripts is an art book we created out of this project. It tells the entire story from history to cataloguing our own works with the story of how each piece was created, to how Indian scripts look artistic as common wall writing, on film posters and advertisements. It is available on Flipkart.com, at some bookshops and with our organization.

What has been the reception to your organization both in and outside of India?

Our website (dastkarihaat.org) shows the wide extent of our work, including events in other countries, and with foreign artisans brought to India to work with our people. We were very well received in Addis Ababa (2^nd India-Africa Summit), Cairo (India on the Nile Festival Akshara Exhibition), UNESCO headquarters, Paris (Akshara exhibition) , UK (Dilli Haat at Trafalgar Square exhibition, Art in Action art fair near Oxford), Frankfurt Book Fair (Crafts Maps exhibition). The maps made over a period of 15 years are also on the website.

There are large appreciative crowds at all our temporary crafts bazaars in India, and we also run two little not-for-profit shops in a high-end market in Delhi.

In India we are well known because of all our projects, especially the crafts maps documenting all the arts, crafts and textiles in India, and also for setting up Dilli Haat (which is entirely run by the government). We also have recent events posted regularly on our Dastkari Haat Facebook page and a separate one on the Akshara Crafting Indian Scripts.

What are some of your most notable successes?

I cannot judge that, but I suppose the crafts maps (which also became a book called Crafts Atlas of India published by Niyogi Books), conceptualizing and establishing the Dilli Haat crafts marketplace and the Akshara project. More significantly and subtly, the loyalty of crafts people to the organization and seeing them improve in their social and economic status through the Samiti’s work.

What are some of your ongoing challenges?

All challenges are opportunities to create something better!

Having said that, however, I am at present trying to get our government to frame the agenda and format of a new national institution – the Hastkala Akademi – to assimilate the vast and varied cultural heritage that sustains crafts in all their aspects in India. It adds the ‘cultural history’ to each skill and object and gives it a unique identity and greater value. I had proposed the idea, which was formally accepted by the government last year. The building blocks have now to be put in place.

Finally, how would you say your organization has impacted how the crafts are doing in India today and where do you see your organization going in the future?

I have never seriously thought about the future of our organization, but only of how its work can benefit the future of India’s crafts persons. I am sure that 29 years as an organization, and my own almost 20 years of work before that, has played some part in reviving, sustaining and propagating many crafts. There are many other dedicated people doing this in different ways. On the whole, we try to inspire crafts people because their work inspires us to plan new vistas for them. I can’t say when I will stop getting new ideas or run out of steam!

Until next time!

Many thanks to Carmen Fernandes and Annie Paul for help with this interview.

The Island of St. John is home to Avelino Samuels, a Master Woodturner

on February 3, 2015 by Jacqueline in artisan, Design, Design tips, Dishes and plates, Dyes, Eco-Friendly, Environmental Conservation, Gifts, Home Goods, House Decorating, Industrial Arts, interior decorating, Interior Design, Organic Products, Plates, Recycled materials, St. John, wood turning, wooden bowls, Wooden furniture ⋅ Leave a comment

And then again, sometimes you fall absolutely in love with something at first sight. You take one look at a piece of work — one of Avelino Samuels’ masterful woodturned bowls, for example — the marks of the wood like a subtle expressionist painting, and you know immediately, that, if money was not an object, Samuels’ wooden works would be all over your tiny apartment in Manhattan.

It was my Facebook friend David Knight who first brought Avelino Samuels’ work to my attention. Knight’s enthusiasm for Samuels’ woodturning skills was so infectious that I found myself researching the artist’s work. Surely the work could not be as fantastic as Knight was saying, I huffed and puffed to myself, or this wouldn’t be the first time that I was hearing about it. But the work was everything he had said it was. In fact, the work was not only as great as Knight had proclaimed it to be, it was better. In a word, Avelino Samuels’ work is masterful. I knew, in that moment of looking, that I would have to talk to the man himself, and try to discover the sources of his inspiration.

Avelino Samuels was born on the island of St. John, which is a crossroads, as he explained it, between being American and Caribbean. He was born in a place where there were no cheap plastic toys; if children wanted something to play with, it was most likely handmade. And this was how Samuels got introduced to woodworking: he wanted to make toys to play with. “From I was a child,” Samuels told me, “I was always making things. I started out making bows and arrows, then slingshots, before I graduated to making craft items. I grew up in a time when you had nothing. My father told me that if I wanted something, and especially if I wanted toys to play with, I was going to have to make them myself. And so I began. Before long I was making afro picks, mini sailboats, masks, all for the local market.”

He continued: “For the most part I worked with wood because wood was always accessible and all around me. And, in time, I came to appreciate the particular beauty of wood. To me, wood almost always looks good and it is one of the easiest, most natural materials to work with. I love even the imperfections in wood, how the grade and grain of various cuts differ, because all of this, to me, is a good representation of nature and life.”

In keeping with doing the things that he saw others around him doing, Samuels went off to train as a teacher and has a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Arts Education. “Growing up in the St. John that I grew up in, there were very clear ideas of what a person like myself could become. I could become a teacher, an electrical engineer, or something like that. I chose teaching.” And he taught in the schools on the island for several decades, until his retirement a few years ago. Though he still continues teaching a few days a week, his main job now is woodturning. When I asked him how he feels about this, he admitted it feels good to have more time to devote to his art, but that he also enjoyed being a teacher, and he has turned out a few students who have gone on to do really fantastic work in woodturning.

What was surprising to me in our conversation is that Samuels shies away from claiming the mantle of “artist”, preferring, instead, the title of “artisan”. But, he admitted, “It is the person who engages with the work who defines what it is. I have a particular relationship with my work and that is more of an artisan, someone who builds things, than what I would consider an artist to do.”

I refused to let the subject go, pressing him to give a clearer definition of his relationship to his work. This, of course, was all done in good humor, but it was illuminating nonetheless. I wanted to know if he didn’t consider himself an artist and his work fine art because his work was, at times, functional and decorative.

“I guess, yes, that would be one reason,” he answered frankly.

“Well, what about the work that is neither functional nor expressly decorative?” I asked him, reviewing his latest body of work.

“Well, those,” he admitted, “those are more artistic.”

What I find really invigorating about Avelino Samuels’ practice is that it has steadily become more expressive and less functional. He has increasingly moved away from the more naturalized bowls and vases, as gorgeous as these are, and into an arena that I would classify as fine arts. His latest works have rips and tears and holes in them when they do not have elegant climbing branches shooting out of their tops. They have subtle stippling following the marks on the wood and they come in the most mesmerizing of colors: From rich dark blacks, to beguiling reds, to the palest of blond wooden colors. In turns out that Avelino Samuels is not only a master woodturner, but a wonderful colorist, as well.

Naturally I wanted to know where he got the wood from to make his creations and his views on the environment. As ever, he was pleasantly frank. “I know where you are going with this,” he said, laughing, when I started this line of questioning. “And, yes, you are correct that in making these things one can have a negative impact on the environment. That is just one of the realities that I, as a woodturner, have to live with and face. But I love the environment, and I feel especially blessed to call St. John my home.

“Truthfully, I could not live anywhere else but St. John. I have peace of mind here that I just don’t think I could ever have anywhere else. And that peace of mind comes about in large part because of the natural environment of the island. The wood with which I make my work is almost all reclaimed. I use a lot of salvaged materials in my work, overwhelmingly so. Wood from old houses, old materials, trimmings and so on. That is the wood that I love working with. I love taking something old and making it new again. And I am conscious of the impact that I am making on the environment.”

Avelino Samuels’ work has allowed him to travel extensively throughout the mainland United States and Canada. Two years ago he got the fantastic opportunity to go to Tanzania. He looks forward to going to Australia for the first time in March of this year.

Contact Avelino Samuels at binosam@pennswood.net

Until next time.

Photographs in the article were provided by Avelino Samuels and used with permission

Canadian Eileen Kwan Creates Exuberant Embroidered Landscapes One Patient Stitch at a Time

on January 10, 2015 by Jacqueline in Canada, Design, Design tips, Eco-Friendly, embroidered landscapes, Embroidery, Environmental Conservation, Garden Exuberance, Garden supplies, Gardening, Home Goods, House accessories, House Decorating, Quebec, Québécoise, Uncategorized, Winter Garden ⋅ Leave a comment

Several months ago I had the experience of being part of a reading that featured the works of several visual artists. It was at that reading that I first set eyes on Eileen Kwan’s embroidered landscapes. I spent an inordinate amount of time that evening going back and forth looking at the intricate beautiful work. I felt for sure, given how small and perfectly detailed the works were, that they were made by machine. Not so, Eileen Kwan corrected me, when I asked her about it that night. All her works are handmade. I knew in that moment that I had to hear Eileen Kwan’s story.

Eileen Kwan considers herself a métissage of Canadian Québécois with roots in China, where her parents are from. For Kwan, Quebec, her home city, is the cultural dynamo of Canada. “I just love Quebec,” Kwan enthused when I spoke to her. “I consider myself such a Québécoise!”

Eileen Kwan’s Long Relationship of Working With Her Hands

Kwan has long had a relationship with what she calls “working with her hands” — first as a long-distance bicyclist, then as a successful fashion designer, before transitioning to what she considers her ultimate passion and love affair: gardening. In gardening she found that she loved working with and in the soil, and she loved having to touch things in the environment. For Kwan, it is the “human touch that brings so much beauty into the world.”

But how did this all come about, her leaving a very successful career as a fashion designer, to get her hands all messy? It began, Kwan told me, when she came to the startling conclusion that her designs paled in comparison to nature. “Nature offers up the best designs,” Kwan said, “and I decided that the best I could do is to pay respect to nature in the work that I do. I honor nature by trying to recreate it.”

Nature is an Expanded Canvas

She started puttering around with garden design in her apartment, but after a while realized that this was no longer enough. “For many years I lived in an apartment and did indoor planting, which was fine for a while, but soon I wanted more. I wanted to plant outside, and be even more a part of nature,” she revealed.

By then Kwan had sold her successful clothing line and was being asked by friends to assist them with their gardens. Before long she noticed that not only was she doing more and more gardening for friends, but that gardening had started to give her more than she was in fact giving to gardening.“To see a tomato coming up out of the earth,” Kwan explained, “that is just a gift in and of itself. What a garden teaches us is that there is no time or space to have a bad hair day. The garden keeps giving against all odds. For me, gardening expanded the canvas that I can work with. A garden is a living laboratory. It is coloring with nature.”

Incorporating Winter into the Garden

When I asked her about the short window of time she has to create gardens in Quebec, given that winters there can be so long, she admitted that she liked the time frame she has to do her works. “You see,” Kwan explained, “that short time frame in the summer allows me to have the miraculous experience of seeing things happen up close and in a short time frame. I get to plant things and see them come to fruition all in one season.

“In addition to which, I always try to create a garden for four seasons. Winter doesn’t bother me much because I think of snow like a living sculpture and I incorporate it into the garden. In this way the garden becomes a moving painting. In addition to which, winter is the time I use for embroidery. In the winters I recreate the summer garden on textile. I am so fortunate to be able to do this in the winter. It is all a continuum for me: embroidery in the winter extends the work that I do in the summer.”

Gorgeous Embroidery

And what gorgeous work her embroidery is! They in fact look more like paintings than embroidery, with such carefully modulated and perfectly placed stitches. One has to get really close to examine Eileen Kwan’s work or have an eye for texture to realize that they are not looking at a painting.

“My work with embroidery came from my work with textiles,” Kwan further explained. “That is what I mean about my work all being a continuum.” Here, she paused, reflecting, before continuing. “Maybe, in a sense, my working with embroidery was my first work with textiles, because I remember learning to embroider when I was in grade four, when I was just a small child.

“There is an economy to embroidery that I like. I like the quality of being still and the internal dialogue that ensues. You can literally hear your own thoughts as you embroider, so profound is the silence that embroidering engenders for me. It is almost a sacred space that I enter into when I embroider. And that is why I leave in everything that happens when I embroider. I leave in all the mistakes, because they are all meant to be part of the particular work I am doing.”

Garden Exuberance

Though she is reluctant to see price associated with her embroidery, all the art pieces that she makes are, in fact, for sale. You can contact Eileen Kwan about doing family heirlooms in embroidery; purchasing cushions or framed wall art; or if you would like her to help you create your own personal oasis amid the increasingly fast-paced lives that we all seem to be leading these days.

“I have been in business officially for six years now. I create residential gardens for customers,” Kwan said. “My job is to create a garden that my customers want. For me, this means creating something precious. It is an honor to be able to create beauty in someone’s life, whether that is through using plants like crayons, or whether that is by stitch after patient stitch like I do with my embroidery work in the winter.”

You can contact Eileen Kwan at:

www.gardenexuberance.com

gardenexuberance@gmail.com

Until next time.

All images provided by Eileen Kwan and used with permission.

Spectacular Wooden Furniture from Jamaica

on October 2, 2014 by Jacqueline in Eco-Friendly, Environmental Conservation, Furniture, Home Goods, House accessories, House Decorating, interior decorating, Interior Design, Jamaica, Living Art Form, Organic Products, Wooden furniture ⋅ 1 Comment

Spectacular Wooden Furniture from Jamaica

The work is spectacular: heavy pieces of wood giving rise to flowers and birds as easily as if they were nothing but pieces of cloth being gently folded and molded at the artist’s will. Heavy dark trunks twisting into elegant rounded tabletops with the history of the wood mapped into ever-widening concentric circles. High chairs with backs flaring into radiant golden-colored crowns. The legs of tables and chairs that seem to be growing directly into the ground. All I keep hearing as I look at the spectacular work of Gilbert Nicely is Bob Marley singing, in a very ancient voice, “Roots Natty roots, dread bingy dread, I and I a the roots.” Gilbert Nicely’s work is all about roots.

Nicely hails from St. Mary, Jamaica, where he is the patriarch of a dynamic family of woodworkers. It all began, Nicely said, because of a lifelong fascination with the visual arts. “I started painting at seven years old,” he told Meaningful Designs. “But because of the scarcity of paint where I lived and when I was growing up, I quickly moved on to another medium that was more around me at the time; I moved on to using wood.”

At what was then the Tacky Secondary School (Tacky being the name of an enslaved African who led a rebellion on the island of Jamaica), he continued pursuing his interest in art and crafts, all the time focusing more and more on wood.

Today, he has been making heartbreakingly beautiful pieces for more than forty years. He has had numerous exhibitions, is the recipient of his country’s prestigious Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica, and has had his work collected by several prominent individuals, both on and off the island.

Woodworking as a Living Art Form

In his earlier days Nicely made — and even today continues to make — decorative pieces such as fruit baskets from cedar wood, which take him roughly two days to make. His work then — and now — references the lush vegetation and animal life where he lives. But over the years, his work has grown steadily ambitious in size, scope and execution, and these days he makes such things as six- to eight-piece dining table sets, which can take him two to three weeks to put together.

“Why I do this work,” he told Meaningful Designs when we visited him, “is because I love seeing the piece I had visualized — the piece I had in my mind’s eye — finally come to life. That is the main reason why I continue making wooden furniture and decoration. In that moment before I start working on the wood, it is as if a kind of communication takes over with the wood and it all starts to come alive for me, even before I make my first mark! For me, the work that I do is a living art form, and I consider my work to be so much more than functional pieces of furniture.”

Looking at Gilbert Nicely’s work, it is easy to understand why he considers his work a “living art form” since the very organic nature of the wood is celebrated, and there is no attempt to camouflage parts of it that have been scratched or that have other “imperfections”. Rather, for Nicely, all those imperfections add to the authenticity of the piece.

And then there is the fact that the work, in its present form, seems to still be alive; indeed, seems to still be growing.

What is striking about Gilbert Nicely’s artistic process is the sense of at-oneness between himself and the material that he works in; there is a peacefulness in him that is carried over to his work. There never seems to be anything at all forced about the artist’s work. Indeed, the work looks more organic than not, as if there is an innate sense of communication and cooperation between the artist and the piece of wood that he is working on.

A Family Legacy of Woodworking

One of the things that Nicely takes great pride in is that, without plotting or prodding, two of his children have joined the family business. His son Omar and his daughter Cassie work with him. “My children saw the work that I was doing and they just gravitated towards it,” he said.

His children have benefited from the fact that Nicely has his workshop at his home. It was in his workshop that they saw him coaxing the wood as he worked with it, came to understand the character of different pieces of wood, and develop a respect for the wood — for the larger environment and ultimately, for art itself. From their father’s workshop they would watch the pieces go out in the world to have lives of their own.

“My works, they travel oftentimes more than I do,” Gilbert Nicely told us, laughing. “My works go out and they attend special functions, and sometimes they are put on display. Past ambassadors to Jamaica (such as the Nigerian ambassador to Jamaica, Mrs. Yukunga) have bought my work and taken it with them when they leave the island. So, too, did the wife of a past US ambassador to Jamaica. Other collectors of my work, as well, have taken it to many different countries. So while I am here, working exclusively in my workshop at home, the work is travelling all over the place!”

The Need for Environmental Protection and Stewardship

“I believe fully that the environment needs to be protected,” Nicely said emphatically when we put this question to him. “Because of this belief, my family and I, we plant a lot of trees, and most of the wood that we use in the workshop are from trees that have fallen down elsewhere. People know me so well by now that they know when a tree falls they can come and sell it to me. “So, yes, we are very careful in the wood that we use and from where we get that wood. We always take that into consideration.”

Gilbert Nicely can be contacted by e-mail at aj_artwood@yahoo.com. He can also be contacted by telephone at 1-876-374-4376 or 1-876-369-1153.

Until next time.

The cover image from this article is by Emma Lewis. Norman Gordon contributed reporting for this article. All the other images in this article are copyrighted to Norman Gordon.

Jamaican Women Make Exquisite Embroidery Purchased by Royalty

on September 1, 2014 by Jacqueline in Design tips, Embroidery, Fashion accessories, Female Empowerment, Gifts, Home Goods, House accessories, House Decorating, interior decorating, Interior Design, Jamaica, Jamaica Hardanga Heritage Trust, Queen of England ⋅ 4 Comments

Exquisite Embroidery from Jamaica Purchased by Royalty

For a long time it seemed to be only myth and rumor that there was a group of embroidery makers in Jamaica who made work so beautiful, so refined, that it was purchased by royalty. I remember the first time I heard the story, I considered it nothing but a tall tale, and immediately dismissed it, only to find out that it had been true all along. The women of the Jamaica Hardanga Heritage Trust in the parish of St. Mary did make work for the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.

“It is a fact,” says Ms. Norma Nugent, President of the Jamaica Hardanga Heritage Trust, “that the Queen of England ordered a tablecloth from the group for the royal wedding, which the then Jamaica government paid for as a gift to her.”

What is Hardanga Embroidery?

But of course you, my loyal readers, are wondering: What is Hardanga? Hardanga or Hardanger is a form of embroidery done with only white thread on cloth. The embroidery is made by the pulling and counting of thread and the stitching of fabric. Because it often involves white thread on white cloth it is sometimes called white-work embroidery.

Hardanga Embroidery in Jamaica

Hardanga has long been practiced in Jamaica, but, like so many handmade art forms, it was in rapid decline on the island. That is, until Ms Inez Barrett, who first learnt the art form as a student at the Moneague Teachers’ College, became so enamored with the all-white embroidery some thirty years ago that she ended up putting together a group of five women to continue the embroidery tradition. The group has grown to twenty-five women, with fifteen very active members. Backed by the Bureau of Women’s Affairs, the group was initially a skills training group for middle-aged women, but today the Trust caters to all groups of women.

The Jamaica Hardanga Heritage Trust

With headquarters in Richmond, St. Mary, the Jamaica Hardanga Heritage Trust makes delicate and exquisite tablecloths, table napkins, runners, sheet sets, curtains, and, to a lesser extent, garments. Given the counting of thread involved, I wondered how long it takes to produce a piece of work.

“Usually a job takes anywhere from five to fourteen days to complete. A runner, for example, takes from three to five days, which is not that long,” Ms. Nugent explains. “A sheet set, however, can take up to three weeks and we have to work as a group to complete works on larger pieces, which we actually enjoy doing, in fact. In the same way that the construction of a car takes on many different skills, so too the workers of the Trust come together as a group to complete a job, when we have a really big project on hand.”

The group is looking to be contracted to do much larger pieces, however. “Today, the Trust remains a form of part-time employment, but the aim of the group is to make it a means of long-term employment for more women in the community,” Ms. Nugent shares. “Should we be contracted to do larger pieces, we will be better placed to offer more consistent employment to members of the group, and to more women in our area.”

The Trust has had some notable successes: In 2009 some of the members travelled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and to Barbados and St. Martin to showcase their work. They have also gotten a few gifts of sewing machines, needles and thread, fabric, and even office furniture, from various organizations. The Bureau of Gender Affairs also assists with materials and training.

But challenges remain. Presently, there is no electricity in the Trust’s office, and indeed a bigger office is needed to accommodate larger works. There is also some difficulty in consistently paying workers. “What we would really like to do is break into the overseas market. We also need more funds to take our products to more craft fairs abroad. We are also thinking to expand into doing more clothes for sale,” Ms. Nugent notes.

Creativity as a Means of Development

“If we could do those things, if we could get more of our products sold, and develop more of a local and overseas clientele, there is so much more we could and would do for our community, especially for the women in our community,” Ms. Nugent continues. “I am hoping that more and more people hear about, and see, the work that we are doing, and buy our work, contract us to do work, and help us to showcase our work in craft fairs and other venues around the world.”

The work of the Jamaica Hardanga Heritage Trust is gorgeous and despite its delicate appearance, the embroidery is in fact, long-lasting. I wouldn’t mind filling my own home with the all-white embroidery of these women. It truly is heartening to see the women of the Jamaica Hardanga Heritage Trust, despite their many obstacles, working so hard to safeguard a tradition that they find meaningful.

The Jamaica Hardanga Heritage Trust best exemplifies how creativity can become a means of economic development. Let’s hope that the group will break into the overseas market — and get commissions for larger pieces, indeed for pieces of any size — that would see the group meeting its day-to-day needs, maintaining an office, and providing even more employment for women in the community.

The Jamaica Hardanga Trust has a Facebook page (jamaicahardanga) and can be contacted by e-mail at hardangaheritage@yahoo.com, and by phone at (876) 418-2597; 876-541-4077.

Until next time.

Norman Gordon contributed reporting for this article; some of the photos in the article are copyrighted by Norman Gordon.

Handsome Home Decorating Products from Vietnam

on August 5, 2014 by Jacqueline in Baskets, Design, Design tips, Dishes and plates, Eco-Friendly, Environmental Conservation, Fashion accessories, Furniture, Home Goods, House accessories, House Decorating, interior decorating, Organic Products, Plates, Recycled Paper, Recycled Tires, Vietnam ⋅ 1 Comment

Home Decorating Products from Vietnam

It happened years ago, on a crisp summer day when my grandmother and I were walking from the tiny district of Nonsuch to the even tinier district of Cambridge, high in the Blue Mountains of Portland, Jamaica. We were walking by some tall wild green grass, grass which was much taller than a young girl walking beside her grandmother. I reached over to touch the grass but pulled back my hand quickly, and searched to see if the sharp green blades had sliced my palm. They hadn’t. My grandmother searched my palm, too, and when she was satisfied that nothing was wrong with her cherished granddaughter she told me how, as a young woman growing up in Nonsuch, she would use that very same grass to make baskets that were so good she ended up selling some of them. I guess it was in that moment that I developed an almost irrational love of baskets, and so I am always on the lookout for a good basket, which is exactly what I found at the Vietnam Handicraft Company. The company makes furniture, bowls, trays, cutlery, platters, pots, and of course both large and small baskets, and other home goods and fashion accessories, from bamboo, rattan, sea grass, water hyacinth, fern, straw, palm leaves and, of all things, fashion magazine paper and recycled tires.

As I conducted the interview, I have to admit that I was surprised that something aesthetically pleasing could be made from recycled tires, or even fashion magazine paper for that matter. But I soon found myself looking at these coolly elegant baskets and vases. Fastidious home goods shopper that I am, I could immediately appreciate the craftsmanship, durability and beauty in the work. Based in Hanoi, Vietnam, the Vietnam Handicraft Company is a manufacturing and trading company that specializes in making home goods and fashion accessories from natural resources. Says Mr. Vu Duc Hoan, founder of the company, “We use a lot of natural and recycled products in our company, which are local to Vietnam, to create eco-friendly products. We also use a lot of repurposed materials because we are trying to do our small part in protecting our environment and safeguarding our earth.”

Mr. Hoan created his company as a way of providing meaningful income for people living in the rural areas of Vietnam. As he says, “Our country, Vietnam, is still a developing country, and there are many people who still plant rice, for example, by hand. After crop season, many of these people, unfortunately, do not have work, and life for them can become quite difficult. In creating the Vietnam Handicraft Company I was looking for a way for these individuals to continue earning money throughout the year, and I wanted to do this by utilizing the used, natural, or discarded materials in Vietnam.” Such a project, Mr. Hoan believes, “would bring real value to the people of Vietnam while helping us to reconnect with the materials of our country, and the materials discarded in our country.”

I cannot think of a more worthwhile thing to do.

In addition to rightfully taking pride in the products that his company creates, and, indeed, how he creates these products, Mr. Hoan also takes immense pride in the many services—especially the customer service—provided by the Vietnam Handicraft Company. “We offer buyers worldwide complete service: from sampling, to packing, shipping, the opportunity to order smaller quantities in mixed lots, and all of this will be delivered at our customers’ door.Our expertise is manufacturing the right product, at the right price, with the best quality for our customers. We back customers’ orders with our commitment to providing peace of mind to our customers on anything they have purchased.”

A great product, at a great price, with total commitment to customer service, while working to safeguard the environment? Sounds like a winning combination to me. Here is where you can place orders for goods from the Vietnam Handicraft Company: http://vietcraft.vn

Until next time.

Meaningful Designs

Category Archives: House Decorating

Antillean Décor and Home Goods Company draws inspiration from the Caribbean

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Revitalizing, Sustaining and Propagating the Crafts in India

The Island of St. John is home to Avelino Samuels, a Master Woodturner

Canadian Eileen Kwan Creates Exuberant Embroidered Landscapes One Patient Stitch at a Time

Spectacular Wooden Furniture from Jamaica

Jamaican Women Make Exquisite Embroidery Purchased by Royalty

Handsome Home Decorating Products from Vietnam

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