The Textile Cuisine

This year spring is playing cat and mouse with us. So instead of fresh greens and young sprouts I'm sticking to fermented veggies. Deep red tones keep me warm on the wintry April's days. They inspire new stitched projects too but before they come to life take a look at the last summer's stitched veggies mix: Can you recognize my favorite ingredients? Cauliflower and carrots with a lot of salt. Oh, and a dill which is the key factor in my ferments! Broccoli brings this lovely dark green spots. And radishes for joyful pink tones. Kohlrabi, spices and... the magic of fermentation does the rest. Then it is just to find the way how to translate all the movement into stitches. But that's the fun part as much as eating the models with a big pleasure :)

Last summer I went crazy with fermenting veggies. It wasn't my first attempt to it but this time I started looking at them along the process. I like to try different combinations both for taste and... for the color. So the ideas for new textile works started to pop up. Yes, watching fermenting radish, zucchini and garlic made me to create roses. My main focus was on the background - hand dyed it myself to repeat this smokey rose hue. But wait, roses come in all colors, don't they? Yellow pepper, radish and turnip resulted in another roses' idea - this time "Colorful rose garden" was born. Both of these wall hangings are available for sale HERE , as I'm sure that more will follow. Actually I already have an idea for another rosy piece but this time it will be slightly different. Of course you don't think that my ferments are only for artistic inspiration, right? I really eat them in big quantities. And I make them all year round.

I'm afraid that I totally neglected my kitchen this summer. I mean textile kitchen of course. But I missed it terribly and collected some yummy ideas to stitch and... this "Summer breakfast" is the only kitchen related piece I managed to complete. Wygląda na to, że tego lata zupełnie zlekceważyłam tematy kuchenne. W sensie szycia oczywiście. Bardzo się za nimi stęskniłam i już mam zgromadzone mnóstwo nowych, apetycznych pomysłów i... jak na razie uszyłam tylko takie "Letnie śniadanie". I'm not sure if it is well balanced breakfast but these are the ingredients which came to my mind while thinking about fresh and crispy morning table. Some of you may remember another artwork based on the same concept - see it HERE . This time instead of long veggies I went for cutlery :) Nie jestem pewna, czy to dobrze zrównoważone śniadanie, ale takie właśnie składniki przyszły mi na myśl o świeżym, letnim porannym stole. Kiedyś już uszyłam podobny krajobraz - zobac...

I don't know about your kitchens, but mine, at this time of a year is a jungle :) Very impressive, especially compared to the early spring: Nie wiem, jak Wasze kuchnie, ale moja o tej porze roku wygląda jak dżungla :) Robi wrażenie, prawda? Zwłaszcza w porównaniu z wczesną wiosną: No wonder that one day I decided to capture all the different landscapes I can see around on daily basis. That's how my new serie of "Kitchen Landscapes" was born. Nic dziwnego, że te codziennie zmieniające się krajobrazy  zainspirowały mnie do stworzenia nowej serii "Krajobrazów Kuchennych". They are small textile collages rather than quilts (although they are quilted and embroidered and beaded too). Would be perfect for book illustration, although I didn't find a book for them yet. That's why I decided to experiment with them in printed version. As I mentioned in previous post - printed landscapes are available HERE . The jungle is not translated into fabrics...

Yes, the weather here is beautiful. And the mushrooms keep me busy in the kitchen. Tak, pogodę tutaj mamy piękną. A sezon grzybowy nie wypuszcza z kuchni. We eat them fresh and the challange is to find all the ways for different mushroom courses. Jemy je świeże, a wyzwanie polega na wyszukiwaniu nowych pomysłów na dania z grzybami. The picture above is of a nice (and yummy) pickled one, bought at the local market. Na zdjęciu powyżej prześliczny (i przepyszny) grzybek kwaszony, kupiony na rynku.   Do you remember her ? Now she helps me to develop some idea I was dreaming from a long time. Pamiętacie ją ? Teraz pomaga mi rozwinąć pewien pomysł, który chodzi za mną od baaardzo dawna. Yes, I'd like to have some images of my works printed on textiles for everyday use. I was doing this some years ago so now it's time to check new technologies in that matter. I think that the first try isn't bad. At least I know what should be changed to make it better :) Tak, chciałabym mie...

Here they are. Much more delicate than the ones from last year. Oto one. Znacznie delikatniejsze niż te z ubiegłego roku. But that's because of the new (and now favorite) receipe - herrings on the swedish way. They are sweet (and sour too)! And the rose is here not because of beets but because of red onion :) Ale to z powodu nowego (i obecnie ulubionego) przepisu - śledzie po szwedzku. One są słodkie (ale kwaśne też)! A róża to nie z powodu buraków, ale z powodu czerwonej cebuli :) And here is the source of inspiration - the real ones, yummy :) A tutaj źródło inspiracji - te prawdziwe, pyszne :)

As you can see, eggs' decoration is slowly going along. But the more I'm thinking about eggs the more new ideas come to my mind. Sometimes I feel like in the Medieval Egg Dance - dancing among the eggs laid on the floor and trying to damage as few as possible. Jak widzicie dekoracja jaj powoli postępuje. Ale im więcej o jajach myślę, tym więcej nowych pomysłów przychodzi mi do głowy. Czasami czuję się jak w tym średniowiecznym Tańcu Jaj - tańcząc wśród jaj leżących na podłodze i starając się żadnego nie uszkodzić. So I started a small project, with eggs but this time not painted. Unfortunately the side effect of this project is another group of... painted eggs :) It would be a pity to waste them so I catched them into the card :) No więc zaczęłam taki mały projekt, z jajami, ale tym razem niemalowanymi. Niestety, efektem ubocznym tego projektu jest kolejna grupa... malowanych jaj. Szkoda było ich zmarnować, więc uszyłam z nich kartkę :) This time I put it into the frame. I ...

I started collecting ingredients for the leeks' salad. So, the leeks (sliced) are obvious: Zaczęłam gromadzić składniki do surówki z porów. A więc oczywiście pory (pokrojone): apples: jabłka: and pickled (in fact: fermented) cucumber: i ogórek kiszony: At the end of the day I felt (and looked) more like this: A na koniec dnia czułam się (i wyglądałam) mniej więcej tak: If you like Arcimboldo go and have some more fun here - http://www.giuseppe-arcimboldo.org/ Jeśli lubicie Arcimboldo, tu znajdziecie więcej jego prac - http://www.giuseppe-arcimboldo.org/