The Textile Cuisine

Some years ago I read an essay by Olga Tokarczuk on her relationship with trees. She was dreaming about the machine that would be able to recreate stories witnessed by old trees through their life. I immediately "saw" this kind of gramophone and the songs it could play. The many different small worlds rising and falling around the same tree for 200 or 600 years. It was fun to create all the variety of small landscapes, with little details here and there. I love to create landscapes in small formats and they are always more about emotions than the real views. Here are the most recent ones - "Golden fields" This one is framed and available HERE . And "Beyond my garden" - ready to frame, heavy embroidered beauty in tones of pink.

The longer I live the more cycles of life are clear to me. And I find them very uplifting, especially when things look bad at the moment. It is like, you know, watching bare trees in winter with the awarness of spring coming sooner or later. So who is surprised that playing with a new circle of trees inspired by Hildegard's von Bingen vision will be the best choice for some mindful and meditative artwork? Not me. Working on this piece connects so many elements and ties them all in a wholeness, just like mandala. Of course the most mysterious and intriguing is the centre: But each seson has its reason too. And the small pleasures it brings. Earlier this year I made a smaller and slightly different version of the same subject: The change of seasons is less visible but I guess I was so desperately looking for green trees that I had to stitch some at least. It is interesting to look through the archives and compare all my Hildegard's visions done so far: And I&

If you remember the colors of my fermented veggies from the previous post HERE you are not surprised by this: Frankly speaking, I started in small size - from coasters. They gave me this idea of bigger, simple, minimalist flowers for wall decor. And what started from a rose continued in... purple pansy: The next was daisy: They are fun to create. The longest part is design but when it is done the rest is just "pedal to the metal". Of course all the fraying is intentional and secure. All the flowers are in similar size (approx. 15in in diameter) and available in my Etsy shop . And that's how they look together: Bright and beautiful textile flower power. It might not be the end because... some tasteful, edible yellow roses came my way. Oh well, this inspiration stream has no end :)

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 :)

For the past few months I was stitching plants. All kinds of imagined plants in many shapes and sizes. I'm fascinated by medieval tapestries, the natural world depicted in them on a very detailed and complex way. At that time they were the most expensive pieces of art considering the high quality of raw materials used and a very long and difficult production process. They were called "mobile frescos of North" and decorated walls of the noble interiors. Of course I don't want to copy medieval tapestries but studying them makes me eager to create complex worlds filled with intricate details, pulling viewer through the layers and textures just to amaze them and bring joy of unexpected discoveries. It's not fashionable nowadays to spend hours on this kind of time consuming work, but who cares? At least it is the time well spent and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who appreciate this kind of work. Wanna see some process pictures? Enjoy!

Feeling like a "Good wife" (pictured above) presenting her clean and tidy kingdom. Well, not all my kitchens are clean and tidy. Some are seriously touched by decay, like this "Abandoned kitchen": I'm not sure if birds are a good addition to the place where we cook but... licentia poetica works in textile art too. They say that kitchen is the heart of a home. I agree but I also love to see them as spaces with their own personalities. Sometimes bright and cheerful: Sometimes more dramatic: I can see late night shows going in the kitchen while the rest of house sleeps: And we love it when the cooking is like music, don't we? The most recent kitchen you saw in the previous POST but I want to show you the one that took the longest to complete - "My Italian kitchen" (started HERE ): The pile of ideas for more is growing up. Captured this recently and I can see a magic city with lots of pinnacles... in the kitchen, of course!