The Girard Collection of International Folk Art

I'm a big fan of the work of textile designer Alexander Girard, so when I found myself within an hour's drive of Santa Fe last month I jumped at the chance to visit the Girard Wing at the Museum of International Folk Art. It is here that a portion of the enormous collection of folk art collected by Girard and his wife Susan is displayed. In a word, it was magical. Turning the corner into the exhibit I felt the same sense of wonder that I did as a 6 year old on the It's A Small World ride at Disneyland. Dolls, toys, textiles, masks, hats, nativities, and more fill every inch of the vast space. And the qualities I so admire in Girard's textile designs - vibrant colors, superb sense of scale, whimsical motifs - all come through in the collection's installation which Girard designed. Whenever I need an infusion of creative inspiration I will return to this special place.

I believe we should preserve this evidence of the past, not as a pattern for sentimental imitation, but as a nourishment for the creative spirit of the present.

- Alexander Girard

Seeing Red @ Tate Modern: London

Post-War British Textiles: LONDON

Apollo (detail) by Lucienne Day

Aquarius by Jacqueline Groag

Variation by Paule Vézelay

My textile tour of London continued with a visit to the Fashion and Textile Museum and their exhibit Designing Women: Post-War British Textiles. It was a total inspiration. The bleak days of World War II era England all but disappeared with the revolutionary new designs produced in 1950s Britain - many by women. Large scale, abstract patterns presented in vivid hues heralded a new day in design and no doubt helped raise the spirits of millions of people who now decorated their homes and adorned their bodies with these colorful textiles. The most prominent designer exhibited was Lucienne Day who made a significant impact on the design world with her 1951 pattern Calyx. Among the other designers included were Jacqueline Groag, Marian Mahler, and Paule Vézelay whose work I particularly admired.

In addition to being introduced to several new (to me) textile designers, I learned a great deal in a small, adjacent exhibit titled "Creating a Printed Textile with Sanderson".  Here, the many steps involved in creating a new textile were illustrated using Claire Hart's design "Hayward", pictured below.  I was particularly fascinated to learn more about the roller printing process having only practiced with screen printing.  With roller printing, the design is etched into large, heavy copper cylinders, or rollers (pictured below).  The cloth will then pass through several rollers, one for each color in the pattern.  While costly, the process allows for great lengths of fabric to be printed in a relatively short amount of time. 

So much inspiration!  I immediately bought a pack of colored pencils to start sketching on the plane.  Visit this museum, and when you do be sure to enjoy a very good cream tea in their café (teapod@FTM), and pop into their small, but lovely museum shop (where I scored an amazing vintage dress decorated with illustrations of the Queen's Coronation for my mum mom.  I'll share it in a future post, it's that fab!)

The Fashion and Textile Museum

83 Bermondsey Street

London

SE1 3XF

T: 020 7407 8664

www.ftmlondon.org