Baltimore Sonnets

Suzanne Coley - "Masked Purpose: The Aesthetics of Negative Space" By  Institute for African American Studies ,  Institute for Women’s Studies ,  Office of Institutional Diversity ,  University of Georgia Libraries ,  Willson Center for Humanities and Arts Department of English ,  Department of Romance Languages ,  Lamar Dodd School of Art  Tuesday, September 12, 2023 2pm Share Suzanne Coley - "Masked Purpose: The Aesthetics of Negative Space" Suzanne Coley's main artistic fields are printmaking, poetry, and book arts. She has pioneered the style of book making called "couture textile books," combining precision and intentionality of design with bold experimentation and abstraction. Over the past fifteen years, Coley has merged couture sewing techniques with embroidery and poetry in her art. Her fine art textile books are in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution (National Museum of African Art Library), The Folger Shakespear...

O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't. The Tempest ~Shakespeare What a magnificent experience!

 Explored the intricacies of couture constructions and fabric manipulation techniques at the Fashion and Textile Museum , London. Christian Dior, 1954 Pierre Balmain, 1960s Pierre Balmain, 1960s Bellville Sassoon, 1960s Bellville Sassoon, evening gown Bellville Sassoon, designer Lorcan Mullany Chanel, Haute Couture, 1960s Absolutely wonderful experience examining original designs by leading designers!  Can't wait to use some of these techniques in my couture books.  

If you are a printmaker or a bibliophile, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre has an interesting exhibit on the history of making Shakespeare's First Folio. They show a model of the printing press used in 1623. They explain how the metal type was arranged. They examined a  passage from Richard II that appears in the First Folio. How rags were used to create paper. Printed in London in 1623, the First Folio reproduced 18 plays for the first time, and without it they may have been lost forever.  Possibly around 750 copies of what is know known as the First Folio were printed, securing Shakespeare's legacy as a playwright.  About a third of these survive today in varying degrees of completeness and condition. sc

             All the world's a stage And all the men and women merely players They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, Wonderful day at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre! Behind the scene tour of the theatre.

When Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth I) was 11 years old, she laboriously translated the text of "The Mirror or Glass of the Sinful Soul" from French rhyme into English prose.  The French poem was " Miroir de l'âme pécheresse,"  a devotional piece written in 1531 by Marguerite of Navarre. It is very likely that Princess Elizabeth stitched the intricate cover design of gold and silver thread on blue silk.  Princess Elizabeth gifted this book to her stepmother, Queen Katherine Parr in 1544.  In the center of the cover are Queen Katherine's initials.

What a joy to visit the Antique Textiles Company in the heart of London and see beautiful, well crafted handmade quilts. I have always adored English Paper Piecing (EPP) techniques.  It is a very time consuming process of cutting hundreds of tiny hexagon papers and then adhering each hexagon to a piece of fabric with thread.  Designing shapes with these hexagon fabrics creates intricate and complex designs.  The whole store was filled with beautiful quilts.  Each quilt had a story and contained so much history.   The textile's weave, color and design can tell you which region the textile came from. The owner, Christopher Wilson-Tate, was very helpful and knowledgable about each quilt's history and story.