ThE CoRkErS HoMaGe to DeLaUnAy CoLLeCtiOn 2014 ~ jane Loveday COURQUIN



>Anyone for a lift ?< textile and automobile designs by Sonia Delaunay
 

  In Spring 2012 I put together and gave a workshop on Art and Textiles with partner and fellow Artist Nichollas Hamper (brother of BillY Childish) at our Arthouse studios in France. At the time I was having a fleeting fascination with the crossover between Fine Art and Textiles. During the organisation and following the workshop I started a project entitled CoRkErS RaZzLe DaZzLe
DiSrUpTiVe ArTwEaR. It would give me scope to pursue my interest in Cubist inspired Razzle Dazzle designs and also my interest in the simultaneous designs of Sonia Delaunay. Simultaneous because they are at once paintings and textile designs.

As my project evolved and began to take up more of my creative life, I sent Christmas and birthday cards of my Delaunay inspired designs to friends to keep them up to date with its progress. It was only fair since from the beginning I had been talking so much to them about my ideas.

Sonia Delaunay
 

I began with a Corkers interpretation of the Sonia Delaunay swimsuit which appears earlier in this blog.
The diversely angled triangles of this design were far more complicated to translate into a knitted piece than the squares and rectangles of other designs that lent themselves more readily to knitting with colours. Slowly the Homage to Delaunay collection emerged.
The >Colour Moves< exhibition at the Cooper~Hewitt Design museum in New York provided me with invaluable imagery with which to work.

I enjoyed every minute of this project and especially being able to wear the results .

This is a selection from the CoRkErS RaZzLe DaZzLe HoMaGe to DeLaUnAy collection as it stands in February 2014..





CoRkErS RaZzLe DaZzLe ArTkNiT

CoRkErS RaZzLe DaZzLe ArTkNiT

Sonia Delaunay

CoRkErS RaZzLe DaZzLe ArTkNiT

Sonia Delaunay

CoRKeRs RaZzLe DaZzLe ArTkNiT

CoRkErS RaZzLe DaZzLe ArTkNiT

 

 

Sonia Delaunay

CoRkErS RaZzLe DaZzLe ArTkNiT

CoRkErS RaZzLe DaZzLe ArTkNiT

 

Very early on in my project I drew some of the designs in to a shop window sketch which was sent as a card to a friend who seemed very fascinated by my homage to Sonia Delaunay project ideas. Her interest in what I was doing gave me an enormous boost of energy that was fabulously helpful. It made me absolutely determined to see it through to completion. So here it is and I am most satisfied.

>CoRkErS RaZzLeDaZzLe DeLaUnAy ShOpWiNdOw< COURQUIN 2012 



Textile designs by Sonia Delaunay. Art knits by CoRkErS RaZzLe DaZzLe Disruptive ArTwEaR. 

CoRkErS vIcToRy kNiT

I have reinvented the homefront knit as a CoRkErS RaZzLe DaZzLe DiSrUpTiVe design. The triangles around the neckline are an art deco thirties theme I often use . The deco enamel buckle stamps it with a quintessential Corkers touch of unique quirkiness .  It is a sweet and one-off vIcToRy  kNit . I can't wait to wear it on my cycles around the French countryside when I next go out sketching .

CoRkErS SiMuLtAnEoUs SwImWeAr C.1923

I am proud to announce that the top half of my Sonia Delaunay inspired bathing suit is complete and was successfully revealed at a recent dinner party to significant admiration . It has been a long journey since my original idea from the Art & Textiles workshop i gave last Spring 2012 to the final version.  In the meantime i appear to have acquired at least one dedicated follower of my ideas.  I am most pleased that my Razzle Dazzle Artwear has started to have the desired disruptive effect if only in a small corner of a foreign field .  And so here it is the Corkers Razzle Dazzle Disruptive Bathing Top . Bathing Shorts to follow as well as further homages to Delaunay .You have been watching !

Small mother of pearl buttons on two small openings at the back allow ease of access.The enamel buckle is an Art Deco original to lend a flourish of authenticity. 

1930s kNiT & cRoChEt tOp

Whilst browsing the world wide web for some inspiring 1930's knitting ideas , i came across a delightful 1930's dress that was at once knitted and crocheted . It had a distinctive Art Deco triangular midriff section that i decided would translate well into a contemporary CoRkErS DiSrUpTiVe design .

A few years ago I had the good fortune of being taught to crochet by my adorable French neighbour who often sits on her doorstep hook in hand . 

My chosen colours are orange and cream 100% fine Alpaga wool , produced in Iceland and spun and dyed in Estonia.This is how it looks so far .

CoRkErS RaZzLe DaZzLe ArT DeCo CaPeLet

 With Winter's chills close on our heels i decided an Art Deco cape was the order of the day . I started the design yesterday evening creatively fired after teaching an Art workshop and finished this evening with a celebratory Belgium beer from my cherished friend Nadia . The Art Deco collar and lacy border contrasts with the central tweedy panel . It is finished with a bakelite Art Deco brooch gifted by my french friend Christine and a pea and claret button also gifted by a kind-spirited and generous E-bayer called Anna . Thanks to all X

 The dress is from my personal vintage collection . It is a cream silk hand-made original from the 1930s.Thankyou for lOOking

CoRkEr'S 1930s vInTaGe kNiT

This 1930's knit is made from an original 1930s pattern . I made two . The above in bleu marine and another in a different colour way that is in mid process .It is a mixture of ladder stitch and moss stitch. It also features an original 1930s button . 

DeLaUnAy DeLiRiUm

More images  from the Sonia Delaunay Archive i assembled for the 2012 Art & Textiles Atelier i gave earlier in the year, inspired the next stages of the 'triangles' Corkers RaZzLe DaZzLe Artknit . The hand-knitted  shapes are still on the move and not yet in their final composition . I have been researching Art Deco and Thirties pattern designs for collars, sleeves & capes that would have been typical of the era when Delaunay was making her textile designs .