Astrid knits her way out

european folk art

Today I bought "Europese volkskunst" (European Folkart) from Hans Jurgen Hansen (translation Tjaard W.R. de Haan) at a fleamarket for 1 (one!) euro. Happy days. It used to belong to the public library so it looks like shit.

(for the dutch readers: het heeft wel een hoog "Het Bureau" gehalte: die Hansen en de Haan komen ongetwijfeld in Voskuil's boeken voor)

But inside you find these treasures:

It is a very inspirational book. And I am not the only one who has noticed the beauty of it.

Look and compare:

1. This is a bulgarian jacket......

And this is a jacket designed by Antonio Marras for Kenzo (sorry for the crappy picture)

2. this is an example of a folkloric dress from Salamanca, Spain:

And these are some designers who've got obviously inspired by simular etnic clotheswear:

Antonio Marras  (Kenzo):             

Vivienne Westwood:

3. A polish painting from the 19th century, typical "peinture naive", but it looks so modern...

and it is if you compare it with Picasso:

4. For this bride's crown from Germany I could not find a modern piece of art to compare it with, but I am sure there is a simular sculpture in some contemporary art museum somewhere:

genius at work

Found this on the internet:

Nominated for the most stupid design ever.

snb breda guerilla action: the follow up

This weekend our guerilla action  to get more members for SnB Breda was published in 2 newspapers:

1. BN de Stem: a daily regional newspaper. An article with lots of photo's:

2. "De Bredase Bode": A weekly local newspaper: a little article above a column of Armand (who is the hasbeenhippy of the Netherlands) and what is worse: no photo's!

But also:

I was interviewed at a regional network station, called Tv&Co by Marielle Bastiaansen. She is a national-prettywellknown- stylist who presents the programm "Weekend". For the Dutch readers: Marielle Bastiaansen is ook van de Olaz-reclame: "het slechts bewaarde beauty geheim...".

Well, what can I say: it is the Marielle Bastiaansen show. Her show, not the show of the guestst. A few times I could not finish my sentence because she was already at the next question. Also she waved with my socks (I hardly restrained myself grabbing it out of her longnailed hands) at the camera and asked with eyes popping out: Why would anyone knit socks?  I tried to answer but then she giggled: I have knitted too! With Big Needles! as if she had invented it herself. 

Right. That is of my chest. If anyone is interested: it will be broadcasted on may 30th.

Last but not least:

Already 5 new members for SnB Breda. Hear, Hear!

Snb Breda guerrilla

SnB Breda suffers from a serious shortage of members. That's why we did this knitting-urban-knitting-guerrilla across the center of Breda. In several other cities there has been simular actions. Look at: redskirtknitting and maskerade
So: Very early on a saturday morning:

a tree skirt near the church

at the chasse-park of Rem Koolhaas:

At the " Bredaas museum":

crochet sock

the inspiration: (with thanks to  Flickr and BH Crafts)

I started like this:

Let's see if the result will actually be a sock.

By the way: the mindles knitting socks are finished. See the blog for the result: it shows one sock finished: the other is (what a surprise!) the same.

BH Crafts

While surfing on the internet I found BH Crafts
It is a project of production of handmade clothing and decorative items, which involves women from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It was started in 1995 by Norwegian People's Aid.
They sell the most beautiful handcrafts, made by women whose husbands, children and family were killed in the last war. It is a way to confront the war traumas and to eliminate the war's consequences. More than 500 women of different ethnic background participate.
I think it is a great project that needs support. Go and have a look!