Inspiration - Architecture

I love to be inspired by different kinds of greatness. Today, for example, I learned about Villa Tugendhat in the town of Brno, in the Czech Republic. It was designed by Mies van der Rohe in the late 1920's, and is considered to be one of the finest examples of modernistic (or functionalistic) architecture.

As I searched for further information I also came across this absolutely fantastic and highly creative student project about Villa Tugendhat. This is what inspired me to write this blog post in the first place. Such a great way of presenting history! I hope you too will enjoy it :-).



And here are a few links I found where you can find more information:

http://www.tugendhat.eu/tour/tour_en.htm (will take you on a filmed tour in and around the villa)

http://www.tugendhat.eu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Tugendhat

If you are a Swede, or if you understand Swedish, I highly recommend a Podcast called "Staden". It is about architecture and urban planning. The latest episode is about the town Brno and Villa Tugendhat:

http://staden.arkitekt.se/brno-funktionalism-och-sanning/


All my best,
Malin

Be inspired by: René Gruau

Do you know of René Gruau? I myself only heard of him a couple months ago. BUT, I for sure have seen and been inspired by his work throughout my whole life, without actually knowing of him. And it is very clear to me that he has had many followers in the illustration and advertising worlds. Looking at his pictures I am completely mesmarized by his skill and the casual ease in which he captures the essence of a garment or style. The text below is taken mainly from an article about him on Wikipedia. I have shortened it severely. The pictures are placed in a completely random order. Hope you enjoy! :-)

René Gruau was a renowned fashion illustrator whose exaggerated portrayal of fashion design through painting has had a lasting effect on the fashion industry. Gruau became one of the best known and favorite artists of the haute couture (high fashion) world during the 1940s and 50s.

Born in Italy 1909, Gruau was the son of an Italian count and a French aristrocrat. When René's mother and father separated when he was three, he moved to Paris with the mother. Gruau then took her last name. His passion and inclination for arts led him to a love and pursuance of fine arts.

At 14, Gruau began to support his mother and himself by selling drawings to the Milanese fashion journal Lidel. He demonstrated talent for drawing throughout much of his early life and worked as an illustrator for fashion magazines such as Femina, Marie Claire and Vogue in Paris in his teens and early 20s.

Gruau found it difficult to find work during World War II and ultimately found little work for small or unestablished designers such as Christian Dior before he became popular during this time.

Gruau's first position as artistic director for advertising was in 1947 with Christian Dior. The two together formed the "New Look" of the time, partially a result of Dior's designs, and partially a result of Gruau's combined interpretation and upgrading of old-style graphic illustration. Gruau formed a friendship with Dior that contributed to their successful collaboration and further enlargement of fashion advertisement, which a primary reason he is mostly remembered for his work with Dior.

Gruau, whose posters often echoed both classical Japanese drawings and Toulouse-Lautrec's sketches of fin de siècle Paris night life, was perhaps best known for creating the marketing images for Miss Dior perfume and for Rouge Baiser lipstick.

Gruau moved to the United States in 1948 to work for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. He remained with the magazine for two years, and then went to work as sole illustrator for Flair.

René Gruau passsed away in 2004 and remained artistically active up to a very high age. Today Gruau’s works are collected and exhibited by the finest art institutions including the Louvre in Paris.

Don't you feel inspired now? I hope so. I certainly do. :-)

All my best,

Malin

A few pieces of art that inspire me

I thought I'd share with you just a few random art pieces that I really like. And I assume that since I like them I am also inspired and influenced by them in my own work. In one way or another. I think I might come back to posting more art in the future. These happen to all be paintings. But I might as well post sculpture. Or architecture. Or illustration. Graphic design. Industrial design. And so on.

Swedish artist Birgit Broms - the Skaters.

Karel Appel, one of the front figures of the Cobra group.

Nicolas de Staël.

Jean Michel Basquiat.

Robert Motherwell.

Hope you like them too.

All my best,

Malin

I get inspired

Hi,

Like most of you (I assume) I at times surf around quite a bit looking for beautiful and/or inspiring jewelry pieces. On my computer I have a folder with pictures of things that I get inspired by. It is often only a detail that interests me. Like a color combo, or a nicely laid out color scheme, how materials meet each other, an interesting assembly method, or a connection between two parts and so on. But sometimes I find things where everything is just simply fantastic to me. The whole piece! So now I thought I'd share with you a few such jewelry pieces. I find them all particularly awesome and inspiring.

Most of the time I am good at naming the pictures after the maker of the piece when I save them to my computer, as a way of being able to remember and for future tracking. But sometimes I miss out on that. If you see a piece in the collection below, that lacks a name or link for the maker, and you happen to know who it is, please let me know. I also really hope no one will take offence by me showing your piece here. If you do, I am am truly sorry, and please let me know and I will take it away directly.

Necklace by Shyme Design, Dalarna, Sweden

Lariat necklace by Lorelei Eurto, USA

Necklace by Rokdarbi from Latvia, Europe

Bracelet by Tammy Antoinette of Painted Metal. I also adore this photo. Unfortunately I could not find a currently valid link to a shop or blog that would take you to her. She used to be on Etsy. I did find her on Facebook however if you are interested.

Necklace. I am sorry, but I don't know who made this. It's been in my inspiration folder for a loooong long time. And I still love it. I do remember the designer had made the two brushed silver beads herself. Please let me know if you know who it is.

Thank you Cilla W! It is definitely Kelly Baldwin.

Bracelet by Lorelei Eurto, USA

Necklace by Elly Snare, United Kingdom

Hope you enjoyed this!

Have a great day!

All my best,

Malin

Inspired by ABS June Challenge - outside competition

A beautiful painting/pastel by Odilon Redon is this month's inspiration art piece on ArtBeadScene. It creates a huge lust to create jewelry in me. Yellow-yellow-yellow. And some gray and white and black and sharp blue, and ....

I also drifted away in my thoughts about this artist. I had never seen this piece before. When I think of him I think mainly of mystical (obscure) surrealistic (before the real Surrealists entered the scene) drawings/prints in black and white. I went on a hunt on the internet and gathered a few of the things I am referring to.

I just happen to have quite a few beads and stuff in my stash that would go perfectly with the style of the pieces in the collage I put together. Just look at these buttons, which I purchased about 6 months ago, with, among other things, earrings in mind. At last I got a reason to actually put them together. Thanks ArtBeadScene! Due to them not containing any Art beads as such I can't put them in the competion. But who cares.

Of course they are called Odilon. Dangles nicely. I'll wear them tomorrow when we are going to the technical museum here in Stockholm. Meeting up with my mum and brother there.

Swedish Inspiration - Sandra Backlund

The first time I heard of Sandra Backlund was on a Swedish radio programme called Stil (=Style). Sandra was being interviewed and I just fell for how she spoke about her creative process. She said that when she was studying fashion there was a lot of talk about scetching your ideas on paper and then make them come true in reality. She said she could never grasp that method. She wanted to investigate the forms AS she was working, searching for interesting forms, "what happens if I do this?", "or this?". She worked mainly with knitting at that time, and to me it sounded totally liberating that she wanted to create three dimensional forms with knitting. To me you knit a jumper, a scarf or a cardigan. This sounded very different.

After I had heard her in that interview I immediately went to check her stuff out on the interent. I was completely blown away. To say the least. I have never seen anything like it. And I am not alone. This was about a year or so ago. And she has had lots and lots of attention, not the least internationally.

She has continued to work a lot with knitting, but also with other materials. Always experimenting with shapes, and how they sit on the body. Her clothes are like sculptures. Now she has created her first collection which will be produced in a bigger number. Please keep your eyes on this lady, coz she IS something else!

I just get so completely inspired by her free thinking and method of working and the shapes she creates. Don't miss to read her own words here. And look at more pictures of her work at her site Sandra Backlund.

This just makes me happy!

Lovely and playful inspiration from Burkina Faso.

www.burkinafasodesign.se