Crochet Lesson 1

So we heard you, we will now be making videos for how to either knit or crochet or any other weird new craft we try, we are starting with crochet because it has become one of the most popular crafts in the last 20 years.

Hope you learnt something cool and forgive any odd bits in the video, it is my first time attempting something like this.

Love Chandré

P.S. We know we were horribly quiet for a few weeks, we had exams and evaluations, so we hope that the next few weeks of content will make up for the radio silence.

5 ways to get into watercolour painting

Watercolour is, so I am told the most difficult of all the paints to master. I used to think they were wrong, it had to be acrylic which dries so much faster and always felt far more unforgiving than watercolour. Recently I have been experimenting with watercolours for my artist book in painting and even mixing my watercolours with my other major which is printmaking. Though my obsession with watercolours is visible with the blogs design, Clara and I both like watercolours but I think I might be the more hardcore fan of it (Can one be hardcore about watercolour?).

Birthday present for bestie, testing watercolour illustration

Whilst I am far from an expert, I realise that in the two extremes of art mediums for painting that we do at Varsity I find calm in oil painting and extreme creativity in watercolours. I think I am more willing to experiment with different looks and feels in art when using the humble watercolour and paper as opposed to the hardcore dedication of the oils. This said, I love movies and BBC Historic Dramas about the Austen period where women paint utterly beautifully dainty watercolours and not being good at watercolours as apposed to cooking made you less of a woman. Seriously it is delightfully funny in a purely feminist way of oh how upper middle classes and the upper class where at that time. I don't remember ever reading these statements in an Austen Novel but I could have missed it.

Linoprint on watercoloured paper with hand stitched border

Through a lot of research (okay I mean a lot of Pinterest), I have been seeing some utterly amazing watercolour paintings and wonderful techniques on how to get started. I thought I would share the top 5 tutorials of how to get started and basic equipment.

5 ways to get into watercolour Painting:

1. The Alison Show has well written beginner tutorials on watercolour, go check it here
2. This seems to be a printable with some basics that are useful. 
3. How to do calligraphy with watercolours.
4. Mixing watercolours, a pretty and useful tutorial 
5. For pure inspiration of modern watercolour work

Post blues

After spending the last six months of my life running around for the St. Lorient Beyond Fabric-ation show it is now over and the show was a huge success. There were a few minor little glitches the day of the show, but nothing that we could not handle. I am sure that no show or event has ever gone down without kinks that needed fixing on the day.

Just to remind all our readers of what the show was about:  it was a collaborative fashion show between ten fine artists, five textile designers and the second year Fashion Design students from the Tshwane University of Technology. The aim of the show was to design and create a garment, its fabric and accessories based on one of the ten artists’ work.  This show formed part of the 2014 Cool Capital initiative that I wrote about earlier in the year.

For the students and designers working on the show was almost a full-time job along with all the stress of our regular jobs and studies. The process was not without tears, fights and breakdowns, but for the most part it was a very positive experience and atmosphere. The most challenging part was the fact that for most of the participants, including the artists, it was a huge learning curve as most of us have never done a collaboration of this nature before.

At the show each model walked out in her garment, along with the artist whose work inspired the dress, the textile designer and a representative of the fashion group that worked on the garment. The crowd’s response was overwhelming when each group walked out and seeing the whole outfit come alive was breathtaking.

Will I do it again? The answer is: YES!!! So what is the problem? The problem is that I miss the excitement and pressure of helping with the show. The explosive creative energy has come to a standstill all of a sudden. Let us hope the next challenge is right around the corner…

Peace and love

Clara

PS: All the garments and artworks will be on display until 31 December 2014 at the St. Lorient Fashion and Art Gallery.

5 ways to tie a scarf

Okay so today is the first day of 5 ways to... it is our new series with cute and easy tutorials made either by us or our many hours prowling through the internet and best tutorials we can find. With tutorials, it is going to be either quick and simple with 5 steps or 5 different ways of doing something most of us do every day.

Clara and I wear scarves a lot, she wears them for slightly different reasons than I do but in the end we are both scarf obsessed and it is odd to see either of us not wearing a scarf at least once in a week so I figured why not share all the wonderful ways we like wearing our scarves with you.

What do you need to follow these tutorials?

1. Square scarf preferably a smooth fabric such as silk, satin or very fine cotton.
2. Normal scarf pashminas work wonderfully
3. Superlong scarf 

PinUp Hair scarf:

I love the pinup scarf look, it is a great way for me to get my curly bob under control when the weather is rainy and my hair just won't listen to anything that I say or want. I use a silk scarf because it helps smooth my hair and doesn't dry my hair the way cotton would. 

Steps:

1. Fold scarf in half then fold till it makes a funny sort of rectangle.
2. Have the broadest part of the fabric at the back of your head, the ends facing forward.
3. Tie into a knot
4. Either tuck the ends back into the scarf or tie a bow if your scarf is long enough. 

The Bow

Is there anything that makes one feel more like mini Mouse than a bow?

Steps:

1. Using your normal scarf, drape it around your neck with the ends hanging in front of you.
2. Knot loosely more or less where you want the bow to end up (This takes practise to get the distance right).
3. Carefully tie it into a bow, wither by knotting to loops together or by doing the bunny in a burrow method. 

Too infinity: 

Sometimes your favourite scarf really just needs to be infinite for a little while.

Steps:

1. Tie the end of your scarf, again pashmina or shorter length works well.
2. Knot the one end to the other end, either both ends directly to each other or just a corner of each end, this is personal taste.
3. Be bold and wrap this around your neck a few times. 

My Favourite: 

Whether the weather is wintery or summery this is my usual go too, the perfect casual but oh so smart way to a scarf. 

Steps:

1. Fold the scarf (Longer the better the drape of the fall) in half.
2. Loop the half around your neck so the loop is on one side and the ends on the other side.
3. Push the ends through the loop and pull tight. 

The Summer Sunner:

Pretty over a basic top or dress, this one is a pure statement.

Steps: 

1. Fold a giant triangle,  out of your widest scarf.
2. Putting the triangle over a shoulder, carefully pull the ends tight so that it hangs around your neck. 
3. Tie into a simple knot and voila.
4. If your scarf is superheavy, you can use a fun broach just to secure it onto your clothes. 

I used rather bright scarfs as they are the easiest to see what I was doing on a photograph. you honestly don't have to go buy bright scarves, these look just as wonderful with more neutral scarves.