Inspired by Klimt

 I have ordered some more jewellery making equipment - sculpey/polymer clay (you may know it as 'Fimo'), to make my own pendants.  So why is this post featuring Klimt, you may ask?  Well, I was watching jewellery maker on a polymer clay demo day and the designer made these beautiful pendants which reminded me of a Klimt painting.  Not the figures, you understand, but the lovely jewel colours and amazing patterns in the backgrounds.  In my opinion, Klimt would have been a fantastic textile designer/maker.

Apologies as the quality of some of these images isn't very brilliant, but that's due to them being tiny cropped pieces of not very big pictures (most from www.klimt.com).

 I really like the repeating shapes and the colours.

 In fact, to me, the backgrounds are far more interesting than the subject of the paintings.

 Here are a couple of flower filled sections.

 This one combines shapes and earthy colours very effectively.

 I love the purple and pink swirls here.

This is from an unfinished portrait, but still has the pattern and colour taking shape.
So, I am waiting rather impatiently for my new kit and DVD and then I shall launch myself into the joys of making canes, using foils and trying to bake the clay at the correct temperature.  I am very excited as I love learning new things! 
At the moment, I have two creative projects on the go - a blog swap, with the theme of 'cosy autumn' where I need to make at least two items out of a minimum of five and send them to a partner blogger (my partner is in Ireland) and also Peacefelt 2012, where I will be given the name and address of someone to whom I send a piece of felt work.  Someone else will be given my details and they will send a piece of felt work to me.  It's all very exciting at the moment and I am enjoying the various challenges.

Moroccan market

Last week there was a Moroccan Market in Lincoln High Street and Chris and I visited on the last day, Saturday.  There were a lot of metalwork teapots, lanterns, leather bags, slippers and jewellery, but it was the textiles that really appealed to me.  We did ask the stall holder's permission before taking the photos.

 I just loved the colours of these scarves - silk and velvet apparently - "and all hand woven".  The stall holders were very persuasive and  managed to persuade us to buy two things - more of those later.

 The patterns on the bowls were really beautiful.

The ceramic and metalwork bowls were particularly fascinating - intricate patterns and metalwork applied on the top.

 Then there were a couple of rug stalls where the pattern and colours almost exploded out onto a rather dull May day.

 This rug reminded me of a lovely patchwork.  Some of the squares were raised, which gave a contrast of textures.  If only I had had the money...

 It really brightened our day.

 You can see the raised areas in the design more clearly here.

 So what did we buy?  Chris bought this lovely ochre bowl with hand painted decoration and I went for a pink striped scarf.

What a fantastic market, full of exotic colours and textures.