bits and bobbins

you might just wear your secondhand clothing, but sculptor derick melander uses clothing cast-offs as an artistic medium, wherein the clothing itself is both a metaphor for people/individuals/society in general, and a means to create substantial structures with which one can react to and interact with. they very powerful pieces, visually, as well.

says he, in his own words, about his work:

“I create large geometric configurations from carefully folded and stacked second-hand clothing. These structures take the form of wedges, columns, walls and enclosures, typically weighing between five hundred pounds and two tons. Smaller pieces directly interact with the surrounding architecture. Larger works create discrete environments.

As clothing wears, fades, stains and stretches it becomes an intimate record of our physical presence. It traces the edge of the body, defining the boundary between the individual and the outside world.”

i love the statement he makes toward the end of the little film, above:

something i constantly think about, since so much of what i wear and have worn, lovingly, over the years, has been secondhand.

i love to ponder where my clothing has been, where it came from, who made it, who wore it, what they did in that clothing, why they decided to part with it. so many things to ponder…it can make for quite a nice reverie, when the mind has an idle moment.

what about you? do you ponder where your things have been? is that aspect of wearing secondhand clothing attractive to you? why or why not?

i am all over, under, and into these crazy, almost tacky but awesomely, superbly wonderful machine knit garments by fiber artist/designer annie larsen, aka swank dollar. you need to come pick me up off the floor, i’m so floored by them, i am! check out swank dollar’s blog here and flickr photostream here.

a related (personal) aside: seeing all her incredible machine knit stuff makes me wish i had access to my knitting machine, but alas, she’s in a cold, dark storage unit somewhere in the depths of the bronx until the snows melt. poo!

recently i had to go through my massive pile of RSS feeds and delete a bunch of feeds…little p.’s getting super mobile and the mister has gone back to working outside the house which = little to no dedicated computer time for me during the day unless the aforementioned little p. blesses me with a nap (never a sure thing). and i also had to put a moratorium on adding any new blogs. sad, sad.

but i had to make an exception for the wingtipper, the adorable blog of london-based illustrator kate wilson. her introductory post defines the blog as such:

“Breathtaking magazine editorials, fashion, even out roaming the streets of London, I hope to fill my sketchbook with everyday inspirations.

My mission is capture them all, be it that perfectly worn in leather bag unselfconsciously slung over the shoulder of a journeying business man to the little jewelled buckle on the shoe of a graceful woman tapping her impatient feet as she waits for her morning coffee.”

what that means (as far as i can garner): amazing little detailed fashion drawings of things that move her, and, as shown above, whimsical drawings of herself in dream outfits, coupled with sources for pieces represented, listed in a way that seems reminiscent of the style we use over at wardrobe_remix and other places (natch).

too cute, so different, can’t help but make time to keep reading…it makes me wish i could draw better, or hell, find the time to draw again (and GET better)…someday, someday.

see also: the what i wore today drawings pool, created by gemma correll, & it’s accompanying blog…