Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Thrill of Natural History

Nothing inspires me more than the treasures from Africa, South America and the Pacific Islands. Some of these were from sections of the Met, others from The Natural History Museum in NYC.

I always collect interesting faces and figures:



And my heart skips every time I see intricate detail work as on this neckpiece.

Or this cording:

I also visited the Natural History Museum at Harvard. Lots of great patterns:


And I love this fringe treatment:

And wonderfully intricate molas:

I filled up my journal on my trip, but most pages are quicky collage bits of things I want to remember.

Only had time for the occasional quick sketch:


Thanks to a three hour delay in Chicago, I was able to finish all the little pillows I took along for stitching on the plane. They will probably be turned into wall hangings like these. These little pillows are the perfect traveling project because they are all self-contained, no little stray bits of fabric to deal with-- a needle, thread, scissors and I'm ready to go.

That's the end of my travels for now. Time to get back to work.

6 comments:

gerfiles said...

Another wonderful row of inspirations... - good thing they´ve let you take all these photos - here, it is prohibited in most exhibitions nowadays, and I hate that sneaky feeling when I try to do it nevertheless...

jan said...

Love your photos and the little pillows you've stitched, gorgeous colours.

Robin Olsen said...

Yes, most museums here allow photos, but many special exhibits and galleries do not. They said that any cameras in the SOFA show would be taken away and checked, but then I saw all sorts of people snapping photos on their cell phones. It's pretty hard to control these days.

Debi K said...

Robin, I'm so happy to see you are making more little pillow wall hangings! I loved the ones you made for the PAC show last year, but didn't get to buy any. Perhaps I will have better luck this year! LOL Debi

jackie said...

Very inspirational images,makes me want to take another trip to the British Museum. I had a go at Teesha Moores little pillows, I was going to make a book cover, but in the end made a humbug shaped bag from them

WesternWilson said...

Awesome stuff here Robin! Thanks for the inspiration! Any chance of a tute on your gorgeous pillow projects? I like the idea of a portable handwork project...