3W: Andy Warhol

who: Andy Warhol 

what: Cats 

why: having recently become a proud owner to two beautiful cats I wanted to celebrate by adding some artwork to my walls that was cat related and I stumbled upon Andy Warhol's cat series! You can read more about the 25 cats named Sam and one blue pussy, here. I was completely unaware of them before and they make a great link for any students looking at animals for a subject matter as well as being a bit away from the norm for an Andy Warhol reference! Also if you too are into cats and art and happen to be in Amsterdam I fully recommend the Cat Museum, The Cat Cabinet, that's there! 

the cats cats cats book // Andy Warhol Foundation // Another mag discussing the cats (and dogs)

3W: Maxine Sutton

who: Maxine Sutton
what: print and embroidery
why: stunning combinations of colour, shape and pattern! This July she celebrated 5 years of having her own store down in Margate. This blog posts tells you all about the story of how she started to where the store is now - very inspirational!

Maxine Sutton // facebook // blog 

3W: Crystal Wager

who: Crystal Wager

what: paper installations, drawing and printmaking 

why: neon colours! Her installations draw you in visually and then when you look deeper the connection between her drawn and print processes and the development into sculpture makes them perfect to show students how to evolve from a drawing in an exciting manner! 

Crystal Wager // Facebook // instagram // creative boom feature 

3W: Eve O'Neill/Fforestfelt

who: Eve O'Neill/Fforestfelt 

what: needle felt sculptures 

why: spotted on country file, the work of Eve aka Fforest felt is truly lovely! She works with locally sourced wool as well as other items foraged from her surroundings in Wales such as feathers and lichen to needle felt beautiful sculptures of natural forms and animals. It's well worth watching the Country File episode if you can - it shows her whole process, including foraging! 

Fforestfelt // Facebook // country file on BBC iplayer 

3W: Helen Anslow

who: Helen Anslow

what: embroidery

why: This work was shared with me by a student who is a cousin of the artist who thought I would like the work and I was absolutely mesmerised by it. I'm a huge fan of anything anatomical and textile related so they really appealed to me! I also love that each heart that's created has a concept behind it which Helen has begun to share on her blog. 

Helen Anslow // The story behind 'till death do us part' // the story behind 'Twins'

3W: Sally Mankus

who: Sally Mankus

what: mixed media, sculpture, installation

why: We came across Mankus's work when looking for inspiring wall hangings/quilts to show my students. Her work is actually more varied than that, she specialises in sculpture and installation and looks at everyday domestic objects as inspiration. We like the combination of imagery, texture and colour in her pieces and the unique technique she uses to achieve this lifting rust, carbon and markings from charred surfaces. 

Sally Mankus // Interview on the creative diarist

3W: Michelle Hammer

who: Michelle Hammer

what: hand stitch tapestry 

why: Because she uses traditional needlework embroidery to give her work a pixelated look and depicts found text in urban locations to make comments on contemporary social beliefs. I couldn't help but giggle when I saw the above piece 'Like This Post', I love work that references social media in this manner! 

Michelle Hammer // exhibition review by We Heart 

3W: Dolce & Gabbana F/W 2014

who: Dolce & Gabbana
what: Their F/W 2014 collection
why: One of the AQA Textile exam themes this year is 'Mosaics' so I was pretty excited to come across this collection. The detail is incredible!  They used the Cathedral of Monreale as a starting point so I took it as an opportunity to encourage my students to visit Westminster Cathedral and take inspiration from the mosaics there as their starting point.

Mosaic Art Now review // Vogue //  buy yourself something from the collection (if you somehow have extreme amounts of £££ spare)

3W: Cayce Zavaglia

who: Cayce Zavaglia 

what: photo realistic embroidered portraits 

why: These portraits are incredible! We can't get over the beauty of them and attention to detail... the video below is well worth a watch as it shows the incredible process that goes into creating these pieces. 

Cayce Zavaglia // Interview // Vimeo video process 

Cayce Zavaglia | Portrait and Process from Garrett Zavaglia on Vimeo.

3W: Kindah Khalidy

who: Kindah Khalidy 

what: painting and surface design 

why: I came across Kindah's work on Instagram and fell in love. Beautiful abstract painting transferred onto fabric, what's not to love? I really want to buy one of her clutches but I can never decide which print I like... 

kindah khalidy // shop // instagram

3W: Hiroko Kubota

who: Hiroko Kubota

what: embroidery 

why: when these popped up on my pinterest feed I almost squealed with delight! They are simply adorable! 'Pocket Cats' are a series of embroideries created by Japanese embroiderer Hiroko Kubota which were originally created due to her son's love for internet cats and have since gone somewhat viral! If only I had a spare £200 (approx. going rate via etsy) it could be my smart shirt for work! 

Hiroko Kubota // Flickr // Blog 

3W: All Roads Designs

who: All Roads Design

what: hand weave 

why: I've been teaching a weave project at college so I've been on the hunt for some inspiring and contemporary practitioners and then I came across All Roads Designs. I particularly like the ones displayed on arrowheads as one of our project themes is 'Arms and Armour' so these were perfect! Absolutely beautiful handmade creations

All Roads Design // interview/process shots with All Roads // Claire's weave inspiration board on pinterest 

3W: Pierre Debusschere

who: Pierre Debusschere

what: photography, video and animated gif

why: we're currently delivering an animation project to our students and are constantly coming across more and more artists who are revlountionising the use of animated gifs to create stunning moving images.  We're overwhelmed with the incredible beauty of these by Pierre Debusschere. He specialises in photography and video in the fashion industry and his portfolio is a delight to view. 

Pierre Debusschere // tumblr // dazed digital feature

3W: Stephanie Gonat

who: Stephanie Gonot

what: everyday still lifes

why: We love Stephanie Gonot's use of everyday foods in her photographs as shes re-places the normal still life objects with grotesque vs the sweet. Her ideas are original, diverse and contemporary. We hope you find them as exciting as we do. Now, where are our sugar puffs?

3W: Jon Shireman

 

who: Jon Shireman

what: frozen still lifes

why: because these photographs are simply beautiful. Jon Shireman plays with the idea of beauty by dipping flowers into liquid nitrogen and then smashing the hard, exterior surface to create a frozen reality. The results are wonderful and we're already playing with the idea of de-constructing flowers with our students to create a unique, shattered photoshoot!

Jon Shireman Flickr // Junk Culture

3W: Jung Lee

who: Jung Lee

what: installation/photography/typography

why: I think it's well known that we've got a soft spot for typography, but I think our new obsession might be neon light typography. We were blown away when we came across the photographs of Jung Lee, seeing such sentimental phrases in desolate locations has such an impact. What's brilliant about her work is the different stages, it's not just the typography itself, each piece is then installed in an outside locations and photographed - stunning! 

huffington post // One and J.Gallery

3W: Ann Agee

who: Ann Agee

what: beautiful kitsch ceramics (we just love the pink!)

why: because we adore how Agee hand paints and stencils ceramics to give them an 18th century wallpapered feeling. The following works are entitled "Rules of the Pattern" and we would definitely stick to these rules if they were up on our walls at home!

3W: Natalya Lobanova

who: Natalya Lobanova

what: humorous drawings that brighten up our day!

why: because her drawings remind us of David Shrigley and it is always refreshing to see this type of text, narrative work. Natalya Lobanova creates quirky drawings of things we're all thinking in our heads but are never quite brave enough to actually say it. We think their wonderful, hilarious and love the simple subject matter of them! Check out her Flickr page to see more images and become part of the daily life of Lobanova by following her on twitter.

Booooooom // Flavorwire

3W: Music Philosophy

who: Mico Toledo

what: The Music Philsophy Project

why: We love our music and we love typography so what could be better than a project that combines them both? Music Philosophy is a weekly design project which interprets philosophical song quotes into stunning typographical posters. You can buy all the posters via the website or download them for free as iPhone wallpapers. What's your favourite? We couldn't pick a single one that's why we've got 5 at the top of this post, and that's merely a handful of the ones we loved! 

Music Philosophy // Flickr // Creative Review 

3W: Marek Haiduk

who: Marek Haiduk

what: illustration/collage 

why: We love the vintage feel of these mixed media digital collages by German illustrator Marek Haiduk. The way she combines bright colours, geometric shapes and patterns and carefully selected imagery - they are simply stunning! 

Marek Haiduk // Flickr // Interview on the Artfuls