Some colourful inspiration

This nothing to do with my current brief - its more about inspiration and why I'm finally doing what I'm doing and why I've kept doing it for years and years... Inspiration comes from everywhere, its a little bit like recycling, I see something pretty or interesting and I  think how can I use that? - can I recreate my version?, what can I make that fires me up like that? how will it fit into my eclectic mix of things I have made or some how collected?.... and so on... 

coat by Kaffe Fassett

I am often inspired by colour and definitely by texture - I have always loved fabrics and tapestries or wall hangings - for many years I used quite alot of Kaffe Fassetts work for inspiration.  His beautiful knitwear inspired me to knit jumpers, cardigans, shawls and coats using a large and varied collection of different yarns, colour combinations and experimental patterns as well as some of Fassetts own.  Early in my knitting career I knit the star coat (pictured) using pretty much the same colours and the success of this encouraged me to be more experimental and to knit with more adventurous colours.

Much of Fassetts inspiration came from his visits to the Victoria and Albert Museum and many of his published books feature beautiful photographs of  V&A artifacts taken by Steve Lovi which just add to the inspiration.

Tibetan by Kaffe Fassett

I love the different colours, not only from stripe to stripe but also within the actual strips and the little detail added which appears almost random and uses varied colours,   It looks structured yet slightly accidental.  I also like the borders which accompany most of his designs.  His use of colour and pattern are suggestive of richness and jewels, they are lively and vibrant  and thoroughly gorgeous.   Even his plainer designs have depth and interesting lively colours and make me want to create something.





Later Fassett applied his colourful outlook to producing patterns for patchwork quilts and has produced some stunning contemporary pieces and patterns.  Much of his quilt colour owes its uniqueness to his own fabric range which is stunning but as an impoverished art student its a little out of my budget but there are wonderful  fabrics out there and his distinctive take on piecing fabrics and patterns are incredible motivational and inspire creativity.

Some of the the patterns are very simple but because of his love of pattern and colour and his global influence feeding into his designs they become a myriad of colour when pieced together.

I no longer knit quite so much but Fassetts love of colour has heavily influenced much of my work.