White curls, dots and webs

Ah! First post in 2012, I wonder if there will actually be snow.
I was going through charity shops again,
it is the simplest way to find interesting pattern sources
(what one magpie chucks, is another magpie’s treasure),
and I came across some interesting use of circular motions and motifs.
Take the snail shell like swirl above,
it takes the form of the centre of a flower,
whose petals are marked with stamen like shadows.

 

The neckline of this top makes excellent use of
the continuous chain of circles going from large to small to large again,
with each curve connecting to another through itself or by a tiny circle. 

Pretty Packaging: Herbal Essences

A free sample in Marie Clare, January issue - £2
Such pretty packaging I oculdn't 

resist scanning it into the computer.

This packaging has a great use of colour, 

such a tropical looking blue that has great impact, 

then on top the grunge like marks in silver and green. 

I just looked up what grunge actually means, 

one of its definitions is dirt and grime, 

the other being a type of rock music. 

But now I finally know.

The beautiful flowers adorning the packaging are orchids

and look at the detail of venation and marks on the petals. 

A short post this is, yes, but I'll be collecting some stuff 

to talk about in the next post. 

Oh and the shampoo and conditioner were amazing. 

Smelt lovely too.

Covered: The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
is an amazing collection
a writer who accomplished great things for Utopian feminism.

The cover itself is what really caught my eye,
I first saw a copy of this book at the DLI in Durham,
at the Pattern exhibition,
a collection of work relating to pattern
by various amazing artists. 

There was also a collection of reading material 

relating to pattern or the artists - or in most cases both.

The cover plays upon this piece of wallpaper in the book's namesake story, 

in which a woman is thought to need rest to 

be cured of her mental problems, this doesn't really work 

of course but she is deeply interested in the wallpaper 

on the walls of her room which she is given whilst on this 'holiday'. 

To her it is alive.

it certainly looks that way form the cover.

Monument a-glow with light

This is in the Monument area in Newcastle, around the NE1 area.
Normally Christmas decoration in the streets,
ie lighting tends to be in forms of Santa and other such characters.
But these take a more abstract bauble like appearance.

The circles when not lit up have been shown in the previous post.

But as with many things they look amazing all lit up in blue and white.

Round, blue and white

Christmas is upon us –
or so the Newcastle City Centres’ decoration tells me.
That and the Fenwicks window display.
The decorations in town are normally quite typical,
but these blue circular baubles like motifs
are the most interesting and pretty
both when lit up and when not lit.

They look like a collection of flatish bubbles, or even baubles,
in blue, white and light blue
and using simple geometric shapes and dots to fill them.

Their clear modern cut styling stands out against
the backdrop of the beautiful Newcastle upon Tyne’s historic buildings
in the town centre, like in monument.

It’s interesting to find pattern
where most feel there is nothing special there,
but the fact that these shapes have been used
shows their versatility, they work amongst things
that don’t directly relate to them in shape form or colour.