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Illustration: Stanley Bulbach. ' Agate Stream '. It is always interesting to see how different creative individuals approach their work and their medium, but it is often just as interesting to see where these individuals originated, where they gained their core influences, and what sent them along their unique creative path. Many are not always walking along the clear-cut path you would imagine. The artist Stanley Bulbach has a BA in History of Religion and an MA and PhD in Near Eastern Studies. Although these qualifications do not automatically suggest that a career in the creative arts is imminent, it also doesn't necessarily disallow it. There are so many avenues and pathways towards a truly creative life, how you get onto that path can be just as interesting as the path that you follow as an individual.  Illustration: Stanley Bulbach. ' Agate Stream ' detail. It is often assumed that the creative arts are reserved for academic underachievers, those who couldn...

Today, something a little different. I have decided to highlight some contemporary innovative expansion of the traditional Maori pattern work from New Zealand/Aotearoa. It is the work of Mitch Manuel and is based on both the Koru, the symbolic curl representing the fern, as well as the Kowhaiwhai. Some of you may remember I produced an article about Kowhaiwhai a while ago, the article can be found here . Mitch Manuel takes the Maori decorative traditions, deconstructs them, and then reconstructs them again, producing a completely new pattern range, with seemingly infinite possibilities of the decorative formula. This is probably the best of decoration, taking tradition, understanding its formula and importance, and then reinterpreting it not only for the individual creative concerned, but for a new generation of consumers.  Decoration should always be seen as part of the contemporary world and not one only limited to the often locked world of past traditions. That we build upon the...

Illustration: Ian O'Phelan. Night Flowers , 2009. The pattern work of the American artist, designer and illustrator Ian O'Phelan is an excellent example of the continuing relevance and contemporary usage of the repeat pattern. It is often thought that the great days of pattern work, whether that be textile or wallpaper, are well behind us and that the contemporary world has nothing of relevance to add to the accumulated wealth of the past. However, as the work featured in this article shows there are still a number of excellent young designers who are aware of both the historical context of pattern work and the relevance it has, or can have, to our contemporary world. Illustration: Ian O'Phelan. Fruit Vine II, 2009. Repeat pattern work is not the easiest of technical processes to master. To make a pattern appear both seamless and above all effortless is another process and level of achievement altogether. Although admittedly a basic repeat pattern is relatively easy to pr...

Illustration: Nancy Clearwater Herman. In the Lady's Room. Felt work can be achieved through a number of formats and craft disciplines. To many it may seem thick, woolly and uneasy to manipulate. However, there are various means of controlling the chance and often arbitrary results of standard felting. Needle felting is a particularly good format as it allows a larger element of both precision and definition within felting. Compositions can be manipulated and engineered into any amount of decorative pattern and artwork. The artistic parameters of needle felting are particularly rich as is shown in the textile artwork of Nancy Clearwater Herman. Herman has produced a set of compositions that helps to lay to rest the idea that felt is a medium best suited to the practical and domestic aspects of textiles, rather than any form of fine art textiles. She has produced work that is extraordinarily exact, while at the same time being free from most forms of mechanised textile production....

Illustration: Marion Coleman. Untitled , 2007. These four abstract textile art pieces by Marion Coleman, are all linked through a series of commonalities, colour, texture, and pattern. However, probably the most obvious and noticeable link is that of her use of patterned textiles. In these particular pieces, she uses a mixture of locally American sourced textiles and perhaps more importantly, a generous supply of African sourced textiles. It is the use of the decorative and mark-making capabilities of these specific African cotton fabrics that allow the abstract compositions to be so successful. The power of decoration within an abstract setting could be classed as counter to the ideas of abstraction itself, but in reality, these repeated decorative patterns become all the more powerful because of their relationship with, and their dependence on each other. The sense of balance between the differing qualities of the fabrics, whether that be through size, texture, colour, or tone, are a...