a life in colour

picture source 

Yesterday I ventured to the Fashion and Textile Museum to catch the soon-to-be-over Kaffe Fasset exhibition, A Life in Colour. In case you've not come across him before, he's an American artist and designer specialising in textiles. Before the exhibition I'd only really heard of Kaffe through all his fabric designs but it turns out that the man has his fingers in lots of craft related pies!

He originally started out as a painter but then, after visiting the UK and Scotland, he got very into knitting and then needlepoint and eventually designing fabrics and making quilts. Personally I didn't think much of his paintings and that branching into textiles was the right move. He's big on colour - all aspects of his textile work are super bright and, if I'm on honest, a bit clashing but in (mostly) a good way.

mosaics and needlepoint work

jazzy quilt and insane needlepoint chair

There was a hell of a lot of stuff on show from all his crafty disciplines including a chair completely cover in needlepoint - god know how long that would've taken! My favourite pieces were actually his knitted work, especially the jumpers - I would definitely wear the crosses one.

knitted tumbling blocks blanket and shirting quilt (rather muted for Kaffe but this was probably my fave quilt there)

the 'feeling wall' and the amazing knitted jumper

Although the exhibition really was a feast for the eyes, a glutenous colourful feast, there wasn't that much to read. All the info printed next to the quilts was already written in the exhibition leaflet and so nothing new was given away. There was a film playing on loop featuring Kaffe (15 years earlier) talking about his love of colour and sitting in, what I presume was, his house, but even this wasn't particularly informative. We came away with the conclusion that perhaps if you wanted to find out more you'd have to buy the book which accompanied the exhibition.

some of the design sketches for Kaffe's fabric range

a small preview of the next exhibition to take place at the FTM - Sindy!

If you're a Kaffe fan it's a great opportunity to see so much of his work in one place - there's certainly a lot of variety! But you haven't got long, the exhibition is only on for another week.