Friday 6 December 2013

Black and white

Looking for inspiration the other day I delved into my tatty copy of the  *'Encyclopaedia of Patterns and Motifs' and found myself once again captivated not so much by samples of intricate Gothic metalwork or illuminated manuscripts, but by the graphic simplicity of these.  Sometimes less is definitely more.  Lovely, aren't they?


Carved soapstone zebra from Zimbabwe


Native American food bowl decoration from Arizona



Art Nouveau book illustrations based on images of Can Can dancers




Japanese nobleman badges


Japanese crane


Snake design from Ghana



Mexican monkeys



*Encyclopaedia of Patterns and Motifs by Dorothy Bosomworth 1995

12 comments:

  1. I love less.

    The American Indian piece is flabbergasting...the Indian iconography in Arizona and New Mexico area is really just brilliant.

    African shields...especially along the Congo and East Africa are also genius.

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    Replies
    1. Indeed - I love that bird, it's just so *right*! I'm going to look into more of this stuff and particularly now you've mentioned these areas.
      Also, there are some good African shields in the book so I might put some more images up in the future and include them then.

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  2. Replies
    1. I thought you'd probably like them :-)

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  3. These are incredible. Less is definitely more.

    (Am I going mad, or did you pull your previous post?)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you like -and I think less is also a lot harder to do than more, it takes a different way of thinking, I envy those who can.
      (No, you're not going mad - I just changed my mind!)

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  4. Yes, really lovely. That zebra is particularly striking.

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    Replies
    1. Indeed, that zebra's one groovy equine!

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  5. You said it! 'Luvely aren't they' so simple but they hit the visual spot.

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    Replies
    1. You just said it too, Old Pa: "...hit the spot" !

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  6. Lovely. I love the expression on the top right bird in the Japanese section -- like "WTF am I doing trapped in this circle?!" And the zebra is great too.

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    Replies
    1. Haha, that bird does look a bit bewildered... He's not going to get out of that circle any time soon though, is he? - look what happened to the three right below him!

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