Where on Art......? - Ferry Meewisse Folded bags

My last post was all about shoes... so I thought why not follow on with a post about bags? And hey presto, here it is.... 


In the Where on Art? series comes Designs of Ferry Meewisse on display at the Museum of Bags and Purses - Folded bags for everyday use. Opening next Tuesday March 13, it is open through to April 29, 2012. The exhibition features bags by designer Ferry Meewisse.  


Meewisse's frrry collection began in 2002—after he graduated from art school in Arnhem—with an A4-sized sheet of leather folded to form a wallet. This design characterizes his way of working: a chance discovery is combined with the practical applicability of an idea. Over the years his designs have developed into complex geometric experiments in folding that result in refined bags for everyday use.

The frrry designs start with a simple base, such as a rectangle. This is subsequently worked into a folding bag whose seams appear not at the corners, but along lines where the bag folds. Because of this, the bag folds beautifully and always in the same manner. Meewisse's approach to making bags is ingenious and well-considered. Using one of his designs is a pleasant experience. Remaining independent of trends, the bags are, as designs and products, meant to last for years. Furthermore he employs materials that have a nice 'feel', that age well and have been produced in a socially responsible way. Meewisse tries, as much as possible, to utilize the leather's inherent qualities in his designs so that reinforcement material or lining is scarcely necessary.

The Musem of Bags and Purses is home to over 4000 objects including bridal bags, pockets, coin purses, reticules, satchels, evening bags and designer bags by top fashion houses such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Hermes, This makes is a collection that offers a broad view of this item's history. In 2011 the museum was granted the Time Out Award for 'Best Speciality Museum' in Amsterdam.

Where on Art.....? The Fan Designer

It's not usual for me to include exhibitions so often on the blog but I couldn't let this one pass by. If you're in London or going to be there before February 26, that's next Saturday, you simply must not miss a visit to
The Fan Museum in Greenwich. The museum is hosting an incredible exhibition of gorgeous fans such as these in the exhibition 'Alexandre - Fan Maker to the Courts of Europe'.

Ok so it's not the best season to talk about fans, at least on this side of the hemisphere, but these rare and collectible beauties are an inspiration all year round, no matter the weather.

Since  1991, The Fan Museum has staged over 60 temporary exhibitions. This year,  The Fan Museum celebrates 20 years of exhibition making, so the museum has formulated a programme of temporary
exhibitions that truly reflects and celebrates its status as one of Greenwich’s ‘cultural gems…’

'Alexandre: Fan Maker to the Courts of Europe', shows the work of Félix Alexandre (b.1823) who rose to fame during the 1850’s to become fan maker to Empress Eugènie, the Empress of Russia, the Queen of the
Netherlands and Queen Victoria – a fact proudly proclaimed in gold letters on the inside of his fan boxes. Not to mention the glittering society of Paris and beyond.  Not only did Alexandre paint fan leaves and produce designs for many of the elaborate montures (sticks and guards), but he was also the first éventailliste to employ painters and designers who were part of the coterie of fashionable artists working in France at this time.

Carousels of figures, putti, flowers; montures of sumptuously carved ivory, tortoiseshell, engraved mother of pearl and lavish gilding: even the most cursory glance at an Alexandre fan will reveal an era of enormous 
affluence where emperors and royalty were the celebrities of the day.  Most ‘high society’ women coveted an Alexandre fan and these beautiful objects will be displayed with an elegant ball-gown (once worn by a 
princess) and other accessories of the period which covers the second half of the nineteenth century.   


This ambitious exhibition, a joint initiative of The Fan Museum and Musée Galliera (Musée de la Mode et du costume de la Ville de Paris), brings together, for the first time, an array of exquisite Alexandre fans 
including loans from Royal Collections and some of Europe’s most prestigious collectors. Drawing on  extensive archival research, the exhibition offers unparalleled insights into the craft of a particularly 
enigmatic éventailliste, undoubtedly one of the major forces in 19th century French fan design and production.  


The museum is open  Tue-Sat: 11am-5pm. Sun: 12-5pm

Where on Art...? The Snake in Jewellery

Snake ear clips, Yellow gold, pink gold, turquoise-coloured enamel, two oval rubies and two rose-cut diamonds, Cartier Paris, special order 1971, N. Welsh, Cartier Collection © Cartier 

If you haven't visited it yet, you have just a few days left before this exhibition packs up. "Serpentina - The Snake in Jewellery Around the World' stretches to February 26 at Pforzheim’s Jewellery Museum in Germany and it is all about snake jewellery. 

The symbolic meanings of the snake are quite varied and exist in all cultures. The snake has inspired the creation of exquisite works of art and jewellery. This exhibition includes 120 remarkable pieces of snake jewellery from varied periods and countries - and it's all about snakes.  Curated by Fritz Falk, the museum’s director for over 30 years, this is the first time ever that the theme of the snake in jewellery has been dealt with so extensively.

The snake is found in jewellery from several ancient civilisations - Ancient Egypt, Minoic civilization of Crete, Ancient Greece and Rome. North of the Alps, the snake adorned Celtic jewellery, enhanced the Franks’ and Alemanni’s golden disk fibulas in the Migration Period, and the Vikings decorated bangles and metal fittings with snake motifs. 

The snake’s comeback in the 19^th century and especially in the Art Nouveau Period was all the more striking. Snake jewellery were  created by such greats as Lalique and Fouquet in Paris,  by members of the Arts & Crafts movement in England and by the jewellery industry in Pforzheim. 

Jewellery artists and manufacturers of the 20^th and early 21^st centuries have interpreted the snake motif in a wide variety of original fashions, creating such diverse pieces as Mario Pinton’s delicate snake bangle, Günter Krauss’s mighty necklace or the diamond-studded necklaces and bangles designed by Cartier, Boucheron and the Hemmerle Jewellers in Munich.

Outside Europe, snake motifs adorned golden and sometimes gem-set pectorals (breast jewellery) in pre-Columbian Middle America. In India and Indonesia snake jewellery in the shape of amulets, bangles and earrings is still popular today. Other impressive examples are the golden creations of the Akan in Ghana and Nigeria. 

Even in Japan the snake was used to adorn  netsukes. Because traditional Japanese garments had no pockets, a netsuke was used to fasten a small container for personal belongings such as an inrō, an elaborately crafted box, to the sash.

Whether good or bad – the snake is a creature which has occupied the minds of people since time immemorial and in many different ways. 

If you won't manage to make your way to this exhibtion, you may be intersted in getting hold of the special exhibition publication called,  'Serpentina –Snake Jewellery from around the World'  which contains 200 colour illustrations, and is in the English and German languages.

Open Tuesday – Sunday and holidays from 10.00 - 17.00hrs

For more information on this exhibition click here

For more information on the city of jewellery and watches click here]

Bracelet featuring stylized snake heads; Gold; Öland, Ås, Näsby; Late Roman Iron Age (approx. 200-300 AD); National Historical Museum, Sweden; Photo: Gabriel Hildebrand

'Snakes' pectoral; René Lalique; Gold, enamel; Paris, 1898/99; © VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2011; © Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; Photo: Carlos Azevedo

Where on Art - 'Money and Beauty' in Florence

The Money-changer and his Wife - Marinus van Reymerswaele (1490-1567)

Have you ever wondered how the modern banking system developed in the Western World? To get an inkling and very good one at that, you have to travel to Italy. The coming few days offer you the last chance to visit an extraordinary exhibition still showing in Florence, which gives you the opportunity to take a journey to the roots of Florentine power in EUrope, the economic mechanisms which allowed the Florentines to dominate the world of trade and business 500 years ago and thus finance the whole machine that made the Renaissance happen.


Money and Beauty - Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities
is open until 22 January 2012 at Palazzo Strozzi, Piazza Strozzi, 50123 Firenze (Florence), Italy.
The exhibition includes masterpieces by BOtticelli, Beato Angelico, Piero del Pollaiolo, the Della Robbia family and Lorenzo di Credi - some of the best Renaissance artists.


Read more about it here.

Where on Art? - Second Lives

Hanging made from a dragon robe, China, 19th century. TM 2009.9.2. Gift 

of Elina Vesara Ostern Trust.

Today I am introducing another new feature which I plan to offer here on Fairyfiligree as regularly as possible. Where on Art? is all about art exhibitions which may be found anywhere around the globe. Whilst I publish the blog from a tiny island in the Med, I am aware that my readers and followers come from all corners of the globe. So Fairyfiligree is constantly seeking info about inspiring exhibitions which might be close to where you live, work or travel.

'Second Lives - The Age-Old Art of Recycling Textiles' is an exhibition focusing on re-inventing the wheel or rather, the textile. Take the image above - a wall hanging made from a Chinese dragon robe.

Left:  Chief Anotklosh of the Taku Tribe, wearing a ceremonial mantle, Juneau, Alaska, ca. 1913. Courtesy of the Seattle Museum of History & Industry. 

Right: Vest made from a ceremonial mantle, Northwest coast of North America, ca. 1825-1875. TM 1963.53.1. Gift of Alan R. Sawye

Ceremonial mantles, or cloaks, were sometimes cut into pieces and distributed as gifts by the Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida tribes of the Northwest Coast-resulting in creative reimaginings of the prized cloth, such as with this vest shown above.

Hanging -Afghanistan 20th century (detail)

This exhibition has been at The Textiles Museum, Washington D.C.   since last February and will stay on show until January 8, 2012.

Recycling is nothing new after all!