#blockprinted textiles

Milwaukee Handicraft Monday 

This cool block printed textile is trying to steal the spotlight away from both #Feathursday and #Caturday this week with a relief pattern that has both cats and birds! We can’t decipher what the other animal-like figure may be but we’re open to your comments.

This design comes from volume one, called “Surface Patterns,” of the Applied Design, Blockprinted Textiles portfolios. If you’d like to view more of the relief prints in these portfolios take some time to peruse our digital collection, or view some of our other Milwaukee Handicraft Monday posts.

The Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA digital collection was made possible with generous financial support provided by The Chipstone Foundation.

Celebrating Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.” – Cheshire Cat 

On this day in 1865 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson first published Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll. To celebrate, we tracked down this beautiful block-printed wall hanging done circa 1935 - 1943 by an unidentified artist of the WPA Handicraft Project.  The center panel features a scene of many characters and the multiple border designs include repeat patterns of the Dormouse, the Gryphon and Mock Turtle, and Bill the Lizard.   

Milwaukee Handicraft Monday

What a great abstract print that evokes a sense of the natural with its organic patterns and color scheme!

The image comes from our digital collection “Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA.” The original print can be found in “Motifs″ volume 5 of Applied Design; Blockprinted Textiles. An Educational Service Prepared by the Milwaukee WPA Handicraft Project. 

View our other Milwaukee Handicraft Monday posts.

The MHP was founded in 1935 by Harriet Clinton, head of the Women’s Division of Wisconsin’s WPA to help unskilled women laborers provide income for their families. Clinton hired Elsa Ulbricht, an art professor at the Milwaukee State Teacher’s College (one of UWM’s predecessor institutions), to direct the project. The MHP hired around 5,000 people in total throughout its highly successful seven-year existence. Read more about the project.

The Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA digital collection was made possible with generous financial support provided by The Chipstone Foundation.

Milwaukee Handicraft Monday: 

Stripe Extravaganza 

These block printed textiles, printed with delightfully dizzying details caught my eye today! 

The originals are courtesy of volumes 3 and 7 of Applied Design; Blockprinted Textiles. An educational service prepared by the Milwaukee WPA Handicraft Project. The images shown here, however,  we’ve sourced from the our digital collection The Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA. This digital collection was made possible with generous financial support provided by The Chipstone Foundation.

The MHP was founded in 1935 by Harriet Clinton, head of the Women’s Division of Wisconsin’s WPA to help unskilled women laborers provide income for their families. Clinton hired Elsa Ulbricht, an art professor at the Milwaukee State Teacher’s College (one of UWM’s predecessor institutions), to direct the project. The MHP hired around 5,000 people in total throughout its highly successful seven-year existence. Read More about the Project. Or, explore more of our Milwaukee Handicraft Monday posts. 

Milwaukee Handicraft Monday

As Halloween gets progressively closer, we’ve been noticing things in the collection that we’ve never quite noticed before. For instance, we’ve seen these interesting block prints on textiles before, but looking more closely they seem to be a bit more sinister and creepy-looking than we realized. What exactly are these things, and where did they come from?? At first they looked somewhat whimsical and playful, but the way they’re congregating makes us think they have more nefarious intentions in mind!

These images are from our digital collection “Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA” and were digitized from the original prints in “Surface Patterns,″ volume 5A of Applied Design; Blockprinted Textiles. An Educational Service Prepared by the Milwaukee WPA Handicraft Project.  

View our other Milwaukee Handicraft Monday posts.

MHP was founded in 1935 by Harriet Clinton, head of the Women’s Division of Wisconsin’s WPA to help unskilled women laborers provide income for their families. Clinton hired Elsa Ulbricht, an art professor at the Milwaukee State Teacher’s College (one of UWM’s predecessor institutions), to direct the project. The MHP hired around 5,000 people in total throughout its highly successful seven-year existence. Read more about the project.

Milwaukee Handicraft Monday 

I simply love the rich and calming hues of these blue block printed textiles. So many of these block prints appear to be a simple pattern at first glance only to reveal incredible details with a closer look. Their intricacies in design must have required incredible patience as the artists cut and carved away to create their charming and handsome relief patterns. Want to learn more about how block-printing is done? Check out our post on the block printing process! Or, view our other Milwaukee Handicraft Monday posts.

These images all come from our digital collection “Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA,” and were digitized from their originals in “Surface Patterns″ of Applied Design; Blockprinted Textiles. An Educational Service Prepared by the Milwaukee WPA Handicraft Project. Click the images above to discover which volume of the Surface Pattern portfolio its original may be found in. 

The MHP was founded in 1935 by Harriet Clinton, head of the Women’s Division of Wisconsin’s WPA to help unskilled women laborers provide income for their families. Clinton hired Elsa Ulbricht, an art professor at the Milwaukee State Teacher’s College (one of UWM’s predecessor institutions), to direct the project. The MHP hired around 5,000 people in total throughout its highly successful seven-year existence. Read more about the project.

The Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA digital collection was made possible with generous financial support provided by The Chipstone Foundation.

Milwaukee Handicraft Monday

MORE CHICKENS!!

It appears that in our MHM post on chickens last month, we somehow missed a few fowl. To rectify that, here’s some more block-printed Gallus gallus domesticus on textiles from our digital collection “Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA,” digitized from the original relief prints in “Surface Patterns,″ volumes 1, 1B, and 2B of Applied Design; Blockprinted Textiles. An Educational Service Prepared by the Milwaukee WPA Handicraft Project. 

View our other Milwaukee Handicraft Monday posts.

MHP was founded in 1935 by Harriet Clinton, head of the Women’s Division of Wisconsin’s WPA to help unskilled women laborers provide income for their families. Clinton hired Elsa Ulbricht, an art professor at the Milwaukee State Teacher’s College (one of UWM’s predecessor institutions), to direct the project. The MHP hired around 5,000 people in total throughout its highly successful seven-year existence. Read more about the project.

A Labor Day Milwaukee Handicraft Monday

For this Labor Day we present a block-printed pattern of working folk on textile from our digital collection “Wisconsin Arts Projects of the WPA,” digitized from the original relief print in “Surface Patterns,″ volumes 1 of Applied Design; Blockprinted Textiles. An Educational Service Prepared by the Milwaukee WPA Handicraft Project. 

View our other Milwaukee Handicraft Monday posts.

MHP was founded in 1935 by Harriet Clinton, head of the Women’s Division of Wisconsin’s WPA to help unskilled women laborers provide income for their families. Clinton hired Elsa Ulbricht, an art professor at the Milwaukee State Teacher’s College (one of UWM’s predecessor institutions), to direct the project. The MHP hired around 5,000 people in total throughout its highly successful seven-year existence. Read more about the project.