Cliff House Gallery
My friend logs the "Deep in the Arts" calendar for our local NPR affliate (KERA 90.1), and thus has her finger on the pulse of all music and arts events throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth area. She keeps me well informed on everything even remotely Japanese-related, so I was very keen to check out the textile exhibition & sale at the Cliff House Gallery.
Cliff House Gallery is tucked away in the corner of the far west side of Fort Worth overlooking lush woods and pastures. It's the home of Pamela Summers and Raymond Rains, local artisans who specialize in ceramics and blown glass, respectively. On their lovely property they've created a garden with winding stone footpaths, indoor/outdoor workshops and an interesting gallery space to show off their wares. But today the attraction was Ms. Alice Dale, who has what appears to be my dream-job: traveling (and shopping) the world for interesting textiles and objects, then selling them to finance her further travels. Not a bad setup, I must say!
After raising two sets of children and a divorce, Ms. Dale moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico about 10 years ago. She told me she scooped the African trading bead phenom early on and made quite a bit of money selling her jewelry designs (one of which she's wearing in a photo below). She has a boutique there in sunny Mexico where she sells her creations and textiles from all over the world.
At the gallery she was showing some interesting textiles from South America, Vietnam, Cambodia and of course, Japan. There was one sakiori obi and a vintage bolt of shibori cotton, shown below, that I would have snagged in a heartbeat had I not been so penniless.
(WARNING: pics below open into insanely huge, high-resolution photos!)
Sakiori Obi
Interesting vintage shibori bolt
While at Cliff House, I was interested to learn that they have a raku kiln! No pottery was on display, unfortunately, but they have a "raku" party in December, so I'll definitely be checking back!
View from Cliff House Gallery
Ms. Alice Dale Kimsey
Red rinzu jyuban (under-kimono)
Some fun vintage hagoita, a sort of badmitten racket, and miscellaney
A shibori wonderland...
Obi odds & ends
Breath-taking embroidery on this padded kimono
Bags and beads by Jewels Elite, another exhibitor
More jewelry...
And more bags...
Ms. Dale had the most arresting aqua blue eyes!
All this has got me thinking on how I might do something similar. Dallas defintely NEEDS a Japanese antique source and I'm just the person to do it...but first I need to do a little work... Of course there are issues of money, time & distance - but compared to these relatively modest concerns, my biggest hurdle is emotionally letting go of some of the items in my collection! Auuughh!!!
Cliff House Gallery is tucked away in the corner of the far west side of Fort Worth overlooking lush woods and pastures. It's the home of Pamela Summers and Raymond Rains, local artisans who specialize in ceramics and blown glass, respectively. On their lovely property they've created a garden with winding stone footpaths, indoor/outdoor workshops and an interesting gallery space to show off their wares. But today the attraction was Ms. Alice Dale, who has what appears to be my dream-job: traveling (and shopping) the world for interesting textiles and objects, then selling them to finance her further travels. Not a bad setup, I must say!
After raising two sets of children and a divorce, Ms. Dale moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico about 10 years ago. She told me she scooped the African trading bead phenom early on and made quite a bit of money selling her jewelry designs (one of which she's wearing in a photo below). She has a boutique there in sunny Mexico where she sells her creations and textiles from all over the world.
At the gallery she was showing some interesting textiles from South America, Vietnam, Cambodia and of course, Japan. There was one sakiori obi and a vintage bolt of shibori cotton, shown below, that I would have snagged in a heartbeat had I not been so penniless.
(WARNING: pics below open into insanely huge, high-resolution photos!)
Sakiori Obi
Interesting vintage shibori bolt
While at Cliff House, I was interested to learn that they have a raku kiln! No pottery was on display, unfortunately, but they have a "raku" party in December, so I'll definitely be checking back!
View from Cliff House Gallery
Ms. Alice Dale Kimsey
Red rinzu jyuban (under-kimono)
Some fun vintage hagoita, a sort of badmitten racket, and miscellaney
A shibori wonderland...
Obi odds & ends
Breath-taking embroidery on this padded kimono
Bags and beads by Jewels Elite, another exhibitor
More jewelry...
And more bags...
Ms. Dale had the most arresting aqua blue eyes!
All this has got me thinking on how I might do something similar. Dallas defintely NEEDS a Japanese antique source and I'm just the person to do it...but first I need to do a little work... Of course there are issues of money, time & distance - but compared to these relatively modest concerns, my biggest hurdle is emotionally letting go of some of the items in my collection! Auuughh!!!
posted by Japan-O-Matic! at 5/30/2005 08:41:00 PM
2 Comments:
Engaging article, m'dear!
Just found your site and look forward to exploring it fully.
Thanks for a great review and beautiful photographs.
A notebook which looks like a study of Japanese was left here at Cliff House Gallery on 5-30-05. Could it be yours?
Blogging is new to me. Yours is my first visit. Very nicely done and quite interesting.
Thanks,
Pam Summers
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