Poodle Time! The Colorful Abstract Poodles

It is time for another “Art Wednesday”.

I have wanted to do a collection of modern abstract art inspired by Poodles for a while. My criteria for selection was that an artist made a personal statement which was inspired by Poodles. Use of design and color was also considered

Links have been added if pieces are available for purchase or if there is information about the artist. May these Poodles brighten up your day. And Happy Thanksgiving!

Today’s Gallery

By Sandra Cointreau. I don’t think this is available at this time.
Her website has many other wonderful works by her.

Collage Poodle by Amanda Beckman. This image is from Spread-shirt.
Amanda Beckman’s website can be found here

Pop Poodles by Laura Sotka-This work can be purchased at Dog-Art

Whimsical French Poodle by Jo Lynch. This print can
be purchased at Fine Art America

Prize Poodle by Peter Clark. He is represented by the Rebecca Hossack Gallery in London.
Examples of other works can be found there.

This looks to be a fun time on Photoshop. It is along the Warhol theme. I
might try this with one of my Poodle pictures.

The Flower Power Poodle-This can be found at Deposit Photos

Sort of a modern folk art take on the Poodle. This artist’s works can
be found on Ebay

And speaking of color Mom, it is time for my mani. Look at my nails. I want to
look good for Thanksgiving!

Lucienne Day’s Tea Towels

This is the time of the year to dust off recipes, get back into the kitchen and cook, cook, cook.

Batterie de Cuisine-If restocked,
is available at the
twentytwentyone shop.

With this in mind, today’s post is a gallery of Lucienne Day designed tea towels. Through the wonders of digital reproduction, some of her towels are available today.

At the moment, the only shop that I can find them is twentytwentyone in Britain. Unfortunately, they are out of stock. When available they are £16.50 or about $26.00. I am not sure about the shipping.

Other Tea Towels In Current Production

Night and Day

Provencal

Too Many Cooks

Gallery of Out of Print Tea Towels

Pears & Cooks Illustrated

This was one my first blogs. But it’s cooking season again, so I decided to dust it off and republish.

We subscribe to the Cooks Illustrated website. My Pear Crisp
came from the members’ only section. My daughter also made another Pear Crisp from the site so I am going to list both recipes. Her’s had an Oat topping and mine had the nut topping. I like this web site. Not only can I read the monthly magazine from this site but there are videos, equipment reviews and more. When I want a never fail and well researched recipe, this is where I go.

Lately, some recipes are blocked unless you want to upgrade your membership. I don’t like this and limit myself to dishes that are included with the regular membership.

I served frozen yogurt with my Crisp. That added to the “yum” factor. Michael says that our tree is a Bartlett. I think I remember reading that CI liked them the best in cooking.

Pear Crisp

Serves 6. Published September 1, 2007.

The test kitchen prefers a crisp made with Bartlett pears, but Bosc pears can also be used. The pears should be ripe but firm, which means the flesh at the base of the stem should give slightly when gently pressed with a finger. Bartlett pears will turn from green to greenish-yellow when ripe. Although almost any unsalted nut may be used in the topping, we prefer almonds or pecans. Serve the crisp with lightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients

3/4	cup coarsely chopped nuts (3 ounces), see note above-I used Almonds
1/2	cup unbleached all-purpose flour (2 1/2 ounces)
1/4	cup packed light brown sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
4	tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4	teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8	teaspoon ground nutmeg
	Table salt
5	tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled
1	teaspoon cornstarch
2	teaspoons fresh lemon juice from 1 lemon
3	pounds ripe but firm pears (6-7 medium), see note above

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Process nuts, flour, brown sugar, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in food processor until nuts are finely chopped, about nine 1-second pulses. Drizzle butter over flour mixture and pulse until mixture resembles crumbly wet sand, about five 1-second pulses, pausing halfway through to scrape down sides and bottom of workbowl. Set aside while preparing fruit.
2. Whisk remaining 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and pinch of salt together in large bowl. Peel pears, then halve and core each (see illustrations below). Cut each half into 4 wedges and then cut in half crosswise (pieces should be about 1 1/2 inches). Gently toss pears with sugar mixture and transfer to 8-inch-square baking dish.
3. Sprinkle topping evenly over fruit, breaking up any large chunks. Bake until fruit is bubbling around edges and topping is deep golden brown, 27 to 32 minutes. Cool on wire rack until warm, at least 15 minutes, and serve.

This is the recipe that Michelle used. I have not talked with her to see how she liked it.

Pear Crisp With Oat Topping

Serves 6. Published September 1, 2007.

Ingredients

1/2	cup coarsely chopped nuts , see note above
1/2	cup unbleached all-purpose flour (2 1/2 ounces)
1/4	cup packed light brown sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
4	tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4	teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8	teaspoon ground nutmeg
	Table salt
6	tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled
1/2	cup old-fashioned oats
1	teaspoon cornstarch
2	teaspoons fresh lemon juice from 1 lemon
3	pounds ripe but firm pears (6-7 medium), see note above

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Process nuts, flour, brown sugar, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in food processor until nuts are finely chopped, about nine 1-second pulses. Drizzle butter over flour mixture and pulse until mixture resembles crumbly wet sand, about five 1-second pulses, pausing halfway through to scrape down sides and bottom of workbowl. Add oats to food processor and process until evenly incorporated, about three 1-second pulses. Set aside while preparing fruit.
2. Whisk remaining 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and pinch of salt together in large bowl. Peel pears, then halve and core each (see illustrations below). Cut each half into 4 wedges and then cut in half crosswise (pieces should be about 1 1/2 inches). Gently toss pears with sugar mixture and transfer to 8-inch-square baking dish.
3. Sprinkle topping evenly over fruit, breaking up any large chunks. Bake until fruit is bubbling around edges and topping is deep golden brown, 27 to 32 minutes. Cool on wire rack until warm, at least 15 minutes, and serve.

Poodle Time! Poodle In The Kitchen

Cooking season is steaming towards us.

Vintage linen tea towel from my personal collection

I am sure many have had their executive meetings to figure out who is making what (for at least Thanksgiving). It is time to dust off the tried and true favorite recipes and maybe throw in some new ones to stir things up.

With the holidays coming, I explored how to add a little Poodle to the kitchen. Here are a few ideas from online shops.

A smart looking tea towel-found at Cupcake Provocateur

Retro inspired kitchen apron from Jessica Steele-can be found at Elizabeth’s Embellishments

Le Woof Plate from Anthropologie

This is a poor picture but a great cookie cutter-it’s copper and
yes a bit pricy for a cookie cutter. I found it at
Copper Gifts

Try to make clean up as fun as possible with some outrageous Poodle gloves.
You can get a pair at Wayfair.

And maybe your furry kid needs to lose a few ounces after the holidays? We have found a great idea for Niko. It’s the Kibble Nibble. Here’s a short video of him and it in action.

//www.youtube.com/get_player

I purchased his at our vet’s, but Premier Pet has a huge selection of interactive toys. The Magic Mushroom looks to be next on our list.

Our Museum-The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

A knitted purse from Germany dated from 1814-1840. Read about it here.

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is part of our wonderful national treasure, the Smithsonian Institution. The Cooper-Hewitt is America’s design museum and–good news!–it is becoming easily accessible to students of design worldwide. Recently, the Cooper-Hewitt began displaying its collection on the Internet.

At this time (Fall, 2012) nearly 60% of the collection is up. That is a lot of significant design, ladies and gentlemen.

This effort by the museum to make the collection accessible is an Internet Alpha program–which means there may be a few glitches yet in the presentation. Rather than waiting for everything to work smoothly, and keeping access limited, they went ahead with open access to the public. While they continue to work out possible bugs, you might end up at some dead ends. So far, I haven’t.

Works may be viewed by media, countries, artists, periods, or just at random. It’s like a huge Pinterest of beautiful things quite likely to inspire–so be careful! I think this site is a lot of fun: there’s such a bounty of fascinating things. But having said that, it does takes a little work to navigate the site. Things aren’t listed like Google Images.

Perhaps the easiest way, and for me feels like my daily-cup-of-design, is the Cooper-Hewitt “Object Of The Day”. I am hooked. “Object Of The Day” is not a blog, so it needs to be bookmarked on your browser. If you miss a day or two, no biggie. All objects are in a chronological list to make catch up easy. At the end of the page, there’s a way to sign up for their design newsletter.

A Sampling From The Cooper-Hewitt

These are just a few that I really liked. I am sure you will find many of your own. Two notes: many of the objects are “sleeping,” which means that they are resting in storage and not on view for the visiting public. So for most of us, the only way to appreciate them is virtually over the Internet. Also, these objects are from all over the world. We can be inspired by numerous cultures from about any century.

Woman’s gloves from Spain-dated circa 1800-1829. Read about them here.

A Japanese tea ceremony rug dated from the late 19th century.
It is tie-dyed felted wool. Read about it here.

Modern bobbin lace circa 1982. Read about it here.

Drawings by Joseph Hoffman for a textile called ‘Ozone,” dated 1923.
Read about it here.

Poodle Time!-Vintage Poodle Posters

Today, I am finally getting back to something I wanted to do last summer, vintage posters. I hope you enjoy them.

I believe this was the first poster I ever put on Pinterest. The plaid bow

on the black Poodle just caught my eye. This poster was printed during

WW I, and patriotism is very evident. Most of the words

I can’t make out. “Paris Day” seems to be the title.

Maybe some type of circus act poster

A very dapper guy at the Seattle World’s Fair

Another circus poster

I have loved the use of color in this poster. It’s using the three primaries,

red, yellow and blue.

I can vouch for Mom’s love of blue and pink. Hope you have
enjoyed our posters

So until next week,

Sophia

The Supercluster Boards Are Up!

Missouri Bank Artboards outside The Piper Lofts.

Last night was very special for our family. A few months ago I wrote about Rachelle’s (fiber artist daughter) Superclusters. These two pieces were one of her first experiments with lace work. Back in October 2011 Rachelle submitted them for consideration for the Missouri Bank Artboards that are located in the Crossroads Art District (125 Southwest Blvd). She was one of the artists selected to have works displayed.

The original pieces are about 4.5 inches by 9 inches–quite small in comparison to the billboards.

The works were finally unveiled to the public as part of the First Friday events. Rachelle also hosted a V.I.P Soirée. This event was the culmination of her Kickstarter campaign that she ran last summer.

Amber and Matt Crawley graciously hosted the event. They have a nifty loft in the Piper Lofts Building–fortuitously just across the street from the boards! Amber and Matt have a spectacular view of downtown KC and Rachelle’s works shone just across the street with the Kaufman Center Buildings in the background.

Chef and cookbook author Amber Shea Crawley created scrumptious and satisfying appetizers for the happy guests. A certain retired art teacher/bartender crafted the cocktail SuperCluster (based on Pomegranates) just for this occasion.

Rachelle’s work will be up for three months. If you are driving near downtown KC, I hope it is convenient for you to drive East on Southwest Blvd. As you pass Central St., and going toward the intersection of Wyandotte, just look up!

Just A Little Of The V.I.P Event.

Rachelle’s presentation about the evolution and process of her art.

Rachelle and her sister, Dr. Michelle.

Bartender mingling while mixing: she was grateful for her
evening assistant, Lark.

It was a lovely evening, with superb food, animated conversation, and two very proud parents. The photographer was Michael, way-proud Dad and assistant doorman.

The boards during the day-they even show up better!

Poodle Time!-Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from Poodle Time. We had a previous post on getting ready for Halloween and I hope everyone is ready. Today’s blog is short. Here is one of the cutest little Poodles I have ever seen………..

And Sophia wishes everyone a fun and safe Halloween…………………..

How time flies. It’s now time to start planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas. See you next Wednesday.

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The Alphabet Of Sheep

I was reviewing my Amazon wish list yesterday, and came to the last book. I added it August 29^th, 2004. The book is The Alphabet Of Sheepby Patty Yoder. Patty Yoder died in 2005 at age 61. The book soon went out of print and cannot be found. Once I saw a copy of it for $200. I think I am left wishing.

Patty Yoder was a rug artist, which I am not. But her work was so wonderful, that I wanted her book in my collection. Galleries still have retrospect shows for her. A show closes tomorrow (10-28-12) at the Shelburn Museum in Vermont.

In the twelve years that she hooked rungs, she created 44 masterpieces. Her subjects were her animals and family. A quote from Patty Yoder:

I am in love with wool. I love to bury my hands in the living wool of our beloved Border Leicester sheep. I love the feel and smell of new sheared wool when I gather it into bags as our shearer does his work. I love the yarn produced from each individual fleece. But most of all I love the glorious pieces of dyed wool fabric stacked by color waiting for the perfect spot in a hooked rug that I will create. —Patty Yoder

Gallery

In my research, I found that there is a book that has some of her work in it, but for now, I have to be happy with Internet images.

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Poodle Time!-The Historical Retriever

My First Ever Pin To My Poodle Board On Pinterest

Hunting season will soon be upon us. Living in the American rural mid-west, November can be very loud and at a bit nerve wracking (we have numerous domestic animals that can get spooked). At the same time, this gives me a chance to talk about the origins of the working Poodle.

All Poodles decend from the ancient standard size dog and that dog was a retriever. Even the origin of the word “Poodle” emphasizes this. Poodles originated between France and Germany where it was known as the Pudlehund. “Hund” in German is dog and “pudel” comes from a german verb “to splash about”.

Poodles became so popular that they were bred into the forms that fitted into everyone’s life style. But all our Poodles, even if we have toys or miniatures, harken back to this retriever tradition.

Below are photos with links to good articles with more information on the new resurgence of Poodles as hunters. I am not a hunter but find this fascinating.

Hunters who use and breed these hunters are better testaments than I can ever give. Two great sites that I have found are:

From an article in a 2008 New York Conservationist Magazine on unusual gun dog breeds.

One of Lakelands hunting Poodles from their site. They have great photos of their dogs in action either in hunting or trials.

A red hunter from Louter Creek Hunting Poodles. These dogs have even been
featured in a numerous hunting magazines.

This photo is from an article of Gun Dog magazine (Sept. ’11”). solely about Poodles
as hunters.

Happy Hunting if you hunt,

OK, I retrieved the duck, so where is the treat?

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