Craft

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Art Craft

A 20 Foot-Wide Tapestry by Vanessa Barragão Recreates the World in Textural Yarn

In celebration of a partnership between London’s Heathrow Airport and Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, fiber artist Vanessa Barragão (previously) was commissioned to create a massive botanical tapestry. Using a range of techniques including latch hooking, felt needling, carving, crochet, Barragão mapped out and built up a textural surface that emulates a map of the world.

Earth’s diverse climates and topography are represented in yarn: the deserts of Australia and Africa are conveyed in warm, low-pile colors, whereas Barragão represented the lush rainforests of South America and the high peaks of central Asia with shaggy deep greens and coiling crocheted ridges. The artist also incorporated native plants like China’s Gingko biloba, European Cypripedium calceolus (lady’s slipper), and the coffee of Africa.

Barragão spent 520 hours on the piece, which is completely handcrafted and spans nearly 20 feet wide. The work is on view at Heathrow Airport’s departure area, echoing the diverse and globe-trotting guests who cross its path. To see more from the Porto, Portgual-based artist, follow Barragão on Instagram.

Craft Design

A Father Transformed Data of his Son’s First Year of Sleep into a Knitted Blanket

All photos © Seung Lee

Seung Lee tracked the first year of his baby’s sleep schedule with the BabyConnect app, which lets you export data to CSV. Choosing to work with six minute intervals, Lee then converted the CSVs into JSON (using Google Apps Script and Python) which created a reliable pattern for knitting. The frenetic lines at the top of the blanket indicate the baby’s unpredictable sleep schedule right after birth. We can see how the child grew into a more reliable schedule as the lines reach more columnar patterns.

As Lee neared completion of the blanket, he shared, “All the disparate pieces felt really fragile but as I seamed it together, wove in loose ends, and removed stitch markers, it felt more and more sturdy. Something that I’d been handling like a delicate bird egg started to just feel like a blanket.” The Seattle-based comic artist, crafter, and coder shares updates via Twitter and his website. (thnx, Jennifer!)

Art Craft

Embroidered Women Adorned With Flower-Shaped Tattoos and Leaf-Covered Clothing by Giselle Quinto

Amsterdam-based artist Giselle Quinto embroiders the quiet moments that occur as one finds solitude. Quinto presents subjects left alone with just a potted plant or floral background. The works are created with precise black lines that outline a range of hairstyles, from short pixie cuts to a cascade of curls being held casually by a woman’s hand. Color tends to be used sparingly in her designs, often only used as an accent for plants, flowers, lips, and cheeks.

Quinto explains in her bio that her practice “brings an anarchic view to classic embroidery, revisiting old traditions and transforming it in protest for equality, where all have the right to be and live whoever they are.” You can buy your own piece of Quinto’s through her online shop and follow her photo shoots behind-the-scenes on Instagram. (via Brown Paper Bag)

Art Craft

Radial Circles Embroidered Atop Vintage Photographs Act as Multi-Faceted Color Swatches

Striped circles hover over vintage scenes of natural and built landscapes in embroidered interventions by Natalie Ciccoricco. Using colored threads that perfectly match the tones of the underlying images, Ciccoricco builds radial circles that act as multi-faceted color swatches. Each circle contains more than a dozen different hues of embroidery thread to pick up the nuanced colors present in the vintage images. In one photograph of a desert, the embroidered lines connect to light green cacti, blue sky, and a brown mountain. In another, the varied blue hues of water consume most of the image—and its corresponding circle—while thin black lines pick up the reflection of a boat’s hull.

Ciccoricco, who is Dutch and based in California, is represented by Zukowski Collective. When she is not crafting her embroidered images, she works as a freelance graphic designer and software language translation consultant. The artist shares her work on Instagram, and offers original artwork in her online store as well as some items on Society6.

Art Craft Design

Houseplants Become Hairstyles for Smiling Anthropomorphic Planters by Ceramicist Abby Ozaltug

Canadian potter Abby Ozaltug creates charming clay planters that give an extra bit of personality to domestic leafy greens. Tousled ivy, spiky cacti, and multi-strand succulents become the unique verdant hairstyles of rotund planters. Each ceramic vessel sports arms and legs (sometimes functional, sometimes decorative), and a few of Ozaltug’s designs also have charmingly simple smiles and eyes. The artist sells her pottery on Etsy as CeramicSense, and shares updates on Instagram.

Art Craft Design

Malleable Paper Sculptures by Polly Verity Expand and Contract Into Mesmerizing Shapes

 

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Caterpilla Corrugation #Paperfold #corrugation #papiroflexia #paperengineering #origami

A post shared by Polly Verity (@polyscene) on Mar 2, 2019 at 5:14am PST

Polly Verity (previously) has been experimenting with three-dimensional paper sculptures and intricate folds since the age of eight, when she was given a paper folding book by her step-grandfather. Instead of following an ancient origami tradition, Verity finds her inspiration in the more modern technique of abstract tessellations developed by Bauhaus experimentation in the 1920’s. Through the years she has focused primarily on repetitive abstract geometric patterns made with uncut pieces of white paper to allow her audience to focus on the works’ shapes rather than be distracted by her chosen color. In addition to small sculptures, Verity has also created one-wear-only dresses for weddings, performances, and photo shoots. You can see more of her repeated paper designs on Instagram.

 

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A post shared by Polly Verity (@polyscene) on Jun 26, 2019 at 9:18am PDT

 

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A post shared by Polly Verity (@polyscene) on Jun 18, 2019 at 7:00am PDT

Craft Design

Modular Paper Cubes by Origami Artist Jo Nakashima Shape-Shift in Seemingly Infinite Combinations

Brazil-based origami artist Jo Nakashima (previously) continues to create seemingly impossible kinetic origami out of modular cubes. Each interconnected box is individually folded and then strategically incorporated into the larger unit to create a moveable structure that shape-shifts in the user’s hands. The 9-unit design shown below is based on the “Pandora’s Box” by Yami Yamauchi, and Nakashima describes the difficulty level as “easy”. See more of Nakashima’s creations, including frequent step-by-step tutorials, on YouTube and Instagram.

 

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A post shared by Jo Nakashima (@jonakashima) on Jun 23, 2019 at 5:49am PDT