crochet
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Craft Food
Crocheted Hams and Hairdryers by Trevor Smith Evoke Memories of Mid-Century Domesticity
By day, Trevor Smith is a local council worker in Victoria, Australia. After hours, Smith creates replicas of elaborate meals and household appliances in crocheted wool. Cheese platters, baked hams, toasters, and hair dryers are carefully constructed using foam armatures underneath the woolen exteriors. Smith has had a lifelong interest in crafts, and shared with The Design Files, “my mother was a talented craftswoman and I was always shadowing her, wanting to be doing what she was doing.” Smith earned a degree in Visual Arts as a sculpture major and also has been a curator of public art collections for the last 30 years. His crocheted artwork is available through Michael Reid gallery, and Smith shares updates on Facebook. If you enjoy the artist’s work, also check out Lucy Sparrow and Kate Jenkins for more fiber interpretations of food. (via The Design Files)
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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.
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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!)
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Art Craft
Found Leaves with Delicate Crochet Embellishments by Susanna Bauer
“Everything That Surrounds Us”, all photographs by Art Photographers
In her series of sewn together and crocheted leaves and twigs, Susanna Bauer (previously) considers the fragility of nature and humans’ inextricable tie to its survival. The Cornwall, England-based artist combines the found elements with fine cotton thread to produce unique objects steeped in the history of craft. Intimate marks add detail to small patches or the complete outline of browned leaves, drawing our attention the natural growth patterns found in their interiors. A selection of her free-standing and framed sculptures are currently on view with Le Salon Vert at VOLTA Basel in Switzerland through June 15, 2019. You can view more of Bauer’s works formed from leaves, thread, and twigs on her website and Instagram.
“Moon XXXII”
“Path IV”
“Hope”
“Realignment”
“Repose”
“Restoration V”
“Suspended”
“Trans-Plant No. 21”
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Art
Seeing Double: Life-Size Crocheted Figures by Liisa Hietanen Imitate Fellow Villagers
Image by Liisa Hietanen
Finnish artist Liisa Hietanen crochets and knits one-to-one imitations of her friends and fellow neighbors, accurately representing the subjects from their favorite outfits down to their furry companions. The series, Villagers, is a way for the artist to more deeply engage with those she often passes but might not interact with in her town of Hämeenkyrö, Finland.
“I meet my models in natural everyday situations,” she explains in an artist statement on her website. “The process of choosing a model is intuitive. The person depicted might be someone I meet in the library, in the locker room of the gym, or walking their dog on the way home. I don’t know most of my models beforehand but as the process goes on I get to know them.”
The slow, methodical style of her yarn-based craft works to counteract the pace of life, and also reflect the patience needed to get to know and understand another individual. The accuracy of her works to their origin subject is never the focus, but rather how she is able to get to know the person as she takes the time to build their double.
After completing each new work it is displayed somewhere public so the piece can engage in a deeper dialogue with the population of the town. Previous sculptures have been displayed at the local library, a flower shop, and a restaurant, however they also travel to contemporary art exhibitions such as the group exhibition From the Shadows of Night to the Brightness of Day at Makasiini Contemporary in Turku, Finland through April 7, 2019. Hietanen is currently working to complete a pair of new life-size sculptures—a local father and his four-year-old daughter. You can see other works included in her Villiagers series on her website and Instagram.
Image by Marjaana Malkamäki
Image by Marjaana Malkamäki
Image by Marjaana Malkamäki
Image by Marjaana Malkamäki
Image by Marjaana Malkamäki
Image by Liisa Hietanen
Image by Liisa Hietanen
Image by Marjaana Malkamäki
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Art
Crocheted Skeletal Figures Preserved Behind Glass by Caitlin McCormack
Caitlin McCormack (previously here and here) integrates mediums such as cotton string, vintage fabric, beaded objects, and other found materials into small crocheted skeletons. The textile works are presented as preserved objects like one might find in a curio cabinet. McCormack draws a connection between her skeletal subject matter and the viewer’s interiority, using fitted glass boxes and wooden frames as protection from the exterior world. Her fourth solo exhibition at Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia, See You All in There, opens on February 22 and runs through April 13, 2019. You can see more of the artist’s work on her website and Instagram.
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Art Craft
Crocheted Masks by threadstories Question How We Portray Ourselves Online
Irish visual artist threadstories crafts wearable textile masks that are often full-coverage, obscuring her face with layers of multi-colored yarn. The works are made with traditional techniques, and inspired by everything from the art of basketweaving to Francis Bacon’s distorted figural paintings. Each work begins with a crocheted balaclava which the artist uses as a base to attach each segment of material.
Conceptually, the masks question how we portray ourselves online and how this is influenced by a rapid decrease in personal privacy. “The masks deny the viewer the full story of who the sitter is, echoing the curated or false personas we portray and view online daily,” threadstories tells Colossal. “The masks are mutations of our private and public selves.”
You can see a short film that more deeply explores the process behind threadstories’s practice and masks in this film made by Sixbetween, and view more of her textile works on Instagram. (via Colossal Submissions)
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Editor's Picks: Sculpture
Highlights below. For the full collection click here.