Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

On the subject of Crochet














































































Okay at least for the moment let me linger on Crochet a little while longer. Here are some visual gems lazily unearthed via the net.

1970s coat - arguably the golden era of fashionable crochet

Crochet in the trendy craft category - yes, you can crochet the contents of your fruit and vegetable fridge drawer. Just know when to stop.

1940s hat - crochet was perhaps being experimented with in some fashion ateliers. This is noggin topper is a neato!

Crochet in the Arts - Australian artist Louise Weaver (what a pun) uses a wide variety of materials and mediums in her work. Her employment of knitting in some of her recent sculptural environments/installations evokes a soulful and imaginative reading.

Monday, June 4, 2012







I found some crochet patches in the linen cupboard recently. They were most likely prepared for the assemblage of a cosy (and cute in a 'kitsch' way) couch blanket. I commondeered the green, pink and cream coloured patches and subsequently they became studio experiment subjects. I had stitched paper imagery to fabric before, but I had not previously used yarn based items or crochet full stop. Crochet does fall into that Granny pastime category and now with the resurgence of crafternoons and funky mums fondling yarn in cafes blah blah...the overall image of the distinctive weave is what interests me more. Also, it is intrinsically associated with women's work...actually not even work, more like hobby-work that was meant to have a functional outcome (i.e. cardigan, couch blanky etc). An occupation to chip away at. Maybe that is why the appearance of crochet forms in street art has such a unique signature in the urban/suburban environments - because crochet/knitting can often be inseparable from the notion of homeliness and conventional craft.

Anyway, I experimented in the studio with some paper imagery and stitched focal point images to a couple of the patches.
The eye was painted in gouache on watercolour paper, cut out and stitched onto the patch with white thread. The face image was extracted from the corny 'Moon Child' story came across inside a big book of short stories (circa 1982).