Fence marquettes

My studies of fences in the Australian and Canadian landscape has resulted in some of the following experiments.

Woven copper, enamel
Inspired by fences in the snow

Copper Fence
inspired by the old fences in front of Colonial Buildings

A progression of the above idea
Potentially a brooch

Silver with copper rivets & knitted silver wire.
Inspired by a wire gates at Hill End

Steel wire, silver wire, glass beads
A progression of the above idea incorporating beads
and experimenting with a different netting technique

Sticks and copper wire
Experimenting with a different netting technique

Copper and cotton
Experimenting with a flat sheet and bending it
The thread just happened...

Copper
More experiments with bending a flat sheet of copper 

Nets Exhibition at Barometer Gallery

I was lucky enough to have my work Necklace (below) selected to be part of a group textile exhibition which has been shown as part of the VI International Biennial Contemporary Textile Art in Oaxaca in Mexico earlier this year.

Necklace is knitted from recycled plastic bags and then heat is applied to make the fabric rigid. More details can be found in an earlier post on my blog. Click here to go to the post.

The exhibition has travelled back to Australia and was on show at the Barometer Gallery in Sydney in early August 2011. Artists involved in the show are: Catherine Dabron, Wendy Dodd, Gabriella Hegyes, Paula Hilyard, Barbara Jackson, Liz Jeneid, Lynne Johnson, Valerie Kirk, Jenny Manning, Maryanne Mussared, Marli Popple, Nancy Tingey, Monique Van Nieuwland and Katherine White.

Images of the Barometer exhibition are courtesy of Valerie Kirk.

La Nina in The Edge

Last week I completed La Nina - a dress made entirely from knitted and crochet recycled plastic bags - which was selected to be in the sculpture show 'The Edge' at the Belconnen Arts Centre.

The sculpture is life size and approximately 1m high and 50cm diameter. She gently twirls and dances as she catches the breeze as you walk past ...... La Nina was created using over 100 recycled plastic shopping bags, mainly from Woolworths. I enjoy using discarded objects to create something of beauty and to change perceptions of the materials used.

La Nina also creates beautiful shadows and I captured some in the afternoon light - it's going to be an interesting study to watch the shadows as they dance over the gallery walls from early to late afternoon.

The Edge is an interesting exhibition. Although it is a sculpture show, many of the pieces in it are created using textile techniques - fascinating and well worth a visit to the Belconnen Arts Centre.

There is a Meet the Artist talk at 2pm, Sunday 22 May. The exhibition runs until Sunday 29 May 2011.

La Nina

Yes, another knitting project using recycled plastic bags......

This time its a life size dress for The Edge, an exhibition at the Belconnen Arts Centre of sculptural works by the Canberra region's top emerging and established sculptures.

The brief was to respond to living on the edge, questioning how does place influence us? How does space affect our responses, our actions our dreams? How do we interject ourselves into the universe? How do we live on the edge?

My response was La Nina.

Peruvian fishermen named the extreme weather condition la nina (the girl, the gift giver) because the cold water brought to the South America's coast a flux of marine life which increased the fisherman's catch. Meanwhile on the other side of the world, countries like Australia have experienced severe flooding. Thought to be an effect of global warming, Earth is on the edge of climate change. The garment refers to Peruvian traditional dress, and the net-like knitting alludes to the nets the Peruvian fishermen use to catch the fish.

I have lost count of how many plastic bags I have recycled for this project, but its definitely well into the hundreds....

The exhibition opens on Friday 13 May at 6pm and continues until Sunday 29 May 2011, at the Belconnen Arts Centre.

Come along to see how the twelve selected artists have responded to the topic.

Recycled Lace Lampshades

This week I knitted the final stitches, cast off, ironed and created two recycled lace lampshades using recycled plastic bags.

About thirty bags were recycled and you can see the different hues of greens and greys in the image above. The heat process seems to intensify the colours in the plastic. In keeping with the recycled ethos the lamp bases were found in second hand stores around town.

The shades were commissioned by an avid collector of objects made from recycled bits'n'pieces and when I delivered them I was shown her extraordinary collection: bags made from woven recycled paper, old chip wrappers and the pull tops from aluminium cans.

Its amazing the clever and beautiful things people can make from rubbish!

Designs for Repeat Repeat Exhibition

I have been invited by Megalo Print Studio to be part of Repeat Repeat, an exhibition of screen printed fabric lengths in June 2011.

This is a fantastic opportunity for me to explore some ideas which have been floating around for some time - as well as creating some fabrics for my house.

Idea # 1 is a continuation of an idea which was originally exhibited as a water colour in London - enlarged knitting.

I am particularly interested in the patterns which occur in the negative spaces....

So I started printing using different hues of blue and green. It started to remind me of the zillij mosaics found in Morocco.

Not convinced about the blues, I then tried a bold single colour....

Fun! I can imagine Red Knit as curtains - now I want to print this design in lots of bold colours: pink, orange, green ....... and imagine it as the upholstery for chair - groovy! I've found an old chair which would be perfect for this.... stay tuned to see the next installment

x

Recycled Plastic Knitted Lamps exhibited in the Belco Bizarre Exhibition

I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to have my photo taken and interviewed about my hand knitted recycled plastic bag lace lamp by the Northside Chronicle in Canberra which was part of the Belco Bizarre exhibition, one of the many events which make up the Belconnen Arts Centre first year anniversary celebrations.

The idea to create plastic lace lampshades hand knitted from recycled plastic bags developed from my fascination of space and light and the interplay of the two. The shadows created by the lace lamp cast create a rippled pattern reminiscent of the sunlight sparkling on the lake.

I enjoy the juxtaposition of taking a discarded item and giving it value through recycling and transformation.

Paper Lace

I am experimenting with some more ideas for the Netwurking exhibition which relate to lace and in particular the lace from Elizabethan times. The images above explore the construction concepts of lace (usually they were folded in a figure eight pattern) and shape of the ruffle. I like the idea of turning these paper lace drawings into small books or wearable paper art.....

The text on the concertina folded piece contains interesting facts about lace in the 16th Century - for example in some places only people of a certain rank were allowed to wear lace and then only a certain width according to their status. It was also a dangerous profession to be a lacemaker as they were not allowed to make lace in rooms with open fires because the smoke would discolour and stain the lace. So lacemakers would fill clay or metal pots with hot coals and position them under their skirts to keep warm. Often these hot coals would set fire to the lacemakers clothing!

Neck Lace

Inspired by objects that interact with light and an age long fascination with the word ‘neck lace’, and its literal meaning, was the starting point for this peice. It is created by knitting recycled plastic shopping bags, and then heat and pressure is applied so that it the end result is flat and rigid - which creates a material quite different to the original flexible and tactile knitted fabric.

The artwork references the lace collars of Elizabethan times. Traditionally the collars were somewhat dangerous and an uncomfortable piece of clothing to wear. Straight pins, which pointed towards the neck, held the ruffles together and often caught on the neck, piercing the skin. Through the use of recycled plastic bags 'Necklace' alludes to the waste and frivilous excesses our society produces, questioning what are we prepared to endure for the fashion of convenience?

This object was created for the Netwurk project http://netwurks.wordpress.com an exhibition proposal masterminded by the Textiles Workshop at the ANU which revolves around networking via the internet and engaging with other artists online.

Possum Magic

This scarf is knitted out of a beautiful homespun possum wool I picked up during my recent travels to New Zealand. It is so soft and light to touch and Ive been told it should be nice and warm for the winter months ahead. It was knitted on 10mm knitting needles using the same knitting stitch as the blanket I have also recently knitted.

The pattern is a very easy net-like lacy stitch and fast to knit:
Using 10mm needles cast on 31 stitches. (For a scaft about 41cm wide)
K1, *wool round needle, knit 2 together* repeat the pattern between the asterisks to the end of the row
Repeat this row until scarf reaches your desired length.