Cable twining, or crossed warps

My autumn knitting project is going well. So well, in fact, that I might actually finish this sweater in time to wear it this winter. 🙂 The pattern is called Rilaé (available here if you are interested) and has a central block of cable stitch on the front and back. For non-knitters, the cable pattern […]

Unfinished objects

Unfinished objects are a way of life for all makers (or maybe it’s just the makers I know). As far as I’m concerned, there are various reasons for this. Usually it’s feeling dissatisfied about how something is turning out and not having the time or headspace to work out why or how to improve it. […]

Inspired by Morigami Jin

Sometimes you end up in a completely different destination from where you intended. My idea was to further explore freestyle or irregular plaiting. After my first foray into this technique, I saw some lovely examples of it at the recent Eskenazi exhibition. So I went back to my photos and books on Japanese bamboo art […]

Inspired by Haeckel: calcareous sponges

With less than six weeks until our exhibition at City Lit opens, I’m feeling the pressure a bit, as I still haven’t finished any of my four remaining pieces. As I mentioned in a previous post, these pieces are all inspired by Haeckel. The one I’ve made most progress on is a shallow twined dish […]

Inspired by Haeckel: eight samples

We’re now in the last term of the two-year City Lit Creative Basketry course and working on our pieces for our final assessment. These will form the basis of an exhibition at City Lit in July (like our degree show). Each student has to make five works: eight samples, a piece from soft materials, a […]

Paper yarn and bones

bone and paper yarn

I’m working a lot with paper yarn at the moment. It’s one of my favourite materials, very strong and grippy, with enough body to hold sculptural forms. The down side is that it can be quite unforgiving, with a tendency to kink and twist. But sometimes the twist can be channelled to create extra movement […]