Filed under: art-icles | Tags: 302 calories, dawn payne, knit, knitted, licorice, red lace, thong
Free Valentine’s Day Pattern: Edible Knitted Thong
by Dawn Payne
Licorice Knitted Valentine's Day Thong
This Valentine’s Day, adult entertainment star Dawn Payne presents her newest excursion into the realm of all-things-naughty via her pattern entitled “302 Calories” (a.k.a. an Edible Knitted Red Lace Thong).
Materials? One set of chopsticks, and a couple packs of Red Lace licorice.
Dawn Payne, my friend, you are a laugh riot. And I quote, “Always wanted a pair of edible panties?.. Cast on at the beginning of a movie, and the panties will be ready for dessert after the credits!”
For the full pattern, visit: 302 Calories
Filed under: art-icles, inspirations | Tags: aeolia, aeolia cello, amanda briggs-goode, cello shirt, karen harrigan, knitted stretch sensors, martha glazzard, merlin stretch, nigel marshall, philip breedon, sarah kettley, tangible and embedded, tina downes
Aeolia is a multidisciplinary collaboration headed by Philip Breedon, Amanda Briggs-Goode, and Sarah Kettley at Nottingham Trent University. Through the marriage of textiles and technology, each Aeolia garments transform their wearers’ spatial interactions into low frequency feedback using Merlin Stretch Sensors.
Each of the back forms (left) incorporates the Merlin stretch sensor into an aesthetic exploration of textile technique mapped to the body through weaving, knitting, and embroidery. In motion, the elastic fit of Bekaert yarn activates its stretch sensors by changing the length of their conductive knitted path.
Aeolia’s collaborators write, “In combining feedback from remote land based sensors below, upon and above the earth with biological data from the individual wearers of the body pieces, the work draws attention to different forms of engagement with the world.”
Martha Glazzard originally developed these knitted stretch sensor technologies (below). In addition to utilizing her technique, Aeolia incorporates embroidery work by Tina Downes, weaving by Nigel Marshall, and garment fitting by Karen Harrigan.
The project has since expanded to encompass an Aeolia Cello, which uses Glazzard’s knitted stretch sensors in combination with conductive thread to create a wearable musical instrument. The Aeolia team will be taking its cello garment to the Tangible and Embedded Interaction 2010 Conference at the Media Lab, MIT later this week.
Watch the cello shirt in action during its dress rehearsal:
Filed under: artists in review | Tags: art, becky stern, body technology interfaces, knit, stern lab, sternlab, technology
Becky Stern
Make Magazine blog writer Becky Stern of Sternlab.org has spent the past year knitting a humorous series of Body Technology Interfaces that spotlight our engrossment in modern technology. Unlike knitwear, which is designed to move with the body, Stern’s wares emphasize the lack of motion involved with technological interfacing, and are instead intended to provide comfort, warmth, and privacy in public settings. Her hope is to bring critical awareness to our interactions with personal electronic devices, and their dominance of our everyday behaviors and public activities.
To encourage personal communication, Stern invites participants to design and sketch their own Body Technology Interface with her. These designs are then packaged as a kit containing parts and assembly instructions. She asks that participants photograph and document their thoughts and experiences using these creations to Becky@sternlab.org for the project website.
Laptop Compubody Sock for privacy, warmth, and concentration in public spaces
Cell Phone Ski Mask
Keyboard Interface for Computer Programming
More images are available on Flickr™.
Filed under: inspirations, materials | Tags: bookwave hanging storage, buzzilight, buzzispace, dror, etcetera media, flitz felt, flitzfelt, fredrik farg, graf and lantz, ilio, industrial felt, jeanie lai, josh jackus, mehtap obuz, michima, moufelt, spinhandspun, UM bags, yvonne ip
Carga Messengers, Carga
Unzippable UM Bags, Josh Jackus
Bookwave Hanging Storage, Mehtap Obuz for Ilio
Buzzilight, Buzzispace
Wine Carrier, Graf & Lantz
6 Pack Wine Rack, Etcetera Media
Table Top Accessories, Filzfelt
Knot Seating, Yvonne Ip for Made
Peacock Chair, Dror
Re:Cover and Folder, Fredrik Farg
Diamond Garland, Jeanie Lai for Moufelt
A-Z Refrigerator Magnets, MiChiMa (Industrial Exception)
Filed under: artists in review | Tags: elizabeth o'donnell, fiber art, kodiak alaska, kodiak national wildlife refuge, tide pool, tide pool project
Tide Pool Project: Call for Entries
Crochet Copper Sea Anemone submitted be Anna Kuchel Rabinowitz
Textile Nudibranch (Sea Slug) by Anna Kuchel Rabinowitz of New York, USA
Dungeness Crab by Elizabeth O’Donnell of Kodiak, Alaska USA
Felt stones by Inge Norgaard Port Townsend, Washington USA
Elizabeth O’Donnell has announced a fabulous new opportunity for fiber artists interested in drawing awareness to the importance of our coastal waters and their role in maintaining the health of our planet. She writes:
I am seeking submissions from fiber artists around the world to create a collaborative tide pool made up of textile stones, kelp, anemone, barnacles, octopi, crabs, shells and other related flora and fauna.
Submissions may be no smaller than 2 inches and no larger than 6 inches in any direction. Artists may work in any textile discipline (i.e. knitting, felting, sewing, crochet) and are encouraged to create 3 dimensional works OR 2 dimensional surfaces with raised detailing and embellishment. Recycled materials are also acceptable, as garbage and debris pose a threat to coastal wildlife that ingest or otherwise become entangled in discarded trash and lost fishing gear.
All objects received will be documented online with credit given to artists and links to blogs or websites. Please include your name, city/state/country where you reside, email address and URL you would like us to link to. There is no limit to the number of objects that can be submitted. Submissions become the property of the International Textile Tide Pool Project. Deadline for submissions is January 15th, 2011.
My goal is to create a textile tide pool that will bring awareness to the importance of our coastal waters and the delicate and critical balance they play in the health of our planet. This project has the potential to travel to destinations that are further removed from the sea to inspire and kindle the imagination, and bring the sea to people who might not have ever experienced the marvel of exploring the thriving biodiversity found in tidal waters.
I am currently working on a website for this project and will exhibit this collaboration at the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge on Kodiak Island OR in an actual swimming pool if I can obtain permission from the proper local authorities. We have a new public pool under construction and an old one that will eventually be demolished. Once the installation has been installed and documented, I hope to find other cities around the world that are interested in hosting this exhibit and drawing attention the importance of the health and sustainability of our oceans worldwide.
Please mail all submissions to:
TIDE POOL PROJECT
c/o Elizabeth O’Donnell
P.O. Box 3075
Kodiak Island, Alaska
99615 USA
For more information, visit http://www.tidepoolproject.blogspot.com/
Please enjoy this music video by the French band Tricot Machine, where than 700 real wool knits have been animated to create a poetic interpretation of Canadian winters.
Tricot Machine — Les Peaux de Lièvres
Filed under: opportunities, resources | Tags: doctors without borders, haiti earthquake, knitters without borders, medecines sans frontieres, the knit signal, yarn harlot
The Knit Signal
Though the organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) is typically among the first to respond in the event of a disaster, its Haitian hospital has been shut down due to the damage sustained in Tuesday’s Port au Prince earthquake.
While MSF’s sister sites in other countries are working to send aide and resources, Haiti’s facilities have been relocated to tent sites in their former courtyard. The situation is grim.
Knitters: here’s how you can help.
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee of the Yarn Harlot knit blog asks you to take the Knitters Without Borderes Challenge. This week, every time you make a purchase, ask yourself: Is this a need (food, water, shelter, medicine, or safety) or a want? For crafters, this is an exercise in putting our hobbies on hold for the sake of those without such privileges.
In my case, the Knitters Without Borders Challenge will mean donating 50% of January’s Spinhandspun Etsy profits to MSF International.
If you would like to make a contribution, MSF recommends donating to them in the form of an “undirected” gift, for example by selecting “Greatest Needs” or “Emergency Relief” in the website’s drop-down menu. This will allow MSF to continue to responding to all international crises while the world has its magnifying glass on Haiti.
Finally, to encourage relief, Stephanie has started a Knitters Without Borders Tally for knitters who donate. After making your gift, e-mail her at kwb@yarnharlot.ca with your name and e-mail address, and she will register you to win knit-related prizes.
For more information, visit the MSF website, and Stephanie’s blog at Yarnharlot.com
To learn about “The Knit Signal,” see Bookishgirl’s post at: Throwing up the Bat Signal.
Filed under: inspirations | Tags: bruce nauman, crochet art, crochet urinal, fountain, marcel duchamp, nathaniel vincent, sherrie levine
Every artist has their reason for bringing a urinal into the gallery…
Fountain, Marcel Duchamp (1917)
Fountain (After Marcel Duchamp), Sherrie Levine (1991)
Self Portrait as Fountain, Bruce Nauman (1967)
The Remember Your Hands Project, Kristin Boehm (2009)
Urinal, Nathaniel Vincent (2004)
Nathaniel Vincent… I would like to hear more about yours…
Filed under: art-icles | Tags: guerrilla knitting, martyn smith, old roads, oldroads.org, spinhandspun
Earlier this year, Martyn Smith of Oldroads.org asked me a profound question regarding the viewer’s experience of public yarn art. He separated my work [read, guerrilla knitters: our work] into four categories:
- The knitted object itself
- This object in installation
- The installation’s document in photographic form
- The photograph or object’s installation in a gallery
His question?
Which of these four categories is the art?
At the time, I argued that all categories were art, with each experience prompting different aesthetic interpretations.
Among other things, the object itself conjures knitting’s associations with time, focus, patience, design, and (for some) its historical framework as a woman’s craft.
Of course, the experience of a public installation depends on its intended goal, be it to challenge knitting’s reputation as a pastoral craft-form intended to keep women occupied in the home, juxtapose our industrial landscapes with handmade reminders of our humanity, reclaim public objects as our own, or to offer an unexpected change in scenery.
The photograph, then, documents the artist’s act and intended public statement, yet lacks the transcendental “ah” moment of an unforeseen first-hand encounter. Roland Barthes best describes the difference between a photograph and the human experience it represents in his book Camera Lucida. He writes, “The Photograph… becomes a bizarre medium, a new form of hallucination: false on the level of perception, true on the level of time: a temporal hallucination, so to speak, a modest, shared hallucination… a mad image, chafed by reality.”
Installed in a gallery, the craft is validated and accepted as a form of high art. But like a photograph, guerrilla knitting exhibitions deny viewers the excitement and secrecy of discovering these works on the streets.
Martyn’s question is alluring, and I find myself reconfiguring my original response near-daily.
I am curious, guerrilla knitters: What is your response? I would like to hear your thoughts in the comments section of this page, and will pose the same question in a forum on Subversiveyarn.ning.
Filed under: press, resources | Tags: knit blog, knitting blog, spinhandspun, twitter, yarn blog
Even though I started designing websites with Expage and Angelfire at the age of 12, my first relationship was via AIM, and I have an art degree focused on digital processes, I need someone to walk me through this: Spinhandspun has finally joined Twitter.
I’m not sure how it happened, exactly. Though I’ve always appreciated the site’s marketing potential, the tweeting juggernaut has conceptually terrified me. Regardless, I woke up this morning, pounded a cup of coffee, and decided to take the dive.
Ironically, my Samsung Eco Phone [read: Samsung's version of green marketing because it's made with recycled corn and has a picture of grass as its default background image] makes bird sounds when i receive text messages. I see this as a sign that smart phones are moving into psychic phone territory. The semi-attractive twenty-something at the Sprint store in Bemidji must’ve known this would happen. I should’ve taken down his number since having a contact who could forecast the future would benefit anyone in the business of blogging.
Follow away at:
http://www.twitter.com/spinhandspun
