I drove my art to the gallery this morning. What’s that in my car?
My knit skeleton! The best way to transport her was riding up front up in the passenger seat. (The Portal was in the back.)
As I was loading her into the car I decided to name her Pearl. I’m quite amused by the pun and by the sight of a knit skeleton in a car seat with a seatbelt.
The reception is tomorrow night! More pictures soon!
I’ve finished knitting on the skeleton and today was the day to reassemble it. The head went back on first.
The hip bones and leg joints were a bit tricky but they’re back together. The arms attached easily.
The skeleton is knitting a DNA scarf. I found a free DNA pattern online but it was complex. Or maybe it was my dyslexia. I followed the pattern but it in no way resembled DNA. I was perplexed and stuck. Abbey volunteered to knit it for me. What a true friend!
Since my Bucky skeleton is a forth generation model it has some imperfections. For the most part this is ok because it doesn’t have to be perfect. But I ran into some problems with the rib cage. Some of the ribs were fused together in spots. To fix this I grabbed a keyhole saw and starting sawing them apart.
It was a little nerve wracking doing this. What if one of the ribs broke-how would I fix it? Thankfully the ribs survived.
The upper left corner you can see where I sawed the ribs apart. The lower right shows some still fused together.
Knitting the Bucky skull was an interesting challenge. I removed the skull from the body. The top part comes off and I used that to my advantage-I was able to tie the eye sockets down. Please excuse the blurry first photo. I wanted to show off the beginning stage.
I slowly sculpted the knitting around the bone curves.
Most of the time I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m just knitting and guessing and holding it up to the bones to see if it fits. I sew bits of the knitting down as I’m going to insure a snug fit.
The finished skull.
I debated over whether to knit the teeth and finally decided to leave them bare. They’re the one part on the skeleton that we see when we’re alive so why cover them up now?
The green yarn is just holding the knitting in place until I glue it down. The majority of the knitting will not be glued. But in a few spots like the jawbone and hip bones I’ll need to use glue to hold down the knitting.
The rib cage, sternum and clavicles are done.
These ribs took forever! It was difficult getting my hands inside the rib cage to seam everything up. But they’re done and I’ve moved onto to knitting fingers now.
The tentacle purse turned out great!
It’s a little smaller than my purse but I think that’s ok.
The bottom of the purse:
The mohair in Lamb’s Pride gives it a lovely halo.
I’m happy with my color blending on the petals.
I altered Abbey’s pattern and sewed on snaps for the closure. I liked the snaps so much I put one on my tentacle purse.
A peek at the petal pockets.
I sent it off to Bingo and Doug Stanhope emailed me back sending her thanks and said she loved it.
And here’s Doug posing with me after his show in Arizona last December.
I asked him if he’d bite my tentacle (Ooh that sounds so pervy!) for the photo. He’s such a good sport for his fans.
Pattern: Tentacle Purse
Source: Abbey
Yarn: Lamb’s Pride Worsted, 5 skeins, some partial
Needles: 5.0 mm
Size: custom
Modifications: custom
Started: December 2010
Finished: January 2011
While in town last month I met a local artist named Marc. He created the Art O Matic machine (Facebook link).
This is a neat art project. It’s an old vending machine that I believe used to sell cigaretes. Marc’s having artists create small pieces of art to sell in the machine. You put $1.25 in quarters in and a small box comes out. Some artists are making little pieces of art for inside the box, others are making the boxes themselves into art.
I decided to participate and crocheted some flowers for my boxes.
I used a free pattern from the site For The Love Of Yarn.
The yarn and buttons are recycled.
I attached a braid so people can attach the flowers in a variety of places.
Marc still needs more boxes to fill up the Art-o-matic. So if you’re an artist and would like a unique way to promote yourself check out his Art-o-matic FB page.
I’ve been working on my skeleton. I’m purposely keeping the color scheme random. Part of the piece’s theme is the play between chaos and order. One can find patterns in chaos and order in randomness. I want people to see both in this piece. The stripes also reference the patterns in DNA.
Arm bones are done.
As are the leg bones. I’m saving fingers and toes for later.
The top of the leg bones had to be frogged because the yarn was so bulky they didn’t fit into the hip bones.
I’m working on the rib cage now.
Seaming up the ribs is tricky because the space is so tight. It feels like my progress is slow but I keep plugging away at them.
The piece also plays with seriousness and whimsical. Because after all it’s a knitted skeleton!
Thebes and I hung out with our friends M&C the other day. Sieben is friends with their dog so he had a fun doggie play day.
I’ve started to knit over my Bucky skeleton. The whole thing is being covered in yarn-basically I’m knitting bone cozies.
It’s both easy and hard. Easy because it’s just stockinette with increases and decreases. Hard because it’s constant customization. I knit a gauge swatch and measure the bone circumference. After knitting a bit I sew it around the bone. Then there’s more measuring, more knitting and tweaking the size and then more sewing.
I pulled out the cast on and started knitting the other direction.
One thigh bone complete. I’m working on the arms and legs first because I think the ribs will be tricky.
Prana likes it.
Beyond The Fringe
Body Language
A fine fiber art exhibition
Art from the show is here and here and opening reception pics are here.
Progress pics can be found under the Beyond The Fringe category.
March 25- April 3, 2011
Opening Reception: March 25, 2011, 5-8pm
Venue
The Stables Gallery
133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte
Taos, NM 87571
(575)758-2052
Concept
Invited artists have been asked to create pieces for the themed exhibit “Beyond the Fringe: Body Language”. Work submitted is to be fine fiber artwork that is non-functional, non-wearable, weaving, felt, knit, crochet, cloth, embroidery, and quilt in a two or three dimensional form. The main focus of all Beyond the Fringe shows is the exploration of fine, fiber artwork that pushes the limits of traditional boundaries and our current understanding of the use of fiber.
Contact curator Merce Mitchell at mercemitchellathotmaildotcom for more information.
Gail Giles
Jana Greiner
Kimberly Hamill
Twilight Kallisti
Mary K. Lyon
Terrie Mangat
Monte McBride
Linda Michel-Cassidy
Merce Mitchell
Deborah Naremore
Lise Poulsen
Nina Silfverberg
Abigail Z
