Craftzine.com blog: Crochet Archives

Crochet Archive: Crochet

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July 6, 2007

A Closer Look: Wunderkammer

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I've loved Jessica Polka's wonderful patterns since I first saw her Voluptuous Octopus (the name itself is delicious, and the squiggly legs and nubby texture are just perfect). When I saw her Red Coral enclosed in a specimen box, complete with tag, I couldn't have been more delighted. I've been fascinated by the idea of a Wunderkammer, literally translated as "wonder chamber," since first reading Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder, Lawrence Weschler's fantastic book about the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, a modern-day attempt to capture the magic of a Wunderkammer. I've also been a fan of The Cabinet of Natural Curiosities since Taschen re-released the 18th century text, so I was immediately drawn to Jessica's amazing amigurumi. Seeing creatures from the book's pages recreated in crochet astounded me, and somehow the translation of objects from drawing to worsted-weight yarn rekindles the awe and sense of surprise that early readers of the book must have had. She exactly captures the astounding twists and turns that nature takes in her work.

Be sure to check out Wunderkammer, Jessica's Etsy shop, to see her other patterns and her mini specimens. I asked her a few questions about her creative process:

Arwen: How did you first get involved with crafting?
Jessica: My awesome Quaker school kindergarten had a "junk porch" that took donations of recycled household materials. We'd have structured time during the day for making things -- most saliently, I remember building doll houses out of shoe boxes.

On the home front, my mom had been trained as a very talented seamstress, and taught me the basics of sewing, knitting, and crocheting. Through my elementary school days, I cycled through a panoply of typical "girl" crafts: bracelet-making, embroidery, beading, etc, with detours into polymer clay and electronics.

Arwen: Why crochet?
Jessica: Crochet is utterly amazing. It offers you, in the form of single, slip, and double stitches, a set of "pixels" of discreet size that you can use, together with increasing and decreasing, to build any shape imaginable.

It's a soft and huggable form of low-tech fabbing. I remember when I made my first amigurumi piece by following a pattern: I was shocked to see this little animal built up in layers from what was essentially a linear set of instructions. From there on out, I loved experimenting with different combinations of stitches to get the geometric shapes I wanted.

Plus, I love having an excuse to own yarn.

Arwen: What got you interested in making sea creatures?
Jessica: I have, for several years, been totally fascinated by the idea of a "wunderkammer," or cabinet of curiosity, which was the name given to the earliest of natural history collections. A wunderkammer was quite literally the most amazing, shocking, and befuddling specimens of the natural world -- real and imagined -- jammed together in a room or ornate display case. The viewer, I imagine, was supposed to get the sense that they were beholding all corners of the earth at once, in one glance -- sea shells (once a rarity) displayed next to preserved two-headed lambs, saintly relics, and "unicorn horns."

I got my mitts on a copy of Albertus Seba's Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, and it was only a matter of time before I made the connection between the beautiful red coral branches pictured in it and a few forlorn balls of red yarn I had earmarked for armwarmers.

Arwen: How do you come up with the designs?
Jessica: I might make a preparatory sketch or two, but most of the design work is done while working with yarn -- I just freeform, backtracking liberally when the results are not as planned. From the initial prototype I then count stitches to make a pattern, perhaps rearranging some of the stitches to make it more sensible to write and read as I test the pattern.

Arwen: Any other projects in the works? What are you working on now?
Jessica: I've just started a line of jewelry and wearable "micro-specimens" that are made in tiny size 10 crochet thread instead of worsted-weight yarn: little red coral fronds dangling upside-down from a ribbon, etc. They're very delicate, and the thread has a beautiful sheen that gives a nice texture to the finished pieces.

To expand my color palette, I'm going to experiment with hand-dying my yarn, which should allow me to more realistically model the "specimens."

I am also working on some new patterns: more species of coral, lizards, salamanders, and a crustaceans 4-pack (krill, crab, lobster, and shrimp).

Arwen: What inspires you?
Jessica: I just took a 2-month pledge at Wardrobe Refashion, which is a great challenge to break off a reliance on manufactured clothing by not buying anything new. Thrifted and handmade stuff is fair game, though. In general, I get really excited about having some parameters and restrictions to work within (especially when I pick them myself!)

Arwen: What's one tip you'd give to other crafters?
Jessica: Perhaps it's because crochet is so forgiving (you can just pull on the yarn if you don't like what you've done) but I've found it very useful to think of craft as something extremely edit-able. Not being afraid to erase and redo something was a major breakthrough for me.

Arwen: What are your favorite crafting books/magazines/websites?
Jessica: I love CRAFT and craftzine.com, of course! Whipup is also among my favorites, and Design Sponge is amazing.

Arwen: What are some of your most important influences?
Jessica: Albertus Seba and Ernst Haeckel, an amazing engraver, are endless sources of entertainment. Joseph Cornell (especially his earlier work) is also a great influence. I am in awe of the incredible crochet work of Gooseflesh, whose unsurpassable plastic bag sea creatures blew my mind, and I also admire the blisteringly 3-dimensional crochet dolls of Bobilina.

Posted by Arwen O'Reilly | Jul 6, 2007 10:52 AM
Amigurumi and Toys, Crochet, Interviews, Patterns, Yarn | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wicket the Ewok Crochet Pattern

Angry Angel on craftster.org has a crochet pattern up to make this cute amigurumi version of Wicket the Ewok from Star Wars. Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Jul 6, 2007 09:00 AM
Amigurumi and Toys, Crochet, Patterns | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 5, 2007

Crafty Daisies - Learn to Crochet Lesson #7

This week's crochet lesson at Crafty Daisies shows you the basics of Tunisian Crochet. With Tunisan Crochet you'll need a special hook and you'll see that all the work is carried on the hook/needle much like knitting.

Related:

Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #1 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #2 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #3 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #4 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #5 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #6 - Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Jul 5, 2007 08:40 AM
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July 3, 2007

Handmade Rugs Flickr Group

Sunshine's Creations has made a Flickr group for handmade rugs. If you are into making rugs or want to learn more, check it out! [ via ] Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Jul 3, 2007 05:15 PM
Crochet, Home and Garden, Knitting | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 29, 2007

Björk's Crochet Costumes

I have always loved Björk and her music. She's just so adorably cute that I have even forgiven her for the swan dress she wore to the Oscars. Now I love her even more in her free form crochet costume (found via knitgrrl) she's been wearing on her latest tour and is in another one on the cover of her new album. Her costumes are created by The Icelandic Love Corporation where you can see more of the beautiful free form crochet design work. Link.

Also don't miss more photos of Björk's in her crochet costume here. - Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Jun 29, 2007 02:00 PM
Arts, Crochet | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 27, 2007

Crochet Hexagon Blanket

Moonstitches' crochet work with this hexagon blanket is very inspiring. I love the progress and how all the pieces and colors just fit together. And those loose ends make them look like a swarm of happy sea creatures. Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Jun 27, 2007 02:02 PM
Crochet | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

June 26, 2007

Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #6

This week in Crafty Daisies Learn to Crochet series will be to practice stitches to make this cable pattern by Sandi Marshall.Don't forget to add your work to the flickr group. Next week, they're onto Tunisian Crochet! Link.

Related:

Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #1 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #2 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #3 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #4 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #5 - Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Jun 26, 2007 01:58 PM
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June 21, 2007

Crochet Dessert Patterns

Cake Sachets by Norma Lynn Hood has some free patterns for you to crochet these cute desserts. There are 6 different desserts in all including the Two-Tier cake (above) and the Sundae Oh La La Cheesecake. Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Jun 21, 2007 09:11 AM
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June 20, 2007

Hooking for a Cure

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You may have seen or heard of Jimbo's wonderful hand-carved crochet hooks (we featured him in the Curio section of CRAFT Volume 01; look out for his hook carving DIY in the upcoming issue of CRAFT, Volume 04, due out next month). Now he's added a new twist, by creating a hook for Hooking for a Cure. Participants will each crochet a square (or squares) with Jimbo's hook for an afghan (or afghans) that will be auctioned off to benefit the search for a cure for cancer.

It's a great cause and a lovely group of people. Check out the Hooking for a Cure blog for Jimbo's motivation for participating and stories shared by other crafters. It's just beginning, so stay tuned in future weeks for more info.

Posted by Arwen O'Reilly | Jun 20, 2007 10:40 AM
Announcements, Crochet, Organization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Crochet Jellyfish

Alicia Kachmar made these cute crochet jellyfish. There's lots of cute photos and she says she'll put up the pattern soon on her blog or Etsy. Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Jun 20, 2007 09:30 AM
Amigurumi and Toys, Crochet | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 19, 2007

Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #5

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Crafty Daisies' Lesson 5 is up in their Learn to Crochet series online. This week learn about ribbing. Once you've mastered it, you even be able to crochet up these fun ribbed slippers. Link.

Related:

Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #1 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #2 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #3 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #4 - Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Jun 19, 2007 03:24 PM
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June 14, 2007

Tunisian Crochet Videos

The Art of Crochet has some new Tunisian crochet videos up! Check it out to get yourself ready for the Tunisian Swatch Along. [ via ] Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Jun 14, 2007 10:15 AM
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June 13, 2007

Quick Links - June 13

Join the Tunisian Swatch-Along from the Art of Crochet Blog - Link.

BeSewStylish has a Boston area fabric store roundup - Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Jun 13, 2007 03:01 PM
Bazaar, Crochet, Fabric, General | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 12, 2007

Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #4

This week's crochet lesson at Crafty Daisies will cover two very important techniques: increasing and decreasing. Homework will be working on this 4X4 wrist pouch designed by Catherine Lindsay. Link.

Related:

Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #1 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #2 - Link.
Crafty Daisies: Learn to Crochet Lesson #3 - Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Jun 12, 2007 12:08 PM
Crochet | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 11, 2007

HOW TO - Sew Fabric onto Knitted or Crocheted Projects

The Purl Bee has a a great 101 on how to sew up your knitting or crochet. Read through this extensive how-to filled with great tips. [ via ] Link.

Posted by Natalie Zee Drieu | Jun 11, 2007 12:23 PM
Crochet, Knitting, Sewing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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