rockpool candy

QR - 3D project: Make, share and exhibit textile QR codes - as featured in Molly Makes Magazine

You know me - can't resist a chance to mix different craft techniques with a bit of science, so when my mate Sally asked me to make a piece for her QR-3D project, I jumped at the chance. 

QR codes are traditionally a two-dimensional device used by barcode readers and camera phones consisting of smaller black squares on a larger square white background. The information contained within usually directs code readers to a website, but can also be used to hide text messages or other information.

I chose to take the QR code for my blog, and that of MyTarPit, and just as we are joined in matrimony, joined them. Then used them in one layer of a four-colour separation screenprint on velvet. 

padded it.

And embellished it with vintage beads, stamens and buttons from the 40s and 50s.

The result was an edition of two headboards.

Each slightly different, entitled. Marital code: 1 and 2.

The project is open to public involvement.
Sally explains, “I hope people will be inspired to find out what QR codes are and what they do. I want to see how people experiment with different sorts of textiles to try and create QR codes that function and will direct people to a website. I’d love to see all sorts of people involved, those who love the internet and digital technology, or craft and making, people who just love pattern or secret codes, there are so many appealing things about it. It would be great to think that through this, more people will become familiar with how QR codes can magnify the power of the internet. For example, to help promote their small business, find other like minded makers, or be inspired to try something new.”

The project is open to everyone, people who make for fun or professionally. To get involved visit
www.qr-3d.weebly.com  Simply choose your website, turn it into a QR code (instructions are provided on the website) and recreate it with textiles. Then add it to the online gallery by July 31st. Full details of how to do this are on the website. A guest panel of craft and digital professionals will choose pieces from the online gallery to go into the exhibition held at Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK, in autumn 2011.

Crafted Creatures, The Ark, Dublin

 

opened last Monday.

For which, I'm lucky enough to have been invited to install my giant jellyfish smack over a cathedral-like drop of four floors.

Climb the spiral staircase past my fan corals.

Run your fingers through the tentacles of my pulsating Queen jellyfish

Stare down into wall anemones 

and shell forms,

clinging above plastic sea creatures nestled into the 1st and 3rd floor window spaces.

Dare you put your arm into the Wall Cave's ever-decreasing space?

Run up the stairs and peer through from the tiny hole at the back of the cave to see what's living down there....

Or lift the flap on one of the top-floor cabinets to see collected treasures from my studio.

Or down in the basement, you can torture yourself with a video loop of me talking about my inspiration.

But you know me. It's the quirky detail I love. So here are my fave bits...

the ghostly pillar jellyfish,

the basement jellyfish

and their fourth-floor friend. All of whom only come out at night.......

 

 

Monkey Spawn Installed

It's taken a year to create all the elements of this monstorous piece;

delicate little screen-printed footprints on stones that change in the rain,

individually printed and sewn monkey embryos,

bleached animal bones meticulously wrapped in fine embroidery cottons and stacked into a nest,

plants from my garden pounded to a pulp through muslin and made into paper sculptures,

fabrics and hides surface printed with lino cuts and crocheted forms,

paper and silk mushrooms crafted and decorated,

mounds and mounds of grass sewn by hand,

organisms imagined, dyed, spun, woven, crocheted and wired,

all brought together into one great knoll.

 It is akin to a consumption that has held me in its grip. And finally let me go.

So here it is. My malady in 3D. I am released.

 

'Monkey Spawn'

It is by just a tweak of nature or environment that we are here in our current form. Evolution has many branches. Had the World been a wetter place, would we, or indeed would monkeys, have evolved to spawn like frogs instead of give birth to live young?

At first engagement, I want the onlooker to feel safe, familiar even, with my installation. It looks like a quiet glade. But as you inspect, you begin to feel a disquiet. A nest made of wrapped bones. Strange footprints that appear to be made by a one-footed animal. And above you, a huge ball of monkey spawn, suspended in spit. What creatures made these marks? How large is the mother of this nest? Is she nearby? Is she watching you? Are you indeed safe? The onlooker becomes an intruder. How long dare you stay?

 

'Monkey Spawn' will show at the FE McWilliam sculpture gallery in Banbridge, Northern Ireland as part of 'Another Dimension. Print in 3D' until 15th May 2011.

Twisted Halloween

For a perfectly surreal Halloween you will need:

One chunk of Jimbo genius, carved into a HUGE crochet hook.

A dolly mix of me.

 A splash of Crochet Liberation Front.

Mash liberally in a Twisted Yarn store.

And what do you get?

So what are you waiting for?

Come join us!

Sniffles, sneezes, communicable diseases - And a coup!

Yep, this Aussie flu, which was so kindly packaged up and shipped over to the UK by my fave antipodean nation has kept me busy this holiday and seems to have taken up residency for the new year. Cheers Oz! I'm onto my FIFTH (yes, fifth!) bout of the lurgy.

For those keen of eye, you'll spot that cheap gin has made its way into my cure pack now. I'm trying to sterilise myself from the inside - and no, I'm not using the beloved Hendrick's gin, as I can taste NOTHING, so it would be wasted.

Now the gin has no medicinal qualities, but I could call this research, as I'm actually working on a piece about micro-organisms at the moment. I can't show you the piece until it's ready for the gallery, but here's a blurry tease.

It's all for the UK DIY exhibition at the Turnpike Gallery in Feb. If you're in the UK and don't know about it yet, well you're going love this!

We'll be celebrating just how fab the new wave of craft is, how wonderful, versatile and all-encompassing it can be and how ACCESSIBLE.

Not only will there be sculptural pieces, (provided by yours truly and Ildiko Szabo) but a myriad of cool things going on, including chances to learn to crochet, a craft fair on the opening day, and....

......Coolest of all, the first official public showing in the UK of Faythe Levine's special promotional edit of the film Handmade Nation.....

Yep, you heard me! What a coup! We've all been waiting for it and I for one will be at the front of the queue.

The opening is on the 14th of Feb and the film will be on show throughout the UK DIY exhibition at the Turnpike Gallery, Leigh between February 14th and April 26th.

See you there for lots of crafty shenannigans.

No horse head in your bed

The North West Craft Mafia are much nicer.
SallyF is the don. She giveth craftiness and she don't even expect your kneecaps as payback. Now there's a gal to keep in with. Check out her site, tinkering times

Her world seems a veritable cornucopia of vintage buttons, textiles and delicious crafty creativity.

Well, she found a graph art projecty thing that I just had to share with you. It depicts all the links etc to your site, but who cares! You type in your url and the most beautiful floral graph blossoms in front of you.
This is my site.

I'm thinking 50's soup bowl. Lovin' it.
Try it yourself.

I'm a lax blogger!

It's wonderful to be SO busy with all the events coming up, but it does mean that I just don't get time to tell everyone about them. So apologies for being so tardy!

First! Did you know that 8th June is World Ocean Day?

There's a link here to the petition. Sign it and you'll add your voice to the many others asking the UN to recognise the day and bring about a greater awareness of the oceans' plight.

The summer is busy, busy, busy. There's the Hayward, (Darling!)  opening on the 11th June, with a private viewing on the 10th (ooer!)

Where you'll be able to see two of my reefs in my wall reef series; pink and green. And also a smack of my jellyfish.

On the 13th June,  I'll also be 'engaging people in craft' at the Southbank's symposium, 'The Art and Craft of Saving The Planet'. I really can't wait to spend a day with so many like-minded people (whom all happen to be at the pinnacle of their chosen field.) I feel priviliged to have been invited to take part. It promises to be a unique gathering of very exciting uber-boffins! Oh, and nervous wee me!

Please come along and see what we're all up to. And make sure you say hi when you're there.

Then finally, after Much, Much, Much anticipation, it's WOOLFEST!

Anyone and EVERYONE who has any fibre fiddling urges is going to be there. And as it's my birthday just a week before, I'm heading that way with NO restrictions on my purchasing.
It will be fibre gluttony in it's most beautiful form.

I can't wait.

Inspired by the drawings of Ernst Haeckel

1900's man 2000's woman.
Science and art.
Close, intricate study and freeform imagined.
Pencil and crochet hook.

Who would have guessed that we would have such a connection in our passions?
I dream of a time machine and just an hour to pore over these scientific glories with the man who drew them. Until that day, I shall just try to bring a minute part of his genius into fibre being.
I salute you, Ernst!