International Freeform Fibrearts Guild

Every year, the International Freeform Fiberarts Guild votes on a theme for the annual challenge. Work is made of a period of a few months, and is then presented in the form of an online exhibition and a book. We dont publish the pics anywhere online until the exhibition is live on the website. Which it is now, go head over for a min and have a look www.intfff.com/ 

Inspired! Music and Art in Fibre - Exhibition and Book

Each year, members of the International Freeform Crochet Guild set a challenge. This challenge is to create a piece of freeform crochet using a chosen theme. The pieces are finished and photos are sent via email to the organisers, and an online exhibition and book are created. None of the pieces are shown publicly until  the exhibition and book are ready, which this year was July 1st.

Hang Up's

Here's a piece I made recently for an exhibition, "Hand Up's", currently being organised by Prudence Mapstone, in Australia. The criteria was freefrom, on a hanger...so that what I did.

And now for something completely crafty... Crocheted Lace Panels

Still trying to catch up on blog posts about some of the stuff I made this year, so I'll keep the text short and sweet.

These are some WIP's, crocheted lace panels I started making last winter. They are extremely hard to photo for some reason, I'm not that happy with the pics, but you get the idea. They are made using traditional Irish crochet lace techniques, but made from recycled plastic bin bags. I made 2 panels using scrolls, one of my favourite motifs, but I didn't think they came out great, there is almost too much detail in it. (And the scrolls take forever...).

The 2nd panel, of flowers and leaves came out much better, especially with more open background. This panel is approx 150cm x 50cm. Its a bit worse for ware, as its been on display at 2 festivals and a disco. I hope to experiment a bit more with these, the original plan was to make something big, but lets see if I ever get that together...

International Freeform Guild 2011

I seriously need to catch up on blogging, before I make/do anything else. So, here we go...

While I was in the midst of packing for The Body and Soul Festival, the International Freefrom Guild opened its online show. 50 Freeform Artists from around the Globe were challenged to create one freeform piece interpreting a chosen theme.

We had a vote on the theme for this years show. During the voting, recycling was winning the vote, so I was trying to be organised and started on a recycled project. (That's another blog post!). This is a new thing for me, I'm usually an up all night the night before the deadline kinda gal. Then, to my dismay and well, delight, my actual favourite theme won the vote: Mythologies, Stories and Fairy Tales.

When I lived in Dublin, many moons ago, I spent 2 years doing night classes at the loveliest but strange little college Saor-Ollscoil na hÉireann in Stoneybatter. (Which celebrates its 25th year this year). I enrolled, just to do Folklore, but it was actually a degree course, and so I ended up doing a few other subjects; History, Archaeology, Environmental Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies (was more conflict than peace...) and more. Anyway back to Folklore, the course was taught by Dr. Micháel Ross. I loved every minute of this course, you could just listen to Micháel forever, a born storyteller. I ended up writing essays on Tolkien's use of old English poetry in his work, on present day Wiccan activities in Ireland, and The History and Construction of Irish Tower Houses, and well, lots more. It gave me an excuse to read lots of very unusual yet interesting books. The place is like mecca for knowledge; all ages, all types of people. I wasn't interested in doing the degree really, I just wanted to learn, and be around other people who like also liked learning.

So, I had to make something for this exhibition, something freeform, crocheted, based on mythology, and since I'm still in my lace phase, it would have to be lace, and of course it has to be Irish, and because I love Celtic illumination, and especially zoomorphics... etc. Enough said here's the piece....

Cú

Crocheted with a fine black wool yarn.
(Yarn weight and type unknown. Hook size, cant remember...)

So, the exhibition can be viewed online here http://www.freeformcrochet.com/2011/Pages/index.html and it can also be bought! Its published on Blurb http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2241770. All proceeds of which go to very worthy causes!!

Since I had a lace piece made, I decided to enter it into the Lace category of the RDS Crafts competition. I have never entered before because as much as I love the promotion of Irish craft, I don't like how expensive it is to enter, (€15!!). It seems that Irish artists and craftspeople are constantly having to pay out for the privilege of just entering competitions, exhibitions, etc, let alone the actually crafting, framing, travelling, etc, expenses. We are struggling to make ends meet, and galleries, arts centres, administrators and the likes have nice regular wages. It just doesn't sit well with me. The piece got into the finals which was quite a surprise, I never expected it to. I should be delighted, and I don't mean to bah-humbug, but a part of me wished it hadn't, as I then had to get it framed, and couriered it up to Dublin. I'm trying to save up for a new marquee for doing festivals and every penny counts at the moment. No marquee, no Electric Picnic!!

So, anyone want to buy a lovely framed piece of Lace??

What have I been up to?

2 blog posts in one evening?! Am making up for the last month, and possible the next month ahead, as it's going to be a busy one. Here's some updates on what I've been up to...

Electric Picnic is on!

Sit ‘n Stitch Workshops: From 12pm - 4pm, there is crochet and knitting workshops, suitable for beginners. And my favourite...Loop ‘n Lounge Sessions! From 4pm - 6pm, there is an open stitching session, bring your own stitching to work on, practise your stitches, get hints and tips, or help make squares for Pink Creative Textile Auction blankets.

I'm going for an overly mushroom theme this year, since everyone seemed to love them last year... I did have dreams of making a giant mushroom tent/marquee, but well, time, effort, and all that, it isn't happening. You'll have to make do with the smaller versions..

Shrek 4

Went to the cinema to see Shrek 4. The only Shrek movie I have seen in the cinema. Well, I still prefer the first one, and I was very disappointed there wasn't a spinning wheel in sight. Even my son noticed. So, he asked for a Shrek. It's not the best thing I've ever made, although I was quite happy with the ears, but I haven't gotten round to the boots yet... (Prob should have just gone into McDonalds and gotten a free one with a Happy Meal)

Furniture Making

Have been making some very rustic furniture for the Castle/Doll's House. Complete with cushions and throw!

The International Freeform Fibre Arts Guild Book 2010

The International Freeform Fibre Arts Guild Book, 'Somewhere in My World' is now available on www.blurb.com

I had said in my previous post, that the monies raised will go to the Mercy Corps, INTFF fund, but they are also going to go towards KIVA www.kiva.org. Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty. A fantastic way to give money directly to the people who need it.

"The 2010 International Freeform Fiberarts Guild show, "Somewhere in My World", includes 61 freeform fiber artists from all around the globe.
 The artists were given the choice of creating one freeform piece interpreting the theme any way they chose using any materials and any techniques.

The artists were not restricted to scrumbles and many of the pieces are wearable art and sculptural as well. None of the artists saw each other's pieces until the online show was published."

The books cost €24,95 for paperback, €35.95 for Hardback (Dust Jacket) , and €38.95 for Hardback (Imagewrap). Postage to Ireland costs €5.99. You can pay by PayPal.

It's a lovely book, full of fantastic pictures, and little thoughts, poems, etc, lovingly put together by Myra Wood. And it's for a good cause


http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1390468

International Freeform Fibrearts Guild

SOS - A Crochet Meladrama

I started to make flowers and scrolls, practise my Irish Crochet. I am in love with scrolls at the moment. They are my favourite motif, and while making a few, playing around with them, I noticed they looked like letters, so I tried to turn them into letters.

At the back of my mind, was the piece for this year’s International Freeform FibreArt Guild online exhibition. The theme for this year was picked just after the awful Haiti earthquake. "Somewhere in My World". A reaction to the terrible devastation the earthquake caused, but also to the community spirit that can rise from disasters like this. The monies raised from the sale of the exhibition book will go towards Mercy Corps Haiti Earthquake Response. (You can donate here http://www.mercycorps.org/fundraising/intff)

The theme was decided in January. Since then, the world has had many far-reaching global events take place, worldwide recession, volcanos, oil spills, floods, droughts, etc. I was also going through some personal distress of my own at the time. This made me feel isolated and small. I couldn’t help myself, I couldn’t help the world.

So, I took the theme literally. Somewhere in my world, there is a person, a child, a family, a population under duress, emotional, physical, economic. Somewhere in my world someone is saying SOS, whether it is silently cried or shouted out. This has been one of the hardest pieces I have ever made, because of the thoughts that came with it. It also made me think of it's history, of lace, of my cultural history. How beautiful things come from poverty. The need to create beautiful crafts, in order to sell them to get food to feed a family.

I was beginning to be weighted down, by a little bit of lace. I thought I would never get the idea to work, the pieces made, the whole damn thing finished, before I had a nervous breakdown. But then, as the piece came together, so did my thoughts on hope. In each individual motif of antique crochet lace, in each stitch is hope. Hope, that they can feed their families, buy medicine, live their lives. That is what an SOS call is. It's a cry of hope, to be saved, save us, save me. My personal hope, and my hope for the world. First there was fear, and then there was hope. My little piece of lace became a distress call.

Then, to top it off, I had to write a little bit of blurb about my piece. And I needed to do it without coming across as a complete loony, overwhelmed by lace-making and sailors stories.You can read it here http://www.freeformcrochet.com/2010/Pages/orla.html

On a happy, hope, kind of note, this piece managed to win me 4 tickets to The Knitting and Stitching Show! It was part of a Radio 1 'Knit Your Way Out of Recession'' competition. Talk about timing...

(apologies for the font mess, blogger being anti-font at the moment)