Saturday 28 February 2015

we now have another 4

The latest pieces to arrive are from:


Janice Felton, Co. Durham, England
Carol Jarvis, also Co. Durham, England
Martina Carroll, Mahon, Blackrock, Cork, Ireland
and
Naomi Lawrence (aka Rags), New York, NY, USA


Janice has chosen a variety of colours that I would describe as bright pastels. The yarns she has used to create this pretty piece are all beautifully soft and silky, so the finished scrumble has a lovely feel and drape.  Very freeform and nicely put together, Janice's piece measures about 28cm (11") across



Carol has made a beautiful rainbow coloured scrumble that reminds me of a carnival mask.  Her friend Janice tells me that Carol only took up crocheting after her 70th birthday, and that she first tried freeforming just 5 weeks before she made this piece.  Well done.  It measures about 28cm (11") across



Martina has created a gorgeous hyperbolic flower with a raised central section.  Her choice of lovely variegated yarns makes for subtle colour changes (or perhaps it is just a single interesting multi-colour yarn that I am not familiar with).  I'm sure that by the time Martina got to the final round, she had rather a lot of stitches to do to create the pretty ruffly edge.   It measures about 38cm (15")



and this next piece is from Naomi, who only just discovered freeform but who says that she has always 'painted flowers with yarn'.  From the photo, you can't guess the scale of this magnificent sunflower crocheted by Naomi.  She tells me that it was sewn onto a fence in East Harlem, NYC, and remained there for 4 months.  She only removed it to replace it with a Poinsettia crocheted for the holiday season.  It obviously survived its yarnbombing origins well, and I am thrilled to now be able to show it here in Australia.  This one measures in at a whopping 150cm (that's about 5ft)!




Like Marilyn Kerr's 1975 crochet piece (blogged about on Feb 16), I think that Naomi's piece may end up being displayed as another a fitting lead-up to our crochet exhibit.  

Both of these very large pieces will create a really spectacular and fitting introduction to freeform crochet techniques.




 

Friday 27 February 2015

10 more contributors

Today's 'loverly scrumbly' offering comes from the following contributors:

Aurora Messina, Eltham North, Vic, Australia
Renate Kirkpatrick, Landsborough, Qld, Australia
Karen Lynch, Nambour, Qld, Australia
Carol Blades, Alexandra Headland, Qld, Australia
Robyn Bailey, Buderim, Qld, Australia
Cathy Broder, Freehold, NY, USA
Miglena Tsvetanova, Prague, Czech Republic
Pirkko Vega, Toronto, ON, Canada
Cheryl Mansfield, Tampa, FL, USA
and 
Nina Kitova, Temryuk, Russia


Up first we have Aurora, who has sent 2 pieces - a textural wing-like motif and a very interesting and unique abstract scrumble.  Aurora's work is extremely tactile, and I really love the 'flow' in the larger piece, which measures in at 32cm (12½") at its widest point.



Renate has created 9 large motifs in fabulous neon colours.  My photo taken with them all together in the one shot isn't great, so here are hers split up in the 4 separate photographs following.  To give you an idea of size, her big spiral and the largest of the mandalas are both about 22cm (8½"), and the long piece in the last shot is 32cm (12½") wide.



Karen's piece is next.  She has crocheted a very nice 3D flower with a tufted centre.  She and the next 2 contributors all do workshops with Renata, and I think it is great that they all decided to get involved with the project too.   Karen's flower is 12.5cm (5").



Carol has made a lovely array of individual flower motifs...16 in all.  Little pieces like these will fill the gaps really well, so I know I am going to appreciate having them when the time comes for the joining up. To give you an idea of scale, the pansy is about 10cm (4") tall.



Robyn's work is next.  She has also made a collection of filler-flowers, but Wow! she has certainly been busy - there were more than 50 individual motifs in her package.  Once again, they will be much appreciated at joining up time.  The largest flowers are about 10cm (4"), the smallest are barely 4cm (1½").





Cathy's work is next, and she has created a lovely scrumble with lots of different shaped floral motifs plus a central spiral shape. The colours she has chosen look good together, and the piece is nice and textural and very well balanced.  This one is around 36cm (or 14") tall.





Miglena has created this next one, a very striking pink and black scrumble.  She has used a good variety of interesting stitches, and has finished the piece off with an assortment of matching beads and buttons.  Miglena's unusual scrumble measures 23cm (around 9") from top to bottom, the way this photo is facing.


Pirkko's piece is next.  When I opened the package, this one struck me as being both delicate and robust, all at the same time...quite an contradiction in terms - but interesting combination that made for an unusual and very gorgeous piece.  Pirk's scrumble measures 15cm (6") across.




Cheryl has sent a famtastic freeform flower, which she has crocheted in a combination of lovely bright colours.   The petals around the outside of this one ruffle ever so slightly, creating an interesting edge. Cheryl's flower is 21cm (about 8½") across.


And to finish off for today we have 3 very gorgeous pieces, all created by Nina.  Each piece is beautiful, and they are all totally different in style...the mark of a very creative freeformer.  Nina's butterfly is 27cm (10½") tall, and both the yellow flower and the scrumbled piece measure 21.5cm (8") at their widest points.





We certainly have a good an international mix of contributors getting involved in this project.  

I wonder where the next batch of packages will come from.
 

Thursday 26 February 2015

4 more!

Scrumbles today are from:

Mirto Golino, San Rafael, CA, USA
Jorel Thomson, Menlo Park, CA, USA

Vlasta Pesut, Zadar, Croatia
and
Jennifer Macdonald, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Mirto has created 3 really fabulous pieces, a small, lacy scrumbled flower that has started as a spiral, a much larger mandala-like flower and a beautiful freeform paisley-shaped piece.  All are just terrific; much nicer in the flesh than shows up in my photo.  The length of the paisley is about 38cm (15")




Jorel was one of the first creative crocheters I ever met on the net...it must be over 15 years ago now.  We were both members of a freeform chat group which she now moderates, and the group has yearly themed challenges; they even create a book each year that raises money for charity.  For this project, Jorel has crocheted a lovely flower in ribbon yarn, plus a very tactile floral scrumble that is 15cm (6") wide.






Vlasta's work is very individual, and from other photos I have seen of her creations it is always exciting.  She goes by the name of Donata Crochet.  Her package contained two pieces - a woolly freeform heart with puffy flowers, and the most amazing tree, out in bloom and complete with peace symbols on some of the flowers.   The tree is 40cm (16") tall, and the heart about 20cm (8")
 




The final package this time was from Jennifer, and it contained a fabulous array of brightly coloured heart motifs, plus a slightly larger flower and 2 even bigger mandala-like pieces.  Beautiful, and I know that the hearts are going to make great 'gap-fillers' - although it hardly seems fair to call them that when they are so nicely crocheted!  The larger of the two mandalas measures in at 20cm (8").




To finish up for today, I just want to let everyone who has contributed so far know that I am absolutely blown away by the quality and diversity of style in everything that has arrived for this project to date.  

Our finished piece is really going to be an amazing freeform creation. 

I imagine that anyone viewing it 'in person' will find it difficult to take their eyes away.  The more they gaze, the more of the original and individual 'artworks within the artwork' they will discover.

Thanks again to you all; most especially to everyone who has contributed - you are the best! 

...but also a little thank you to anyone who is following our progress here; I hope that you are enjoying the journey.