The last week I have been knitting trees! As a research for this project I have knitted small trees using old sheets which I have ripped. They work really well as they are very sturdy and can stand by themselves. For this project though I feel I need a much bigger and less sturdy construction, to illustrate the more fragile side of nature and relationships. Even though things appear fragile they can be very strong.
So I have bought some huge yarns of wool and have started knitting my tree. To follow the progress I have decided to photograph the work every week. It shall be interesting to follow the growth of the tree as well as the shrinkage of the yarn.
Mette
This week, as they say, I have been mostly crocheting fungi!
I love crocheted things, but have never really done much. So I am sitting with a hook and a ball of wall just letting the crochet form itself to reveal organic fungal forms. I am getting carried away, I envisage wading through great heaps of crocheted matter. The wool version is soft and tactile, clinging and hanging, changing it’s shape. I have a go with hemp string, this is much harder to work forming a more rigid structure. It is too hard somehow, so I dip it in paper pulp, not to obscure the stitches but to build another dimemsion. The pulp clings on, its delicate fibres smothering the original form; and strangely as it dries it sucks the colour from the hemp which stains the paper. Now it looks like a fossil. These are experiemental pieces, I buy some more wool – I’m hooked (!)
Louise
Our lovely friend Jeni sent me this link, I thought it was so great I decided to share it. It’s the sound of a tree growing – image if we could hear them all!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8267151.stm
I have spend most of my childhood roaming through the woods, building dens, climbing trees and looking for creatures. The woods with the tall trees is to me a very safe, warm and happy place, it is home! Seeing the tall beeches surrounding my home town always makes me feel that I am home!
I am drawn to the idea of the tree as a living ting, how it reaches out and interfers with other trees. Trees are not just what is visible, they have giant roots which also spreads and creates enormous landscapes underground. Trees gives life to almost all living creatures, some animals physically live on/in trees and we all need the trees to transform the carbondioxide we produce into oxygen. We need the trees and they need us, symbiosis!
To me each tree can symbolize a network of people, it being families and friends. How these together makes a strong healthy structure. This is what this project is to me, building on our tree, making it bigger and better. The bond Louise and I have build and all that we have shared during our four years of doing the degree can not be ignored. Together we have created a strong branch which I certainly haven’t finished developing yet.
Mette
