Crochet me a story...
As Kreinik prepares for the TNNA needlework trade show next week, we are looking forward to seeing wonderful needlepoint, counted thread, knit and crochet designs at market. Stay tuned for new product updates from Kreinik, as well as Facebook and Twitter feeds from the show.
One of our new product lines consists of crochet bookmark designs. Do you crochet? Whether you have picked up a hook and chained an afghan, scarf, sock, jewelry or accessory of your own, or even if you haven't, try to catch the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef exhibit that is currently traveling the world. I was able to see it earlier this year at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, and it was simply stunning.
According to the web site http://crochetcoralreef.org, the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef is a "woolly celebration of the intersection of higher geometry and feminine handicraft, and a testimony to the disappearing wonders of the marine world." It began in 2005 as a project by Australian sisters Christine and Margaret Wertheim, who were actually living in Los Angeles at the time. It was an homage to the disappearing Great Barrier Reef, but today it has expanded to become so much more.
The current exhibit includes displays of the Great Barrier Reef plus "sub-reefs" such as a bleached reef, anemone garden, kelp garden, plus dramatic renditions of a toxic reef complete with trash worked into the yarn. The latter is a sad reminder of how our natural wonders are treated. With this unique perspective on coral reefs, you leave the exhibit awed by beauty and determined to pick up trash as you go along in this world.
So many artists have worked on the reef exhibit at this point. Kreinik is excited to have worked with some of them, including Shirley Waxman, Arlene Mintzer, Barbara Van Elsen and Lily Chin. I am pretty sure I saw some sparkling Kreinik threads woven into the reefs. You can use any Kreinik thread as a carry-along fiber in crochet, and some sizes are perfect for crochet on their own.
I have crocheted ever since my grandmother taught me how, as she could get me to sit still as an elementary-school-aged child. The 'hyperbolic' mathematics of the crochet process in this exhibit escaped me. It refers to a technique discovered by a Cornell University mathematician in the 1990s and involves algorithms, space, geometry, and other subjects I never mastered in school. However, if you would like more information, just click here: http://theiff.org/
At the reef exhibit in Washington DC, I loved hearing visitors' remarks (including non-crocheters seeing this age-old "woman's" art form used in such a scientific way). Teenagers loved the crochet, kids loved the colors and shapes, most thought it was a real reef until they walked up to it ("That's crochet?!"). The exhibit arrives at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California later this month. Check it out if you are in the area. Visit http://crochetcoralreef.org for more information.
by Dena Lenham
for more photos from the Coral Reef exhibit at the Smithsonian, visit the Kreinik Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/Kreinik.
