Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Artificial Fibres
Monday, July 21, 2008
Pleat Detail
Pleats
Rod McNicol
Friday, July 18, 2008
Aurelio Costarella
Working with the true master, Aurelio Costarella is no easy feat. The development of this latest piece took days handknitting that lace, and many scribbles on the drawing board writing that pattern. Also very sore fingers, there was a lot of ouch manipulating that leather cord into lace (on the collar); But there is joy at the end .......... and relief that it worked.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Knitted Seating
Squashy stripy knit wool beanbag that resembles a giant beanie (felt & leather base), and the striped 'daydreamer' daybed; wooden frame upholstered in knitted wool, on page below; Both were one-off commissions, but I put them into production after they were featured in Vogue Living in 1998. The beanbags are still available to order.
Landscape
Monday, July 14, 2008
Dreadlocks
This was a bit of an experiment. This technique I developed by a jaquard stitch knitted in wool on a domestic machine; using the wrong side of the knit, I felt it, and the thread floats all matt together. The result was this heavily textured fabric, yet light in weight, and soft. This piece was part of the W03 collection that Rod McNicol photographed; see earlier post: "A Portrait".
Latte Warmers
Egg Warmers
Akira Isogawa
This experiment captured the imagination of Akira, where he invited me to work with him on a knit collection. It's a distressed cable, which means the cable goes in all different directions, and the stiches inbetween the cables are dropped so just the thread floats hold the cable together. Made on the domestic knitting machine, the fabric turned out to be resilliant and tencile, and the raw slub silk was challenged; as this could otherwise be quite a fragile fabric. This collection was for Akira S/S03.
Lace
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Lovely Lace
My favourite work is handknitting lace; I know its a bit nanna, but I loved this yarn, and thought it was the best way to use it. It's linen wrapped in a polymide, and one could easily mistake it for suede. I also enjoyed sourcing the vintage buckles for this production, and met some charming characters in the 'buckle oldeworld'. This was Summer06.
Marie Claire Hong Kong
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The Madder Dye
I know theres a lot of reference to madness as part of the making. But this process is a joy, I love the natural dye from the root of the madder plant, and use it a lot. This was a collection of silk & wool felted scarfs made back in 2005.