Hybrid Basketry at Origin

A basket is a bowl is a hat is a ball is a bird is a cage is a bin is a basket…

Working with the idea that you can weave a basket with almost anything and in so many different ways, Shane Waltener is to lead an interactive project at Origin this coming October at Somerset House, London. Visitors will have an opportunity to customise basketware and contribute to a woven sculptural installation. Basketry items will be stripped, transformed, passed on to others, and incorporated into the ever growing display in the Crafting Space at the fair. Salvaged basketware will include domestic items and a variety of materials ranging from natural fibres to plastics.

The installation will blend the sculptural with the functional. Various techniques of weaving, knotting, stitching, plaiting and netting will be introduced on a daily basis, establishing connections between a number of applied arts traditions and basketry. The communal making and time spent weaving is to prompt a renewed engagement and enthusiasm for the broader aspects of this under-represented craft, and making in general.

For more information on the event, please visit www.craftscouncil.org.uk

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Destiny or chance...

Destiny (tablet weaving) 2008 is a sculpture, one of two new commissioned pieces by Compton Verney for their forthcoming exhibition Fabric of Myth. The fabric was woven using playing cards for tablets. The sequence of actions, or the playing of the cards, results in the weaving of the word destiny. It is a set of repeatable sequence of actions, a physical incantation formulated within the traditions of this ancient craft and performed between two people. The resulting woven pieces of mirror each other and the reading the words lead the eye to the set of cards. Chance here appears thus to be predetermined.
For more information on the exhibition, visit www.comptonverney.org.uk

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Still Worldwide...

Second instalment of the World Wide Web 2007, a piece initially commissioned by the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, for the Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting exhibition in 2007. The piece will now be exhibited at the Indiana State Museum as part of the same touring exhibition from April 25, 2008. For more information on the show, visit www.in.gov/ism

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Through the eye of the web...

Shot above is of the installation of a new piece for the Jupiter Artland in Bonnington, West Lothian. The piece, titled Over Here, has been knitted with fishing line using shetland lace, an old Scottish knitting technique. The piece has been strategically placed so a panoramic view of the adjoining woods, fields and hills beyond can be seen through the eye of the web. For more information on Jupiter Artland, visit www.jupiterartland.org

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One for the birds…

A project part of the Tatton Park Biennial, Knutsford, celebrating the resident and visiting bird population in the gardens and parkland. Visitors the park will be invited to make and install bird feeders, baths and tables. The house at Tatton Park will also be transformed into a bird hide from which the bird ctivity might be observed. For more information on the event, visit www.tattonparkbiennial.org

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Crystals are Forever

Detail of the sculpture commissioned by Swarovski for the Unbridaled event at their London's flagship store. The piece, inspired by tiered wedding cakes, is made from glass, royal icing, petal paste and crystals. The modelled sugar and crystal flowers contained within it reference the language of flowers. Included are roses for love, bell flowers for gratitude, yew berries for sorrow, almond for hope, geranium for melancholy and anemone for deceit amongst others.

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Cooking and Constructing

Two video instructables and a sugar graffiti workshop commissioned be Platform 21, Amsterdam, for their Cooking and Constructing project. The event included tagging and pasting up walls with sugar in collaboration with local graffiti artists. For more information on the event, visit www.plaform21.com

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Sweet Graffiti (Ivy and Alder)

Ivy is forever, and you can apparently predict the future by listening to the rustling of alder leaves. This sugar mural has been commissioned for the inauguration of the Centre for Drawing’s new premises in Highbury Islington, London.

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