Space! Layers! Movement! Transformation! Process!
Those have always been present in my work. It is not always the end product that is the be all and end all. The process and creative thinking within the process is just as important. If not more actually, dare I say…
Crochet for me means being able to start a project without having a definite idea of a fixed final product.
The way my work develops starts with a spark. Well not literally, we know how that would most likely turn out in connection with yarn…. 🙂
A stitch or a technique takes my interest and it is then developed into an idea and pushed into its limits. The most important think of the process is to work with the natural development and possibilities of the above interest. Crochet offers a very organic form of developing your work. Patterns and instructions are good to a certain point, but once the process becomes automated and you stop thinking about each and every stitch you are repeating, this then opens up a whole other view, which for me is the exciting part.
Circle has always been a key shape in my work, so my ultimate goal with every stitch is to try and work it in a circle. Circles and spirals as basic repetition tools are favoured, and that may just be the reason crochet is my favourite form of expression.
When the process is automated, ideas develop as you learn about the stitch and how it works and how it can work. Artist’s work is never really done. If you get involved in the creative process, however it manifests itself for you, you are hooked. It is the process that is therapeutic. It is rewarding to stand back and feast your eyes on the finished product, I do not disagree with that, but once the item is made it becomes and object for others and their individual perception of it at the time. Also, passing on the skill and therefore enabling someone else to access the same resolution the process of making can provide is priceless. Or is it just me?
Creative process is manifested in a creation of everyday objects, presents for relatives and friends, are a very important part of creation for me. My work is simply what you see. It has not got a hidden meaning. It is important for me because of the process of creation, and then it is free to find an owner and become important for them. Hopefully, just as it has served its purpose for me in my creative craft process, it will serve a purpose for the person owning it.
It is a simple object and behind it is me. It is who I was at the time, demonstrated in the conscious decisions I made while creating the object but also in unconscious intuition which together brought the object to existence.
It is everyone I ever met that made me who I am and who I have learnt from. It is a piece of me tied into knots using a hook and passed on.