15th May 2014
I have finished a Visual Arts Degree at Salford University a while ago but have only recently started realizing that my current job in sales is not what I am passionate about and started thinking what sort of sector would I be most happy working within.
I have always loved crochet, and used it all the way through art school but wasn’t quite sure how to use it when I finished University.
For my Degree show I have organizes all the female members of my family to crochet a piece of work which I have subsequently framed and displayed as a sort of Female Family portrait through their handiwork. I have done all this via emails and visits and used recordings of my Grandmother in a separate part of the installation, where she was talking to me and my mother about crochet.
Because of the intensity and skill involved in the craft, I wasn’t sure making items for sale would be the best way for me to pursue my future career.
Since I have got back into making in the recent years, I have realised that the repetitive nature of the craft is what I most like about it and also what helps me deal with any stress I may encounter. It helps me greatly to relax which is what started me thinking along the lines of Arts Health and how I can pass this on to other people that struggle with various health concerns.
It has always been about the process and what that brings to the person who makes the artwork, rather than conceptual meaning assigned to the work afterwards. More recently, I have also organized a small family project where everyone was asked to contribute a handmade flower of any sort that came natural to them which I have then incorporated into a blanket I made as a present for my mother’s surprise birthday. Interestingly, some of the flowers I have used were left over from my final year piece which was concerned with a family tree and the female family line.
I am very interested in self-confidence and issues connected to self-image and how to help people enjoy their everyday life better and how to achieve a greater quality of everyday life. There are other areas that interest me, such as women’s health and the role in society, which are connected to self-perception.
I'm thecreativehook on Ravelry.