2011 Barbara Wunder Hynes

Barbara Wunder Hynes

Ventura, California USA

www.gypsyspiritthreadworks.com

"Dreaming Atlantis”

My fascination with the legend of the lost civilization of Atlantis began when I was a teenager listening to folk singer Donovan’s dreamy, romantic ballad about Atlantis and what may lie “way down below the ocean.”

Greek philosopher Plato wrote approximately 2,400 years ago that Atlantis was an ancient island empire established by Poseidon, the God of the Sea. Supposedly, Atlantis was a technologically advanced Utopian society which valued peace, art, and wisdom. The entire island was said to have disappeared into the Atlantic Ocean after a day and night of fierce earthquakes and floods.

In 2011, a U.S.-led research team claimed to have found evidence of Atlantis in the mud flats of Andalusia, in southern Spain.

Did Atlantis ever really exist, or is it merely a fabled legend? We may never know. I’d like to believe that Atlantis existed as a beautiful Utopian society, and it inspired me to create this regal aquatic-themed freeform crochet garment.

 Freeform crochet. Various yarns and threads, seashells, shell buttons, glass pebbles, beads.

2011 Zann Carter

Zann Carter

USA 

www.zanncarter.com

http://www.lizardsintheleaves.blogspot.com

Demeter’s Joy/Persephone’s Return

The myth of Demeter, and her daughter Persephone, has many layers of meaning and symbolism. I have been particularly drawn to Demeter’s story because I know the painful journey of grief one embarks upon with the loss of a child. When Persephone vanished, the great grief of this goddess brought winter to the land. Nothing would grow upon the Earth, all was gray and sere. I tried to create a piece that would express that grief and Demeter’s wandering journey to Eleusis, but I found myself blocked, unable to go forward with it. Instead I chose to imagine what it was like for Demeter to reunite with her lost one and to try to convey her immense joy bursting forth as spring flowers and leaves, life and abundance returning to the land.

This piece is the central back panel of what will eventually be a wrap. I combined small woven triangles and squares with wandering crochet chains, freeform floral motifs and knitted leaves.

2011 Veronica Smith

Veronica Smith

Jimboomba, Queensland, Australia

Shaping my reality with my mind and will.

Changing with touch. Touching to change.

Magic is a part of me.

Wild and beautiful.

I can feel the tides, the moon, the air.

I can feel life itself.

I use the strength of my will and the quickness of my mind

to bend and shape my reality.

Magic is a part of me, and I am a part of everything else.

Look into the mirror of your soul.

Journey to the end of your fantasies.

For you have arrived in my world and I have been waiting for you.

2011 Valerie Halcrow

Valerie Halcrow

Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada

The Mad Hatter

The fantasy world of the Mad Hatter where “no sense makes sense” inspired this freeform design that combines fiber and beading art forms in a Wonderland of color and texture.

By using together techniques from beading and bead embroidery, freeform knitting and modular knitting, freeform crochet and needle felting, and from embroidery and needlework, the whole becomes “much more muchier”, and acquires the quality of “muchness” to make aesthetic sense.

Take a little tea time and with the sharp eye of the March Hare see if you can identify examples of each technique on the hat of this Mad Hatter.

2011 Tia M.M. Hegstad

Tia M.M. Hegstad

From: Edinburgh, Scotland

Living in: Moss, Norway

One of my primary school teachers read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe to us, and finished at the most critical point when the bell rang for us to go home on the Friday. My Mum kindly bought me the book the next day, because I couldn’t wait till Monday to find out what happened.

The Chronicles of Narnia became my favourite books, and for several years, like many other children, I tried every wardrobe I came across trying to find a way to get there

I used nuno felting, crochet, knitting, needle felting, and devoré, a new technique for me, which I learned at a craft fair in March this year. I found a nice Swarovski crystal for the light in the lamp post. It was fun putting it all together.

2011 Suzanne Barr

Suzanne Barr

Essex, UK

THE GREEN MAN - AN ENIGMA

A face in the forest

A whisper amongst the leaves

A head carved in stone

High above the eaves

History speaks no words, and writing tells no tales of the mysterious head enframed in leaves. He can be found from India to Europe; from 3000 BC to modern times; everyone knows of him, but nobody knows who he is. All sorts of myths are attributed to him but who knows the truth.

2011 Susan Gallacher-Turner

Susan Gallacher-Turner

Portland, Oregon, USA

www.susangt.com 

susangt50@gmail.com

http://sculptingalife.blogspot.com

Phoenix

I’ve crocheted for years but only recently combined my masks with crochet. I started out sculpting a tropical bird mask, but burned out on it. The Freeform Challenge inspired this bird’s rise and rebirth as a Phoenix.

My life and artwork have gone through difficult changes over the last few years. Just as the Phoenix is consumed by fire and rises from its own ashes to live again, my art and life have gone through the cycle of creation, growth, burn-out and back to creative rebirth once again. As I worked on the Freeform Challenge, repainting and sculpting the mask, I felt energized. I looked around my studio and saw every surface covered with new work in progress.

To me, this beautiful, amazing mythical bird symbolizes living a life with passion and even when it feels as if that passion has burned out, it can be found again.

Window screening, acrylic paint, cotton, wool, rayon, acrylic yarns, wire and beads. Feathers are freeform crocheted spirals yarn, wire and beads.

2011 Stefanie Spikell

Stefanie Spikell

Lincoln , California, USA

Flight of Fantasy – A Bird’s Dream House

A little birdie told me, I have no place to be.

My mother flew away one day and forgot to take me .

We used to have a cozy nest, a place to call our home.

It had some leaves and twigs and things, but now I have to roam.

I sleep wherever I can find a spot, in places not so fine.

I dream of a house with flowers and garlands, a place that is just mine.

It may be a fantasy, but it could come true one day.

Come fly with me to wonderland, a place far, far away.

2011 Rita Summers

Rita Summers

St. Marys, Tasmania

www.gonerustic.com

Apron for a Driad

trees

almost as ancient as land

dance in readiness for Aslan

arrange themselves in strange attire

composed of lace, leaves, fabric, thread

coloured with pigments

of leaves and rust

antiquity

embellished by dew

stitched by unseen hands

2011 Pirkko Vega

Pirkko Vega

Toronto, Canada

pirkcrochets.blogspot.com

Ravelry nickname: picarapirk

In the Woods

A Secret World of Fairies

Enchants Free-Spirited Souls

To a Child-Like Play

2011 Perry Lowell Bent

Perry Lowell Bent

Framingham, Massachusetts, USA

Mr. Owl and Fish-in-Weeds

Who is wiser, the wise old owl in the tree by the pond, or the fish who hides in the weeds so as not to be eaten by the owl?

3-dimensional freeform "rocks" and "clouds", freeform crochet, crystal and glass beads, natural stone and wooden beads, and charred carved bone owl and fish.

2011 Pauline Fitzpatrick

Pauline Fitzpatrick

www.paulinefitzpatrick.co.uk

A Bag for The Snow Queen

The bag is based on the costume worn by a friend in a local pantomime.

The base is a wet felted bag made with merino fibre and covered with scrumbles, beaded dangles and curlicues.