Milk crate jumper

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I LOVE MILK CRATES. I’ve always loved milk crates. For many years all my furniture was milk crates. Milk crates represent creativity, thrift and resilience. They’re punk. They’re for ratbags. If you have a stash of milk crates at your house we can be friends.

This is my first attempt at embroidering a milk crate. They’re hard to draw and even harder to stitch. I’m working on finding a way to communicate ‘milk crate’ without having to render every angle and plane.

GOWN #1 (make art not money)

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I participated in a group show called Germ as part of SALA last year. The show was organised by Finley Burns and held at Some Where House. Each artist in the show drew inspiration from another artist in the show in a chain (chains popping up again!).

I drew my inspiration for this piece from the ceramicist Em Frank.

Photo by Jack Fenby

Artwork blurb:

Soft plastic waste packaging is cut into long strips and twisted into two-ply rope by the artist. This cord is then knitted with second-hand acrylic yarn into a long, sleeveless shift dress. The ancient practice of twisting two ply cord transforms this modern waste material into a strong, sparkling thread. The work embodies an anxious longing to transform the useless waste that saturates our lives into something useful and precious.

I was inspired by Frankie's use of found objects and experimental finishes in their ceramics to create a work that incorporated a junk material, modified to be unrecognisable. The acts of working clay and twisting rope feel old and essential in the same way. I found it very satisfying to discover that resonance in our very different practices.

Creating the gown was a delicate and time consuming process. First I used a scalpel to slice the bread bags into thin strips, then I spent many hours twisting the strips into two-ply cord by hand.

Once I had enough cord, I started experimenting with how to turn it into a garment. I experimented with crochet and knitting using various guages of hooks and needles until I settled on knitting. Crochet looked too busy, I wanted the structure of the weave to be as simple as possible so that the colours and detail in the cord weren’t totally lost.

I really, really wanted to have enough cord to make the whole dress, but unfortunately didn’t have enough time. To finish the dress I used thrifted crochet cord in a pale green.

After the show closed we did a ittle photo shoot of the dress in Fin’s back yard. Photos by Erin Patterson and myself, model Finley Burns, fish mask by Finley Burns.

Experiment with embroidery

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I’ve been away in Melbourne over the holidays visiting family. Normally I would bring some crochet with me to keep me busy, but this time I decided to get around some embroidery. A smaller, more compact, less cozy craft to carry with me in the summertime.

With me on my travels I brought crochet cotton found in op shops and dead stock heavy weight sewing thread that I found at Adelaide Leather & Saddlery on Waymouth Street, and started embroidering on my own clothes.

The grey hoodie is from an op shop. I chopped the middle out to shorten the length and then hand-stitched it back together, making a feature of the join. I chose designs to embroider pretty pragmatically, mostly inspired by the shape of the garment. The abstract, natural design in pale yellow I chose because it’s a motif I often doodle and because I thought it would sit well on the garment. The chain design I chose because I wanted something that signified connection and solidarity to me. I also just like imagery that evokes the industrial and chains looks cool. Especially in fluro yellow.

I intially intended to continue the chain design to the end of each arm, but a friend of mine saw the jumper and wants it. He prefers the chain unfinished, so I’ll leave it. Now it’s a collaboration.

To apply the design I’ve used something that I’m pretty sure is called a chain stitch. It’s similar to a chain stitch in crochet. You can get industrial embroidery machines that make this stitch. I’ve always wanted one, but they are pretty hard to get in Australia. This stitch doubles the thread and creates a chunkier line than other styles of line embroidery. I’m so pleased with how three dimensional the design looks in this stitch.

The hoodie is a work in progress. I want to do some embroidery on the front before I send this off to its new home.

HART FLAYME - custom top

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Chelsea AKA Hart Flayme asked me to make a new version of an existing garment, featuring a hand-sewn custom flaming heart embellishment on the front.

I sewed the stretch mesh garment, drafted designs for the embellishment and hand stitched the final design to the garment. The main body of the garment is made of new fabric. The fabric for the heart design is repurposed from second-hand garments.

Hart Flayme performing at Ancient World

MADELEINE LARKIN X SAM WOUD

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I made this t-shirt maybe fifteen years ago. I remember i chopped the middle out because I wanted to erase the logo that was on the front. I made the cut in a curved shape to delete as much of the logo as possible without interfering with the sleeves. I didn’t have a sewing machine handy so i hand stitched it and turned the stitching into a feature. The final result is a product of accident and necessity, and I love it!

It stayed forgotten in a box at mum and dad’s house for years before I recently rediscovered it and decided to make MORE.

More is more so I decided to incorporate a print into my new shirts. I asked dear friend and talented illustrator Madeleine Larkin to design a print for them. I love the designs Madeliene’s done for MUD over the years, and the MUD tshirts she designed are some of my favourite shirts I own.

We talked about creating a design inspired by collaboration, community, and most importantly, the mark of the hand.

I’m in love with the finished product <3

NEWEST JUMPERS

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This year I am committed to using up as much of my stash of salvaged yarn yarn as possible. This includes unravelling half finished projects, some of which have been sitting in bags for half a decade, and turning them into new work.

I have a new pattern and a firm resolve. I cannot fail.

Work so far: