Endless Ball (and Bulgarian fish traps)

I made the most of the sunny day last weekend and took myself to Stave Hill Ecological Park to complete a piece for Sculptural, an exhibition at Coombe Trenchard, which I’ve also mentioned  in the previous post.

I wasn’t the only one with the idea to make the most of the day in the park and while weaving brambles, many walkers came to enquire as to what I was doing. One woman told me how it reminded her of the lampshades she used to make in her village in Bulgaria using string and homemade glue (a mix of flour and water) over an inflated ball. These were then left to dry in the sun before deflating the ball and piercing a hole to insert the light fitting.

I knew about these and you probably do too, but I was surprised when she also told me about the fish traps she made with her dad using reeds and the same interlacing technique (see Practical Basketry Techniques for more practical tips on this). The skill is to gage the size of the fish you will be catching in the pond, then weave a ball with holes big enough to allow the fish to go in, using bread as bait, but small enough not to allow it to turn around and escape. The top hole, floating just above the level of the water, allows you to get the fish out when it is caught. How about that for ingenious and economical design!  

I’ll have to do a little research on these traps but through a little foraging and making at Stave Hill and this chance encounter I have a pretty good idea of what these might look like already.

cross it this way, and that way, and pass it on…

Anything can be made out of anything, and in a limitless number of ways. ‘Stuff’ is what draws a lot of people to art, and how it is all put together. To get them engaged with it, have them make something - making is inclusive, making is empowering.

A good number of projects of mine have relied on participation for this reason. I’ve created spaces where the public are invited to make collectively. My involvement with the knitting collective Cast Off, and the Craft Rocks event at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2003, led me to conceive the ongoing Knitting Pieces and Garlands series of works. Whether stitching a circle or weaving an installation, these activities prompt social interaction and communication through the doing – looking, thinking, making, exchanging. Ideas about craft and the social and cultural histories relating to it, as well as art in general, are passed around between participants. If art is about communication, let’s make!

As far as imparting knowledge about how to make things, the less said the better. Being told exactly how to handle tools and manipulate materials is a dangerous thing. I’m interested in the Knitting Pieces and Garland installations providing a space where participants can develop their own way of doing things and their relationship with materials and processes. Making is not simply about skill and technique, but about an approach and attitude in relation to these. With this freedom, each maker is more likely to develop his/her own individual way of making.

In the light of this it is odd I've been involved in working on a book such as Practical Basketry Techniques, where set procedures are demonstrated to achieve determine outcomes such as a platter, a multifunctional bowl and hat or a plant cloche. However, projects in the book are but an introduction to processes that aim to encourage readers to get inspired and develop creative ideas. I led a 3D weaving workshop with design students recently. I urged them to bring a range of materials, and following brief demonstrations, I got them to plait and so dome interlacing. Wonders were created in no time, and I like to think their outlook of weaving and how it relates to their practice has been changed forever. The best thing to do with your know how is to pass it on. You’ll be amazed what comes back your way. I myself got so much inspiration from the session. So here is some advise: cross it this way, and that way, and pass it on…

pop-up festive baskets

Out with the old, in with the new! In Naples, this it taken quite literally. Unwanted belongings are out the window on the last day of the year, anything from small items of clothing to large pieces of furniture. As long as it fits through the window, out it goes. It makes for a really interesting (and perilous) walk around the city when out celebrating on New Year's eve!

How about this as an alternative... Reuse an old basket instead of throwing it out to create a feature for your table during the festive season. Soak the basket in warm water, take it apart and use the material to weave your construction over a forma. We used balloons and paper maché when working on a project in the publication Practical Basketry Techniques. Simply pop the balloons once your done and remove the paper.

The baskets were then festooned with party food on skewers. I wasn't quick enough to get a shot of the display in all its glory, but here is an after party shot in advance of the festive celebrations. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

the world as weave

Planning ahead for the book launch of the Practical Basketry Techniques during my exhibition at Siobhan Davies Studios in February, Ranbing and I have been making these interlaced constructions out of hand drawn lining paper. The paper baskets will be part of a number of woven pieces displayed at the launch. The technique for making these tie in with one of the interlacing project in the publication. The felt tip pattern was designed to mirror the structure of the basket, and add a touch of colour to differentiate the inside from the outside surface of the baskets. Where the openings were created, the strips were reversed and the coloured pattern switched from inside to outside, and vice versa. The idea was to make these constructions as light as possible so a helium filled balloons could be placed inside these to make them float about us at the event. For information on the launch and exhibition, click here.

Working on these had me think of Tim Ingold's fantastic book 'The Perception of the Environment: essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill'. Writing about weaving a basket, he says 'The world of our experience is, indeed, continually and endlessly coming into being around us as we weave. If it has a surface, it is like the surface of a basket: it has no 'inside' or 'outside'. Mind is not above, nor nature below; rather, if we ask where mind is, it is in the weave of the surface itself. And it is within this weave that our projects of making, whatever they may be, are formulated and come to fruition. Only if we are capable of weaving, only then can we make.' (Ingold 2000, pg.348)

Well, this confirms it, the world is one big weave, and any action we take in it consists of weaving and tying things together.