Calling All Plastic Bag Crocheters: Make Some Plastic Bag Breasts!

Posted by Cristen in Community Crochet Projects, My Creations & Projects, Roundup of Plarn Artists, Something In The Water March 7, 2011

Fellow plastic bag crocheter Wendy Osher is working on an interesting eco-art project that involves crocheting used plastic bags into breast shapes.
The project aims to highlight our dependency on plastic bags and their contribution to the toxins in our water (that is then passed on to infants through mothers’ breast milk). This project will be displayed in an art exhibition about water on May 2011 at the American Jewish Museum in Pittsburgh, PA.

In preparation for the exhibit, Wendy is collecting crocheted plastic bag breasts! All contributions must be received by April 1 so that she can join them all together into a floating reef. Everyone who contributes will be acknowledged for their collaboration and it just sounds like a really fun project to get involved with. I plan to send her a breast. Do you crochet or know someone who does? Why not make a breast too?

You can learn more about this project, how to get involved, and specific project guidelines at Wendy’s site: Something In the Water.

*Wendy recommends using H-J sized hooks, so that the shapes are tightly crocheted and take on more sculptural forms. And her main submission guideline is that the colors the nipple strongly contrast with the rest of the breast.

To get an idea of what a crocheted breast looks like, I found a few photos on her site:

Knitted Wonderland Project Update

Posted by Cristen in Community Crochet Projects, Knitted Wonderland, My Creations & Projects and tagged with Blanton museum, knit graffiti, knitted wonderland, magda sayeg, tree cozy, yarn February 10, 2011

Lela and I have been hard at work on our tree sweater for the Knitted Wonderland art installation.

I finished the top half of the tree trunk, creating random strips in Tunisian crochet.

Lela is being more systematic about her half and is knitting nice color coordinated pinstripes.

We met up last weekend for an initial fitting and it looks great so far!

It’s been a fun project, but much more labor intensive than I expected. I’m sure everyone uses different terminology to refer to it…but here’s how it’s being described by Austin 360:

‘This is the museum’s contribution for “Explore UT,” the University of Texas’ annual open house. The “Knitted Wonderland” project is a collaboration with Magda Sayeg, the Austin knitter behind recent instances of “knit graffiti” such as the Lamar Boulevard underpass, and similar commissions all over the world.

Borrowing the vernacular of graffiti to talk about a monster team of knitters who adorn public objects is definitely a stretch, but it probably sounds a lot cooler to say you’re “yarn-bombing” 99 trees at the Blanton than to say you’re laboring for 20 to 40 hours to cover a tree for the sake of arts and crafts.’

The full article can be found here.

Knitted Wonderland at The Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, TX

Posted by Cristen in Community Crochet Projects, Knitted Wonderland, My Creations & Projects January 20, 2011

The Blanton Museum of Art (at the the University of Texas at Austin) will soon be exhibiting “Knitted Wonderland,” a knitted art project that involves knitting colorful, striped cozys for 93 trees in the Blanton courtyard. This is a community project initiated by Magda Sayeg, founder of Knitta Please. She has done some pretty cool stuff all around the world, which you can check out here. This one is probably my favorite.

Anyway, over 100 people showed up for the initial meeting, so some of us will be working in pairs. Here is a picture of everyone measuring their trees in the courtyard.

My friend and knitting buddy, Lela, and I will be working together on our tree: #55.

We finally acquired the yarn and will be meeting up tomorrow to start knitting! I’ll post about our progress as it develops.

You can also stay updated on the project through the Knitted Wonderland Facebook page.

Junk to Funk Trashion Collective in Portland, Oregon

Posted by Cristen in Trash Art and tagged with junk to funk, portland, recycled fashion, trashion January 20, 2011

Junk to Funk is having its 5th year anniversary party, “Transformation”, on Feb 5th in Portland, Oregon. I wish I could be there for it, as it sounds amazing!

Details below:

Join us for the Junk to Funk Trashion Collective’s 5th year anniversary party “Transformation” on Saturday, February 5th. This celebration will be a gallery installation showcase featuring new recycled fashion garments from our top “House of Trashion” and “Trashioneer” designers to provide a fun, new way to experience trashion off the runway; up close and personal. The event will also serve as the re-launch of the Junk to Funk Trashion Collective, highlighting our new programs and upcoming projects.

And for a bio of Lindsey Newkirk, the co-founder and ‘Chief Instigator’ of Junk to Funk, check it out this page.

Crocheted Plastic Bag Bags

Posted by Cristen in My Creations & Projects and tagged with crocheted plastic bags, plastic bag crochet, plastic bags January 11, 2011

I made a few new crocheted plastic bag bags recently. I gave the pink one to my sister and the blue one to my boss.

I usually just string the colors together randomly, but this time I wanted to try something slightly different.

So for the blue bag, I tried to be systematic about stringing the colors in a particular order. The resulting pattern looked like plaid diagonal stripes. I think it turned out pretty cool!

Toyota Prius Projects: Prius Cozy

Posted by Cristen in Community Crochet Projects, My Creations & Projects, Toyota Prius Projects January 6, 2011

This post is a little belated, but….

I recently participated in a Toyota Prius commercial (which basically involved knitting & crocheting around a car).

I’m the one wearing a red hoodie.

-Cristen

“Plastic Bag” Video Screening at MonkeyWrench Books

Posted by Cristen in Uncategorized December 14, 2010

For those of you in Austin, I just saw that “Plastic Bag”, the short video I posted in my previous blog post, will be playing at MonkeyWrench Books on December 19th at 7pm.

Details below:

“PLASTIC BAG” SCREENING AND CONVERSATION WITH ECOLOGY ACTION
Sunday, December 19, 7pm

Join us for a discussion with members of Ecology Action and screening of
the short film “Plastic Bag.” Ecology Action is a non-profit, worker-run
cooperative educating and empowering people to create a healthier
environment through waste prevention, accessibility to recycling and
cooperation. “Plastic Bag,” by award winning director Ramin Bahrai and
narrated by renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog, follows a bag from grocery
store to landfill and, eventually, to the 500 mile wide North Pacific
Trash Vortex. The monthly “Meet a Community Group” series is put together
to help bring supporters and community members together with local
organizations working on various issues in the Austin area.
www.ecology-action.org

FutureStates.TV – Plastic Bag

Posted by Cristen in Uncategorized December 6, 2010

My friend Patrick sent me this video about the life and journey of a plastic bag (kinda like a drama told from the plastic bag’s perspective).

It’s long, but entertaining! And I like the mention of the trash vortex in the North Pacific.

If you have some time to spare, check it out:

The video is from FutureStates.TV, a series of 11 short films that explore possible future scenarios through the prism of today’s global realities. You can view the other episodes on the site. And read more about the project here:

http://www.futurestates.tv/about/