Crafting of a Different Sort

The boyfriend, who is both wise and witty, and I spent a day at V-Con 34 a couple weekends ago . Since most of the goodies I picked up there were by original artists and science fiction themed I thought I'd share a few pics here. Some of these were one-of-a-kind pieces so I've photoshopped "copy" text over them to prevent people from making their own versions from my pics. Hope no one minds, but the artist's are only getting the revenue from my payment and I'd feel bad about copies getting out.

Up first is this amazingly detailed picture of the Firefly ship Serenity. Most of you already knew that, right? This comes from Chilam and I picked it up from the convention's Art Auction. I chose to pay the direct buy price, since I never seem to have any luck when I try to get something by bidding. Now I just have to pick up a frame for it sometime.


There were lots of really talented independent comic artists at V-Con this year. These next two pieces were printed on 4 X 6 inch photo paper and represent two of our favorite video games. These were drawn by comicker Angela Melick. You can check out her other work in her online comic Wasted Talent. No frames for these ones, I think they're going to become part of our growing collection of refrigerator art.

Sushi Dragon artist Lindsay Broadway's table is one of my favorite stops in the Dealer's Room at V-Con. This year all I picked up was the free sticker that's at the top of this picture. Below that are two magnets from Sushi Dragon that I purchased at a past V-con. I also have a necklace charm with one of her dragons, but it was too small to photograph well. I know the web page in the link isn't completed, but you can click on the DeviantArt, samanayrs and glassgryphs buttons at the bottom of the page to see more of her work. Personally I just love all the bright colours and the original look of her critters.





This picture comes from a t-shirt that I picked up in the Artist's Alley courtesy of Vigilant Comics. Some of my friends and I have an in-joke about ducs so the drawing of a monster gobbling up the ducklings at the end of the line tickled my funny bone. Sorry, to the uninitiated, I won't be explaining the joke. Hopefully you'll see the picture's charm anyway.

This last picture is "Chance Meeting" by James F. Beveridge. Something about this really appealed to me. It reminds me a bit of Wall-E. I was considering picking up a print of it from the Art Auction, but I had to forgo it due to a shortage of cash. It wasn't until I got home that I realized a full-colour version had been printed onto the backs of the V-Con 34 Program book. The paper quality obviously isn't as good as a real print, but it is approx. 8 X 11 inches and will probably look quite nice if I pick up a mat board and frame for it.

So that's my shopping experience at V-Con 34. We also went to quite a few panels and heard some great guest speakers this year including Tanya Huff (author of the Blood Ties novels which were later turned into a TV Series of the same name) and Christine Willes (who played the memorable and hilarious Dolores Herbig on the TV series Dead Like Me).

Crochet Graffiti

I absolutely love this picture from cathiphop's post on Craftster about Giving a Sculpture a Pox. Cathihop attached magnets to crocheted balls to help them stick to the iron sculpture. Unfortunately, her work has since been taken down, but it did inspire me to go searching to see what else has been happening in the world of crochet graffiti. I was going to do a post on this topic many months ago, but most of the information I was finding was coming from the Netherlands and most of the text about it was in foreign languages. Now it looks like more crochet artists in North America are turning their attention to the world around them too, or maybe I just did a better job of googling this time. Have a look:


Up first, old meets new. I like how it sort of takes a second glance before you notice the crochet has been added to a painted tag. I wonder how the original artists feels about this enhancement of his or her work? This piece of crochet art comes from Masquerade who likes to leave her mark around Sweden, particularly Stockholm. During a recent world tour she left this piece in Rome.


Above: A second piece from Masquerade, this time she's reaching for new heights.


From the Micro-Fiber Militia who help to beautify the city of Chicago through crochet. Not only do they decorate the town, they also ask residents to help them keep track of which pieces remain and which are taken down, and update their blog accordingly.


Last though certainly not least, a piece of legally sanctioned public crochet. This Tree Cozy was created by artist Carol Hummel and was a winner in the 2005 Heights Public Art Competition in Cleveland Heights, OH. This link takes you to Hummel's website which begins with a slide show of her work. She does a lot of amazing things with crochet and yarn in general. Someday I may have to devote an entire entry to her work and it's definately on the list of things I'd like to see in person. For now, I urge you to go and take the virtual tour.

So that's a brief glimpse of public crochet art. There are plenty more samples out there which you can find through the links I've mentioned here as well as your own Google searches. These are just a few that grabbed my interest.

When I told the boyfriend, who is both wise and witty, that this was topic for my latest blog entry he immediately volunteered to help place pieces around town if I wanted to start my own Crochet Militia. I'm still on the fence about the idea. If I came across someone's crochet tag while walking downtown it would certainly make me smile and if anyone one wanted to argue I'd definately take the stand that these are art or expressions of free speech rather than vandalism.

At the same time my reservations come from the ideas of art versus use. Right now I usually turn my scrap wool into squares which I donate to a program called Blankets for Canada. From there these squares get turned into blankets that are distributed to the homeless. I like the usefulness of that.

I also can't help thinking of new fallen snow and how it looks so beautiful the first day. Then a couple days later it gets plowed to the side of the road and becomes various shades of black and brown as it's polluted by car exhaust and other chemicals. All the pictures of crochet graffiti I found were taken immediately after the pieces were put up so there's no record of their sustainability. What do they look like a few days, weeks or months later after they've had to endure the elements and pollution? I guess at that point the message changes from one of artistic freedom to environmental concern.

Any thoughts? Feel free to comment.