Art-to-Wear
create art-to-wear that I knit and/or crochet, and sew with skills I learned from my mother. I was fortunate to be born in a temperate climate zone. I knit for all seasons. The seasons are wonderful inspirations. Their energies are amazing. But now, I am influenced by climate change. I have executed new ideas to provide comfort in design given the extreme environments we are experiencing. Mind you, I do not know how much of my ability will be used to generate revenue. I feel I am fortunate in that I can clothe myself and others.
I created a hybrid technique where I combine crocheting and knitting.
Funny thing: I showed my work to a woman on Tortola who claimed that she was a fashion designer. They were cool weather garments. She later told me that she thought I only made winter garments. KNITTERS KNIT FOR ALL CLIMATES! It is personal preference to create for a particular one. The skills are universal.
Traditionally Knitted Clothing
I like using natural yarns of vibrant colors, primarily natural yarns with 10% synthetic fibers and/or novelty yarns to help maintain the shape.The stitches are simple. I like geometric shapes. In college, I did a presentation on Piet Mondrian in an architectural history class. The strong horizontal and vertical shapes; large and small, and thick and thin, were his choices to represent the strongest forces of nature.
Piet Mondrian in his elegance.
Some garments may contain knitted and crocheted stitches. These are not hybrid. I like the softness knitting creates. To me, crochet is more structured, but it does feel different depending on the yarn. I crocheted a great sweater
I wore to a lecture at the Open Center. A woman on my right saw what I was doing and helped me take it off. She
folded it on her lap and kept it...on her lap. She realized it did not
belong to her. We both smiled when she returned it.
Average Time to Create Art-to-Wear
The span is approximately four to six weeks for a great sweater to two weeks for a sleeveless sweater depending on scheduling and what is desired.
Traditionally Knitted and Crocheted
Great Sweaters
The hand crocheted and hand knitted sweater jackets are unique in design of:
1. The shape;
2. The design and images;
3. The combinations of colors, and
4. The textures.
The size accommodates several body types because of its big, loose fitting style. It is an ideal garment to carry the wearer through three seasons adding layers the weather gets colder. For the Caribbean, cotton, with a minimum of synthetic fiber, allows tropical breezes to flow over the body through the yarn removing directly uncomfortable heat and perspiration, and never displaying an unsightly cling that cotton or silk tend to create.
Each sweater jacket – abstract, nature, or crop circle designs – is unique.
No two are alike. The garment can be worn casually or formally for as many occasions as the wearer wishes.
The benefits of owning one is:
1. It is an original work of wearable art;
2. It is versatile;
3. It is an investment, and
4. It is well constructed and made to last.
The sweater jacket is produced in two ways:
1. Designs created intuitively;
2. Designs are created as a result of intuitive insight of the wearer's personal knowledge.
The client is asked to bring certain objects – favorite jewelry, clothing, or other accessories. With this and other information that is intuited during a meeting or meetings, the designer creates a sweater jacket solely for that wearer.
Hand knitted, hand crocheted, or hybrid products take three to six weeks to design and execute. Now, as I have created several streams of income, commissioned garments will be scheduled between other projects. The yarn pieces will be generated from intuited questions that will create the designs.
I intend to create several times that will be displayed at crafts fairs and sold online in two to three-year cycles. After they are gone, another cycle of creation will begin.
Sweaters combine knitting and crocheting resulting in a garment that can be worn in all seasons.
Atypical Japanese Clothing
My husband, Clem, took this photo of me, in Hope, Pennsylvania, modeling an atypical yukatta I made from African batik fabric.
Traditional Japanese sleeping robes created from a pattern drawn from a
yukata received in Japan in 1984. remade using non-traditional Japanese
fabric like African and abstract fabric.
da Vinci: ”…every part is disposed to unite with the whole, that it may thereby escape from its incompleteness.”
Grace: ”Mercy and the Divine gift of Love, spring from the relatedness of all that exists.” from Weil, Simone, Gravity and Grace, p. 102
What has the above got to do with anything? As I loop, sew, thread, I have a headful of intentional thoughts that I know affect the work. I input giggles, laughter, and healthy wishes for the wearer. If you don't think that's normal, that's fine. I never said I was!
Notes on "The Mists of Avalon" and How I Make Some of the Art-to-Wear
Marion Zimmer Bradley is one of my favorite authors. Her writing of Morgaine's process in creating King Arthur's scabbard was detailed. In later years, as I attempted to express how I create my art, clothing, and the hybrid sweaters, I found Morgaine's process to be a little similar.
I paraphrase from Ms. Zimmer Bradleys' book The Mists of Avalon:
Promise by Allison L. Williams Hill
Morgaine was entranced as she applied needlework, symbols, as one whispered enchanting spells to protect Excalibur's owner, her brother Arthur. She pricked her finger, cast spells, as the blood drops saturated the fabric. Morgaine embossed symbols along the scabbard's length, symbols of strength; courage; power, and protection from death.
I enjoy making the French cords with my little mechanical machine. After I create the body, I weave the cords through to form patterns. I do not need a needle until I have determined if I used the appropriate amount of cords.
I view the garment as having positive and negative spaces. As the garment develops, I have a grand, enjoyable time laughing at the weirdness because it is so different. My wish as I create these, and all other projects, is that the wearer enjoys them.
Shadows are prominent; the look of the "fabric" is a macro-example of a weave. The horizontal or the vertical is expressed. The tactile nature of these may remind one of cables because of the three dimensional aspect. But cables are static, patterns that do not change. I place Celtic knots, twists among or on the cords where my senses direct me. The thickness of the cords, the threading through the crocheted form possesses a sensuousness that demands to be touched.
In The Mists of Avalon, nature energies were respected but were slowly being replaced by ordered religion. The Beltane ceremony that put Arthur and Morgaine together, was a ritual that was frowned upon by the Church. The Church's influence was gaining strength in erecting barriers to places beyond the mists, where time stood still and one was always happy and at peace, known only by gifted people who possessed the power to gain entry.
I drew images of art to wear that enhanced the sensory web. I believe the body is within Mind, not the Mind is within the body. The Mind, it is agreed to by many, is not limited to the brain. The "sixth sense", intrusion into personal space are signs of the Mind at work
Cradled by Allison L. Williams Hill
Regarding personal space: the three foot circumference around the body is the distance psychologists have determined through study that an American born person remains comfortable. Move within that space and the person seeks to distance him or herself from the "invader."
Though the elements of the garment were still within Mind, that is close to the body, it is supposed to give the illusion of heightened sensitivity.
In those days, faeries and gnomes were offices, committed guardians to protect paganistic, sacred rites and natural settings. The definition of "pagan" means "of or in nature."
Notes on "The Forgotten Mage"
The Forgotten Mage, an excellent book by C.F.R. mentioned that the Church, in its bid for more power and to crush anything that threatened this, reduced these beings to the small, dismissive fantasy figures written in children's stories.
Also called the Force, it is perceived as male because male energy is action. It does. And again, it is nurturing, meditative, feminine energy. It is androgynous, both and the same.
Solomon moved organized worship indoors. My education discussed that Jesus never wanted a religion to be named after him, but that he wanted the work to progress. He worked among the people where his journeys brought him, and among the disciples who were as fearful of his abilities as were the people, to help us understand that we "...thirst within a desert that is not there."
Jesus was a man after all. The Council of Nicaea should be acknowledged for raising his stature beyond the grasp of the common human to insure their position between God and people, and power. The deception worked for centuries. But the Truth is in the Light now.
Morgaine used her love, the power of her mind, and the availability of what existed: Nature. How different was that from what Jesus was about? I AM a Pagan. I worship within nature; God is Here, wherever I AM. He surrounds me, penetrates me, binds me.
God was, is, and forever will be in all things.
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