Hyperbolic Coral Reef- experimental mathematics through craft

There is a great exhibition on at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney called "Hyperbolic Coral Reef".

The Hyperbolic Coral Reef is part of a global project initiated by the discovery that crotchet is the most effective way of creating a model of algorithmic fractals. Hyperbolic crotchet was discovered by mathematician Dr. Daina Taimina a mathematician at Cornell in the U.S. Before Dr Taimina's discovery mathematicians believed that it was impossible to make a model of hyperbolic forms. These forms ave been observed many times in nature and serve the purpose of maximizing surface area for the volume of the organisms creating a greater opportunity for filter feeding. Many organisms such as kelps, corals, and nudibranchs use hyperbolic geometry in their underlying structures.

"Though experience often serves as a guide, there is no way to know in advance what a specific algorithm will produce and we have many times been surprised when seemingly insignificant changes in the underlying pattern led to fundamentally new results. In a very real sense, this is a kind of experimental mathematics and we invite crocheters everywhere to explore for themselves the possibilities inherent in these techniques."
From the Institute for Figuring website


I have long suspected that my Mum who is brilliant at handicraft among other things has a had secret knowledge of the universe...... Sitting there for years with all sorts of things forming out of wool and thread she was engaged in more than I could have ever imagined!

Anyone can take part in this global project. Just click on the links in this post.

Handmade Life publishes a Book!

Ramona Barry and Beck Jobson from the blog Handmade Life are very inspiring women. Despite both having tiny children they bring creativity into all aspects of their lives and are constantly redefining their practices and supporting other artists through their blog. Their new project is the biggest so far, they have published a book. And if you get in early you can buy a customised edition with beautiful embroidered cover. Here is what they say about the latest project........
"We have made a 140 page full colour book containing interviews with 29 makers from around the world. Our wishlist of people we most wanted to ask things like 'What music do you listen to when you make stuff?' and ' do you miss your stuff when it's gone?' It's turned out to be one of the biggest projects we have ever undertaken and we are quite proud of it."


Just click on the highlighted link in this post to get through to Handmadelife Blog where you can purchase this book. It is also available at Craft Victoria.

Compound Decoration

When I throw a vessels the completed object is in my mind. I think of the magnolia or the nest or the eucalyptus twigs and try to get the line of these things, the single complete line, through my arms and fingers into the clay to create the three dimensional field for the decoration. Many people would say "How can you tell the difference isn't a tea bowl a tea bowl?" The difference becomes obvious when the decoration is complete. Each element of the vessel, the form, the function, the colour, the compostion, the weight and the texture must all enhance each other, none taking over from the original idea so that what looks like a plain old tea bowl becomes a thought about sunny afternoons with nothing to do lying in the head high grass or the way things grow, or the enormous interconnected emotions arond the family and the home symbolised by a nest, when it is held in the hand.

There are about 17 steps in each pot (they take ages!) The purpose of all this mucking about with raw pots is to integrate the surface and the form. Vessels are interesting because the field for the drawing has edges in the rim and foot of the piece. The decoration can lead the fingers over the rim or contain the eyes within the bowl of the vessel. The purpose of the line is to seduce one into touching the piece then move the toucher through the pot making them aware of the weight the thinness of the rim, the texture of the line and colours. All my pots have "hidden" textural and visual elements. Some can only be seen if the vessel is held up to the light at a certain angle and the edge reveals the surprise of translucence, some will only be discovered as you wash up and feel the pots underwater or turn it upside down. I want the decoration and the conceptual idea to be totally integrated into the pot not just floating on the surface. The vessels are in continual dialogue with those who see them and handle them. Only those who look closer can really experience this back and forth between the inanimate object and their own body. At the same time the imagery suggests other things so the viewer is led to a "gate" into visual concepts and the philosophical thoughts that might arise from this.

The form is the thing that makes domestic ceramics such a powerful force. Because the vessel is such an innocuous, common form it creates a space where all these other things can slip in. Between the noise of making school lunches, the clatter of saucepans, sizzle of eggs frying and tug of the life of the house there is a small , quiet space in a tea bowl or milk jug where , for a second you can smell the dusty grass of a long sunny afternoon with the bees buzzing around your head and the cloud shadows chasing each other across the blue, blue sky.

Craft Guerillas and the World Wide Web

My friend Renee Blackwell has just started blogging and has thought of a brilliant idea to harvest the power of the blogs......
"I'm having a great give away. No strings attached, whatsoever! You are welcome to pass this blog offer along to friends, co-workers and family. Here's the deal...Go to my website: reneeblackwelldesign.com Go to the "stackable ring" page- Pick one stackable ring you would love to wear, (stones only), choose your size and e-mail me these details along with where it should be sent. Anywhere in the world! (You don't need to go thru' the ordering process...just an e-mail with mailing address...)

These will be sent from Australia on Fridays.... This offer is good until August 12th."

This is a real offer, Renee thought of it as a way of connecting with people who might like her jewelery throughout the world. What I really like about this is that it subverts the gallery/commercial system that all artists are supposed to be desperate to be part of. The Internet has broken open this system and put the economic power back into the hands of artists.

Taking your work around to galleries and shops used to be an expensive and humiliating exercise. Ten years ago when I first set up my studio I would travel long distances and set up meetings with "retail outlets" and when I got there they would have the meeting outside on a bench, or not be there and tell me to come back tomorrow or any number of other depressing scenarios. I once went to a lot of trouble to set up a meeting in Byron Bay (400 kilometres from where I live) and the shop owner suggested I meet her at the side of the road at a place bizarrely named Billienudgel (!) and show her my pots from the boot of the car.
"....oh you'd like to show me your art and talk about me stocking it....Why don't we meet here....in the MIDDLE OF THE SAHARA DESERT?"
I didn't do it but the fact that someone would think it is Ok to treat professional artists this way is outrageous.

Selling direct subverts all this. The only trouble with selling direct is that it is hard to get an audience. That is where the Internet comes into it's full power. I call those who practice these subversive activities "craft guerrillas"

Craft Guerillas Unite! Dependence on the system or voluntary poverty is not our fate!

East and West

"Everything in Jingdezhen is filthy except the people. How they achieve this is a miracle beyond me After a day on the factory earth floors the men and women emerge spotless, the women's high heels as clean as the day they came from the shop. I wander Jingdezhen in a cloud of white porcelain when it is dry ,or covered in mud when it rains- the proverbial dirty old man."
Journal of Australian Ceramics 48#2, pp11

This evocative quote is from Australian artist/cartoonist Roger Law who has been working with artisans in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen to make these amazing huge, carved celadon pots. Roger was one of the keynote speakers at the Australian Ceramics Triennale and his account of his journey from maker of satirical masks for "Spitting Image" in the 1980's to wandering around Jingdezhen in a cloud of porcelain dust was very funny.

Roger pointed out that as an artist it is very rare to be able to work with skilled artisans due to the expense but in China it is still possible. The results of such collaborations can be amazing. The emphasis these collaborations place on the handmade within a factory type setting is very valuable in this world of de-personalized objects. The fact is that all of our ceramics are still pretty much handmade, artisans working in factories in China make many of the ceramics we buy from chain-stores.
I must admit that the opportunity to decorate huge pots such as these would be one I'd relish but it is only possible because those workers expect so much less than their Western counterparts. Where does the boundary between collaboration, creativity and exploitation lie? Is it better to give lower paid workers employment than not to go over there at all?