knitted camouflage by Joseph Ford and Nina Dodd

Your eyes aren’t fooling you — these models are carefully camouflaged into their surroundings without use of any digital manipulation. each subject is wearing meticulously-knitted garments tailored to blend seamlessly with their surrounding environment. ‘knitted camouflage’ is the brainchild of photographer Joseph Ford, who worked with knitting friend Nina Dodd on a collection of custom hand-sewn sweaters. ‘all the clothes are real, not photoshopped,’ Ford tells us.

Ford worked closely with Dodd on a range of printed patterns suited to match urban backgrounds, like a bus seat, a tiled wall and a running track. The knitted compositions are both complex and carefully coordinated to exactly match their selected surrounding. Amongst a range of models, the photographer shot well-known parisian twins, Mady & Monette malroux, as well as street artist Monsieur Chat, who painted one of his trademark cats on the wall of a derelict factory as part of the project. 

The latest additions to the series of custom hand-knit pieces are included in the duo’s newly published book ‘invisible jumpers.’

Source: www.designboom.com

knitwear: nina dodd
photography: joseph ford
books title: invisible jumpers
publisher: hoxton mini press

Amazing art by textile artist Ana Teresa Barboza

One artist to do so is Peru-based textile artist Ana Teresa Barboza, who creates colorful embroidery art that depicts natural forms, found in plant life and landscapes. Her three-dimensional work often spills out from the confines of the embroidery hoop or canvas she’s working on, illustrating the sprawling growth of the organic subjects. Barboza’s latest work continues to push the boundaries of embroidery by incorporating different disciplines, such as illustration and photography.

Barboza’s 2017 Immersion collection features illustrations of plant life printed with single-color hues of natural dye on cotton. The artist then adds textile fringes and weaves by stitching long threads into the illustrations, which often hang loosely, or are held up elegantly by a wooden rod. 

Her Read the Landscape series merges landscape photography with textile art. One tactile piece features fragmented images of a lush jungle environment, that appears to have been overrun by colorful woven yarn. In another, thread from an embroidered lake emerges from the photo, as the viewer’s eye is lead to each of their yarn spools, attached to the gallery wall.

 "Read the Landscape" series

 "Read the Landscape" series

   "Read the Landscape" series

  "Read the Landscape" series

The Increase series similarly explores the natural world with overflowing textile fringes, flowing from embroidered tapestries. Each piece depicts the movement of a plant’s shadow over the space of two weeks, with balls of yarn gathered at the base, perhaps depicting the plant’s roots. Barboza explains, “The embroidery in these pieces was made from drawings made with the shadow of the plant for 15 days, visualizing its growth and movement. The embroidery is growing and the tangles in the pieces make evident the constant transformation of nature.”

 "Increase" series

 "Increase" series

Source: mymodernmet.com

The urchins by Jin Choi and Thomas Shine architects

 

The Urchins were created Jin Choi and Thomas Shine in response to a call for art for the 2017 iLight Marina Bay, Singapore, which had the theme for the festival of Biomimicry and sustainability. 

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This project is inspired by sea urchin shells, which are enclosed yet light weight, delicate and open.  Their textured and permeable surface interacting with light creates openness, while the pattern’s mathematical repetition brings visual rhythm and harmony.  Against light, the sea urchin natural form reveals one of the most spectacular patterns found in nature.

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The project mimics this orderly, repetitive pattern and soft forms, achieving a visual harmony from the contrast between nature and the man-made environment, and between the firmly grounded masculine skyscrapers and the hovering feminine object.

The Urchin is a hand crochet fabric shell held in tension over an aluminum frame that is suspended from Dyneema cables.  The cables fasten to steel trusses holding the Urchins in place.  Because the structure is light weight, the suspending cables are thin, and barely visible during the day.

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The crochet fabric shell is constructed of 3mm white double braided polyester chord, illuminated by multiple white spot lights, creating the illusion of an evenly glowing structure.  Each Urchins skin is use about 17.000 meters of polyester cord, with each urchin weighing about 100kg. 

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The Urchins were designed for simple installation, and are composed of 20 segmented panels, which are joined to a series of metal ribs at ground level at the site, and later fastened to a top and bottom ring once suspended.  Once assembled, the Urchins are hoisted to the final display height and secured in place.

The development of the project took about two and a half months. It included the development of the lace design and the support structure for the construction. Most of the original lace designs come from Dilmond's Needlepoint Made Lace published in 1890 and modified by Jin Choi to use the crochet as a lace instead of embroidery needle. For the construction and assembly of the crochet project in the support structure, 50 people from all over the world needed to work intensively for another two and a half months. 

 

Source: http://choishine.com/UrchinsFabrication.html , http://choishine.com/urchins.html

Summer crochet inspiration

Crochet is perfect for the summer. Get inspired by the catwalks and create gorgeous tops, jackets, dresses and bags!

 Rachel Comey

 Rachel Comey

 

Missoni

 

Missoni

Anna Sui

 Etro

 Oscar de la Renta

Rodarte

Miu Miu

Delicate crochet jewelry inspired by nature

Japanese artist Miho Fujita crafts delicate crochet jewelry inspired by natural wonders. Each accessory presents Fujita’s interest in nature-based creation and her penchant for reimagining plants as wearable works of art.
Ranging from elegant drop earrings to bold brooches, Fujita creates a wide array of one-of-a-kind statement pieces. Similarly, she finds inspiration in the outdoors, and works predominantly with nature-inspired designs. Her muses include ample organic objects, like fragile leaves, clustered sprouts, bunches of mushrooms, and sprigs of berries. Each piece is either left untouched or is colored with natural dyes made from plants. This use of natural dyes results in a collection of beautiful pale pigments and further emphasizes Fujita’s innate interest in the organic.

Source: mymodernmet.com

Kwangho Lee - knitting and art

Korean designer and artist Kwangho Lee creates unique handcrafted furniture, lighting, and jewelry by transforming traditional techniques and using uncommon materials. Among others, he has developed a new way of knitting industrial materials to develop lamps from tangles of extension cords and couches made from woven garden hoses.
The 35-year-old artist grew up on his grandparents’ farm where he got inspired by his grandmother’s knitting projects and the homewares his grandfather handcrafted, created them from leftover and everyday materials found on the farm. He graduated 2007 from the Hongik University in Metal Art & Design and now lives in Seoul.
Kwangho Lee`s work is part of the permanent collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and has been shown in a diverse solo and group exhibitions worldwide.

Source: www.myknitaffair.com
See more of his work here.
Photo credit: via Kwangho Lee