Art Pieces Jan 2013

I have been eager for my work to be a continuous development of knitted structures in the final year of my degree. The circular, repeat motifs of knit have been the foundation of my work, which lead me to use a circular knitting loom in my current work.

At the beginning of the semester I experimented with various qualities of yarn, from man-made to natural. I encountered technical issues as the work I was creating was not self supporting. Further experimentation led me to work with wire.  Its flexibility makes it pliable and therefore knittable, and it holds its shape whilst standing. Once I had developed a successful structure, I wanted to add individuality to each piece. I introduced horse hair, melted plastics and used red yarn to bunch together rows of the knitted wire. I also began to wrap the wire with coloured thread on the domestic sewing machine to create pieces with colour at one end, which I will talk more about later.

Here are some samples of my work...

  White Unravel (2012)

Cathryn Hogg

Knitted white and sugar wire with plastic fibre centre 

11cmx20cmx5.5cm

 White Wrap (2012)

Cathryn Hogg

Knitted silk covered wire with horse hair

7.5cmx16cmx7cm

Copper Heat (2012)

Cathryn Hogg

Knitted copper wire with interlacing threads and pre-knit wires

10.5cmx6.5cmx6.5cm

 Red Thread 1 (2012)

Cathryn Hogg

Knitted wire with thread

10cmx9cmx7cm

Bottle Neck (2012)

Cathryn Hogg

knitted blue and red wire

10cmx6.5cmx6cm

Blue Melt (2012)

Cathryn Hogg

Knitted navy and blue wires

9.5cmx8.5cmx8.5cm 

Colour Fill (2012)

Cathryn Hogg

Knitted wire with pre-knit wire in centre

15cmx9cmx10cm

 Twine Barrel (2012)

Cathryn Hogg

Knitted wire and twine

8.5cmx6.5cmx6cm

First Exhibition

'Fusion' 2012

Space CRAFT Gallery, Belfast

'Vines' (2012)

'Vines' (2012)

Cathryn Hogg

Space CRAFT Gallery, Belfast

Knitted Yarn Tubes

'Vines' was my first exhibited piece of work, which was on display in the Space CRAFT Gallery, Belfast, in the summer of 2012. The piece was created using multiple tubes of knitted yarn, hung and left to gather on the floor.

This project was inspired by walking down a side street in Rome and seeing the most beautiful Italian house completely encased in long, thick, intertwining vines. I wished to develop a piece which expressed how visually attractive a simple shape can become. My work has always been very much inspired by my travels, and I have been fortunate enough to see some truly amazing places so far. Long may to travelling continue, for the sole reason of creative inspiration of course...!

I was very honored to be a part of this exhibition, as Space CRAFT is a place which I love to visit regularly. It is a shop, gallery, and exhibition area, owned and managed by the Craft and Design Collective, which is an  independent, non-profit organisation who aim to raise the profile of artists/designers/makers. Their ever-changing collections have something for everyone, from inspiring exhibitions, to the shop which has items ranging from the modest to the more luxurious price tag-ideal for a present with a difference which doesn't break the bank! If you wish to visit Space CRAFT it is situated up the escalator at The Fountain Centre, College Street right in the heart of Belfast City Centre.

Getting Started

It's such a human condition, whether you're a great track star or a great knitting person or you paint watercolors - someone knows who you are. -Tony Curtis

Fortunately for the late Tony, one more person knows who he is after I googled his name this morning. Anyways, I thought it was time for me to create a blog to showcase my creations, inspirations, and revelations. 'A great knitting person' is what I aspire this 'someone' to know me as, and I hope that by making this blog a few more 'someone's' will also know who I am. Who knows, they might even like my art.

I am currently a 22 year old final year student at the University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland. By this summer, I will have my degree in 'BA (Hons) Textile Art, Design and Fashion,' so now is crunch time to work really ruddy hard, make use of all of the university's expensive equipment, the tutor's feedback, and create pieces which reflect who I am as an artist. 

My work is primarily fine art, which is rather bias to art of knitting. What could be more exciting than turning a long, boring piece of anything into a knitted, looped together piece of something, eh? I began making large scale knitted pieces in yarn, yet have recently been focusing on making smaller more detailed work using different materials, such as wire.

Hope that you enjoy reading this blog, and thank you for visiting. I know I'm a little bit unfashionably late to the artist's blogging party but I've brought some wine, and photographs!


Cathryn Hogg