Knitting with Glass

OK perhaps this post should be called using glass to make an object appear knitted, but that's far too wordy. Carol Milne a Canadian-born sculptor now living in Seattle, Washington (U.S.A.) painstakingly creates objects like the following. (See photos below) The production process includes four parts: 1) make a wax sculpture of the knitted piece, 2) cover the wax with a material that will act as the form for the piece, 3) melt the wax away and 4) place the mold in a kiln where glass crystals are added, polish and presto the process is complete. (Click on the link to see the process.) And I thought knitting lace was complicated, it looks like child's play in comparison. I don't suppose any of these projects can be frogged like yarn projects can; one must just get it right the first time.

Carol describes her Knitted Glass in this way: A metaphor for the fragility of life and the power of social structure. Individual strands are weak and brittle on their own, but deceptively strong when bound together. This quote touches me in ways I can't quite put into words. Maybe one of you can help me articulate why this might be such a powerful couple of sentences. Perhaps it has to do with it being such a succinct description for the knitting and living process.

Take a look at some of her work; they speak for themselves.

Chain Male

Margarita

Darn

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Snap

A knitter can recognize the stockinette stitches used to make the items in the top three pictures (Chain Male, Margarita and Darn) while the garter stitch is used in fourth, Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Snap, the final photo, uses a combination of both knitting techniques. Doing this in wax must be some sort of ordeal from my POV. If you want to see more of this type of work, check out the Carol Milne website. As for me, I'll just stick with yarn knitting and leave the wax/glass knitting to this artist. But I will continue to be in awe of the skills necessary to do this.

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Anatomy of a Sock

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Flagel Knitting Files

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