PhotoshopDesign

Tradiontal crafts have come a long way to make themselves a home in the contemporary art world. And while things like baskets may have held a tightly woven association to the weave, many artists are reinventing these techniques and creating intricately woven sculptures that wouldn't quite fit into the category of traditional woven crafts or, say, The Longaberger Company building. Here is a look at one artist weaving his own path, a recent exhibition, some items found on Etsy, and a few recent patterns from the library, all that embrace the intricacies and textures of the weave.

Kazue Honmas

"Basket has many attractive aspects. Form, Material, Pattern, Function, Images,,,. What charmed me most was structure itself. When I concentrated the way of weaving, my baskets lost the practical side."

Excerpt from 'Where Fiber Art Meets Hot Fudge Sundae' by Benjamin Genocchio for The New York Times:

Until recently, the contemporary art world politely ignored the encroachment into artists’ studios of techniques more commonly associated with traditional practical and domestic arts.

Sydney/Hue Map weaving by Thinker Tinker

“Knitted, Knotted, Netted” at the Hunterdon Art Mu- seum confronts this trend head on, presenting work by a dozen artists made us- ing the methods of the title. Each of these techniques is quite ancient, according to the exhibition catalog, probably dating to Paleolithic times, when humans first began to fashion clothing and hunting instru- ments from plant fibers and animal ma- terials. Each is characterized by looping of a thread or cord, in contrast to, say, weaving or braiding, in which the elements may interlace but not necessarily loop.

Silver Basket Weave Button Ring by Refined Rubish

Contemporary artists have pushed these old techniques in fascinating directions, as is evidenced by the beauty, variety and inventiveness of the works in this show, organized by Hildreth York, one of the museum’s curators. In addition to using natural materials, art- ists now work with all sorts of industrial and synthetic substances, enabling the creation of far more dynamic looped structures.

Basket Weave Earrings by Paper & Clay Studios

Wire Weaved Lampshade by Yoola