The Biggest Twig

Yesterday I spent a couple hours on my porch working on a new piece of the Wooly Woods. This one will be the biggest Twiggin home yet!

If you weren’t visiting this blog when I was preparing for my show last year, I gathered twigs and branches that had fallen near my home in Brooklyn during Hurricane Sandy, and I used those as forms for sculptures, wrapping the twigs in colorful yarn and placing little characters (many of whom were a species I call Twiggins) on them.

It was one of my favorite projects ever, and it occurred to me after moving to Chicago that I could continue it here—Chicago is known for begin especially windy, after all, and that means more twigs for me to gather! (Yes, I know that the “windy” in “windy city” is referring to politicians, but I’ve found that it is also a windy city in the literal sense.)

So I’ve started gathering twigs in my new home, and it didn’t take long before I spotted the really big twig that had fallen in a storm. I love seeing it transform into something a bit more magical.

This piece may make its debut at VK LIVE in October, but I should also mention that I’m going to be leading a workshop with this same theme in Ann Arbor next month! If you’ll be in the area, please join me on July 12th at the city library for a fun session of knitting with nature. All are welcome to wrap twigs (much smaller than my big twig!) in colorful yarn, and those who knit will be supplied with patterns to make creatures to live in their twig. It should be fun for all ages and skill levels! Check out the Ann Arbor District Library website for more information.