Chainsperation..

Don’t you just hate it when your working on an idea that seems like you’ve completely come up with it on your own, only to have a flashback of that exact idea. Well this happened to me just today!

I simply started off wanting to have a bit of an experiment with knitting, not necessarily in the traditional way, but just starting from scratch. I have knitted before, but I’ve completely forgotten how to do it. So I started back at primary school with the friendship bracelet. There was some thread I found at the back of a cupboard and began starting to ‘knit’. Basically I was trying to create a structure of some kind. It’s so annoying how it twists and you have to put a paperweight on the knit to stop it. This seems like something I need to investigate a bit more, trying to figure out why this happens.

Sitting at my desk I looked up and saw my jewelry surrounded by silver and (faux) gold chains. In the past year my obsession with handmade jewelry has slowly taken hold. My wallet is worse for wear, but I justify any purchases I make because they are ‘forever’. Jewelry has a permanence that fashion/clothes can’t really match. You can try and create something that is classic in style, or well made but generally each garment has a lifespan. Jewelry is very personal and intimate.

So I began to knit/crochet/knot 4 necklaces together. Loving what I had produced I was pretty chuffed when an image of Arielle De Pinto’s work flashed up in my mind. Dang it. This is what she does. So I spent the next hour or so (maybe more) looking at her work online. Aesthetically I love it, also as an idea it’s original. The pieces are delicate yet there is a strength from the metal. I liked working with the chains, and I’m hoping to buy some more so I can experiment with them as a material. Could there be knit structures that can be used to give a chain-knit fabric stretch? Does it make a difference what size chain you use?

Image: My chain friendship bracelet

Image: Arielle De Pinto's lookbook S/S 09

http://www.arielledepinto.com/adp_page.php?post_id=18

This idea of permanency is interesting because garments that use metal are for armor. When I looked up chain mail on the web, I was interested to see that there are different structures with different strengths, movement, shape etc. Perhaps another line of investigation. Now I just hope that I can't get my chains undone!