Absorbed in making
“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful” – William Morris
Making
Knit one Perl one
Knitting is coding. Input, operation, output, storage.
“Paper Promises” for “Moths to a Flame”
I hope that at COP26 world leaders will hammer out a deal that will save our life support system. I hope that out of the darkness of despair, we can extend our wings and find our way to the light.
Experimenting for “Moths to a Flame”
The amazingly creative Chloe Uden from Art and Energy has made oak gall ink, so I attempted watercolour for the first time, and a Great Oak Beauty moth.
If you can’t make art, make a bug hotel
I haven’t been getting round to making art recently. Which isn’t to say I haven’t been creative.
“Q is for Quarries”
“Q is for Quarries” is an A-Z trail that allows people to discover the distinctive Heavitree Stone used to build the red skeleton of Exeter.
Are you TiCL-ish?!
I originally created the A-Z trail around Heavitree Stone sites on Placeify. But then I came across TiCL, who were really enthusiastic about adding “Q is for Quarries” to their portfolio of Exeter trails. So now there are two versions!!
“Heavitree Stone Regular”
Steven Bramble designed the alphabet. I turned it into the font used on all the Heavitree Quarry Trails outputs. I’ve made it available to download it for your own use too.
I made a trail!
When Steven Bramble suggested designing an alphabet of Heavitree Stone, I immediately thought of its potential use in an A-Z. I came across Placeify some years ago, powering Exeter University’s Sculpture Tour, and the two things came together as an idea for a trail.
We made a font!
Over the last few months, I’ve been collaborating with local artist Steven Bramble on producing an alphabet and font for the Quarry Pod.
Roll up! Roll up to the Art Vending Machine!
The Art Vending Machine is a fun installation that sells playing card-sized art to the regular punter. “Green|Blue: Drop Slow Tears”, the mini mirror tears, are one of eleven different multiples during the 2017/18 season.
“One Fish, Two Fish, RGB Fish”
I created “One Fish, Two Fish, RGB Fish” in response to an invitation from Wool on the Exe and Theatre Alibi to participate in a community project benefiting Knit for Peace.
World Origami Day
In modern times, origami has been used as a beacon of hope. I created the origami “Soul Cube” to help me get past that powerful critical voice in my head and access the deeper nurturing wise voice that speaks words I need to hear.
“Ghost Bees” in the “Dark Art” exhibition
Five of the eight “Ghost Bees” I knitted for TRAIL and three of Cleo’s four remained at the end of the summer. My five are currently appearing in a gem of an exhibition at the Barnfield Theatre.
“Particulart: Up in the Air” pop-up at the Fun Palace
“Fun Palaces is a movement campaigning for culture by, for and with all – with a firm belief that community belongs at the core of all culture – and an annual weekend of events… Everyone an Artist, Everyone a Scientist.”
“Particulart: Up in the Air” pop-up at Greenbelt
I was at the Greenbelt Festival over the August bank holiday. As part of a fantastic weekend, I gave a Pecha Kucha talk about my art work, and “Particulart: Up in the Air” popped up in the Allotment Gallery.
PechaKucha on “Green|Blue” at Greenbelt
For the second time, I was at Greenbelt giving a PechaKucha about my artwork. Last year it was about “Particulart”. This year I was showing “Particulart” in the Allotment Shed gallery on Sunday, and my PechaKucha on Saturday was about my work and motivations more generally.
Knit your own bee
You are welcome to download my instructions for making “Ghost Bees”, which includes a knitting pattern for the body, a size guide for cutting out the wings from milk cartons, and instructions for assembly.
“Ghost Bees” at Teignmouth Recycled Art in the Landscape
This summer, if you happen to be wandering along the Teignmouth sea-front, you will happen across twelve “Ghost Bees” hovering in the flower bed between Pavilions and Pier.
“Particulart: Exhausted” at Oxford Festival of Arts
The overall aim of Particulart is to engage people with environmental and social issues and challenge the status quo through the power of knitting, science, and public art. In addition, “Exhausted” aimed to promote public awareness and provoke reflection on urban air quality, through a quirky display enabling playful interaction. It appeared at “Test Drive the Future”, an exhibition of electric vehicles, that will help solve the problem of air pollution.
“Particulart: Greenhouse Effect” at Low Carbon Oxford Week
The overall aim of Particulart is to engage people with environmental and social issues and challenge the status quo through the power of knitting, science, and public art. In addition, “Greenhouse Effect” aimed to promote public awareness and provoke reflection on climate change and the underlying science, through appealing to different ways of accessing information – words and numbers, sight and touch – and enabling playful interaction.
“Particulart” goes to Oxfordshire part 2
This weekend, there are going to be not one… not two… but yes OK two Particulart events in Oxford as part of Low Carbon Oxford Week, and they’re both brand new exhibitions and both FREE!!
“Particulart: Up in the Air” pop-up at TEDxExeter
Clare was honoured to be able to show Particulart at TEDxExeter 2016, in between a nice lot of Particulart-relevant talks(!) such as Danny Dorling on different ways of mapping the world, Alan Smith on how statistics are about Us, and the video of Al Gore’s latest TED talk on climate change.
“Particulart: Up in the Air” pop-up at WAM Fest
That’s nothing to do with the 1980s pop group, but the Festival of Weather, Art and Music. The 2016 event was all about “Extreme Weather and You”, and there were loads of activities on the programme, from print-making to climate roulette.
“Particulart: Up in the Air” pop-up at Relight My Fire
“Up in the Air” popped up for a second time at the Relight My Fire festival of energy and the arts run by RegenSW. Indoors this time, and slimmed down without roof or games area. It just about fit in the space.
“Particulart: Ozone Day”
Released on Ozone Day 2015, knitted representations of the three main stratospheric ozone depletion equations: the breakdown of CFC-11 in sunlight releasing a chlorine atom, and the cycle of ozone destruction catalysed by this chlorine.
“Particulart: Up in the Air” pop-up at Exeter Green Fair
Exeter Green Fair on 5 September saw the debut of my new “Up in the Air” pop-up. Under a blue gazebo (the sky), I suspended eight pale blue hula hoops (clouds), and from these the eight greenhouse gases.
PechaKucha on “Particulart” at Greenbelt
PechaKucha is a new way of doing Powerpoint presentations. There are 20 slides, which must be images only, and they change automatically every 20 seconds, so the talk is only 6 minutes 40 seconds in total. It becomes more of a performance than a presentation.
Knit-your-own chemistry
Particulart is the art of knitting, chemistry and gentle protest. It’s about engaging people with environmental and social issues and challenging the status quo through the power of knitting, science, and public art. You too can now knit your own chemistry using these patterns.
“The art of knitting, chemistry, and gentle protest” for Power Culture blog
RegenSW asked me to write for its new blog “Power Culture: exploring our energy generation through the arts”. It took me 44 years to learn to follow the energy, so here’s the story of how Particulart sparked and took on its own energy…
“Particulart: Up in the Air” in the Glorious Art House
The overall aim of Particulart is to engage people with environmental and social issues and challenge the status quo through the power of knitting, science, and public art. In addition, “Up in the Air” aimed to promote public awareness and provoke reflection on climate change and the underlying science, through appealing to different ways of accessing information – words and numbers, sight and touch – and enabling playful interaction.
Knit-your-own carbon dioxide workshop
As part of the Particulart: Up in the Air exhibition, Diana Moore of Particulart and Knit-Stop ran a knit-your-own carbon dioxide workshop.
Press Release – “Knitting exhibition shows climate change to be ‘Up in the Air’”
An innovative art installation goes on show this week to bring alive the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change. Local artist Clare Bryden has been knitting larger than life versions of the particles and making card games. The exhibition, which will be on display from 11-24 July at the Glorious Art House in Fore Street Exeter, is designed to be a playful way of sparking people’s interest in the science and issue of climate change.
“Particulart: Up in the Air” opens on 11 July!
Buy a coffee and cake from the Glorious café on the ground floor, and wander up to the second floor gallery for 3D knitted molecules floating in the Earth’s atmosphere!
“Knitting and other revolutionary acts”
Clare Bryden. Knitting and other revolutionary acts. Third Way Magazine, May 2015.
As competing political voices reach election crescendo, could it be that artistic, home-spun forms of activism are more positive and quietly persuasive? Clare Bryden hails the rise of ‘Craftivism’ and explains how knitting can change the world.
“Particulart 3” is go!
I got some excellent news this morning. Exeter City Council have approved a small arts grant towards my next Particulart exhibition.
Lecture – “Particulart, or the art of knitting, chemistry, meditation and gentle protest”
Last night, at somewhat short notice, I stepped into a breach and gave a St Michael’s Lecture. I liked the title so much, I adopted it for the work.
“Particulart, or the art of knitting, chemistry, meditation and gentle protest”
Particulart is all about knitting. It’s also all about the Exeter Incinerator, which was inaugurated on 16th October 2014, and about waste management strategy, and monitoring emissions, and the environment, and health, and transparency, and visual impact, and chemistry.
“Particulart” in the Real Food café
The original “Particulart” was a collaboration between Clare Bryden and Diana Moore, exhibiting in the Exeter Real Food café during autumn 2014. Knitting and emitting particles was our way of telling other people about the Exeter Incinerator and its potential impacts.
“Particulart” emitted!
I’m exhausted, but feeling exhilarated and satisfied. Diana and I have managed to hang the show, with some absolutely critical help from Naomi Hart. So we’re all set to open to the punters on Monday.
“Particulart” in the Express and Echo
We are in today’s Express and Echo. Page 44 isn’t quite “hold the front page!” but we still got a colour photo!
Press Release – “Campaigners’ knitting exhibition reveals incinerator is not a woolly issue”
An innovative community art installation goes on show this week to bring alive the impacts of Exeter’s new ‘Energy from Waste’ incineration facility. Members of the community have been knitting larger than life versions of the particles that will be emitted from the new facility. The exhibition which will be on display at the Real Food Café in Paris Street, is designed to tell people about the incinerator, encourage Devon County Council to ensure it is operated properly over its 25 years contract and think harder about their future waste management strategy.
“Particulart” launching soon
It’s been months in the planning and making, and now Particulart is at hand. The exhibition will be in the Real Food café from 13th October to 8th November, with a launch party on the evening of 15th October.
Municipal-planting-rowan jelly
There’s a rowan tree planted beside the bus stop on Grecian Way, and this autumn it’s laden with bright red berries.