Freedom and craftiness

Today, free from grad school assignments and whatnot, I went to the Handweaver's guild Holiday Party this morning. It was a potluck and show-and-tell. Somehow we got on the subject of people not valuing handcrafted things and I though WHAT??!?! Are these ladies hiding under a stone? There seems to be a generation gap, cause man, there's a lot going on right now. This afternoon I went to 2424 Studios for the Philadelphia Independent Craft Market for some holiday shopping, where EVERYTHING was handmade.
I picked up a terrarium from a lady who I think sells her work here. Some earrings from this fine lady and ran into the lovely and talented Rachel Udell, seen here in front of her installation.Rachel's a girl after my own heart, and was busily crocheting away while she talked and chatted with us and her customers. Her work was on display primarily for an exhibition going on in the 2424 skybox (up through December 18th, better catch it quick), but she came out with an additional table and wares for sale for today's craft market. I love how unabashedly explosive and colorful her work is, and how spontaneous it all seems despite the fact that it is all hand-made and must take hours of work.

The forms are organic, creature-like, some feeling more like plant-life, others nautical, others alien.

More than anything I'm reminded of a particular branch of mathematics that deals with hyperbolic surfaces, for which crochet is the ideal model.

I met Rachel recently through the Women's Caucus for Art, and I'm excited to see more of her work. I'm sorely tempted to start up Knit night/Crochet soiree again...