![]() ![]() “What’s the craft version of a green thumb?” “They would always take us to a craft store when we visited them in San Diego,” Jill says. Two filet crochet portraits of their grandparents were on view in the 2015 exhibit Thread Around Holes at The Lace Museum in Sunnyvale and currently hang outside their studio’s door. Their childhood dream was to work in Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and they attribute much of their interest in the arts to their grandparents, Robert and Catherine Watt. “I want the perfect one.”īoth women were born and raised in San Jose, where Lorna remembers checking out a book at the library to teach herself how to crochet a mummy. “I don’t want to waste time with 999 bad ideas,” she says. “I want to have thousands of ideas to find the one,” says Lorna, whereas Jill prefers to be more direct. Lorna will often suggest ideas regardless of scope or expense and Jill will have to remind her of the logistics. They admit that they only ever reach loggerheads while brainstorming for new projects. “I want to do something crazy while Jill wants to make the cute little frogs in suspenders with a cane and top hat,” Lorna says. (Jill fancies the vertical mattress stitch while Lorna prefers weaving the Kitchener.) And although they sometimes differ in the direction of a project, they always find ways to support each other’s opposing styles. The pair’s working relationship couldn’t be tighter or more complementary and it shows down to the seams. “He’s rearing up from a mouse!” adds Lorna, holding the silver-stitched provocateur in her hand. ![]() “Not just on the elephant but we’ll tell a story why is he up in the tree like that?” Not only are the ears, toes and tusks fully accounted for in their elephant, but they’ll go as far as developing a narrative as to what prompted this giant animal to scale up a San Francisco tree in the first place. Jill and Lorna began in 2011 and have distinguished themselves with their delightfully whimsical characters, accentuated by intricate features. The sisters specialize in yarn bombing: fiber art installations that pop up in unexpected places-giving feet to an ordinary corner mailbox or turning tree limbs into octopi-always creating a head-turning effect and often prompting a grin. The Civic Center Commons is just one of dozens of commissioned projects the duo has completed between San Francisco and the Peninsula through their artistic outlet Knits for Life. So far, they’ve wrapped parrots, chameleons, giraffes, flamingos and more on over 80 trees that line the plaza outside City Hall. For the last two years, the Watt sisters have been commissioned by the Trust for Public Land to visually enhance the area. It takes a week to complete two elephants but soon these yarn creatures will join the sisters’ dozens of other colorful installations wrapped around trees in the Civic Center Commons in San Francisco. ![]() Also on the table is a grid paper notebook that serves as an instruction manual with the dimensions of each elephant body part calculated into inches and stitches. Pairs of aqua blue ears, legs and stubby arms are stacked and ready to go. Peninsula-based fiber artists Lorna and Jill Watt work across from each other on separate parts of their project–Lorna stitches the larger pieces using a Brother KH-270 knitting machine while Jill crochets the whimsical additions, like a peanut or eyebrows. Yarn bombing is a way to bring a smile to people’s faces and make the world a more colorful place.Elephant parts lie scattered across a white table inside the central studio space of the Claremont Art Studios in San Mateo as two sisters work in tandem to stitch them all together. ![]() It’s a form of street art that is accessible to everyone, regardless of their artistic ability. Yarn bombing is a fun and creative way to add color and texture to public spaces. The yarn is usually attached using non-permanent methods, such as ties or clips, so that it can be easily removed without causing damage. No, yarn bombing is typically not permanent. Yarn bombing is all about having fun and expressing yourself. You don’t need to be an experienced knitter or crocheter to create yarn bombs. It’s important to get permission from the property owner before you start yarn bombing. Yarn bombing is generally considered to be a form of street art and is therefore subject to the same laws and regulations as other forms of street art. See also Top 5 bulky yarns to Buy FAQs Is yarn bombing legal? ![]()
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