Wildflower Designs: Have You Seen This? JacBer Creations

"..original kitschy crochet accessories for yourself and your home.
All items are hand made and designed by me, and no two items will ever be the same." (JacBer Creations)

I am fascinated by Gill of JacBer Creations wonderfully eclectic and original work.

Made with not just a dash of humour and jam packed with kitsch! These are truly original crocheted works - kinda with a nod back to things you might remember from childhood, but oh so much funkier.

Quite frankly - who knew you could do so much with yarn!

I had to know more about Gill's fascination with the wonderful crafts of crochet and finger knitting and turning the traditional on it's head!

Read on to learn a little more about Jac-Ber's creations...

1. What are your Influences and/or Philosophy?

There have been some very clever and yet quite fantastically ugly things crocheted in the past, even more so in the 70’s.

My aim is to try and take the kitsch and zoop it up a bit, add my own influence and try to be unique.

I really enjoy looking at the pictures on Ravelry.com and definitely have been influenced from there with the Daleks that I’ve made (it was a team challenge – a sci-fi group I joined)

I get a funny reaction when I tell people I made the first Dalek for a competition for an online group of sci-fi loving crochet/knitters- it’s like the epitome of nerdiness :-D.

2. Favourite product(s) to make and why?

Everything I make I enjoy making, once I don’t enjoy it I tend to fall out with it and stop making it until I really want to again. When I’m having a creative blip I tend to make granny squares or flowers because I can always use them when I’m back in the groove.

3. Have you any other crafty sidelines/interests?

I desperately want to be able to sew. Unfortunately I don’t get on too well with the sewing machine, so my fab ideas never turn out how they look in my head, I’m persevering still J

I love to wear brooches so I also like to make hand sewn ones.

I was addicted to cross stitching everything for a while and have tried embroidery, painting with acrylics and paper tole.

4. Earliest Art/Craft/Design memory?

I remembering watching my next door neighbour in the 70’s make a string of crochet with lots of different shapes on it. I was probably about 6, and I kept that string of crochet for years. She also taught me how to finger knit so I went through a stage of having rolls and rolls and rolls of finger knitting which I didn’t know what to do with.

5. What do you love most about what you do?

Being able to make it up as I go along. Also crochet is so flexible and can lend itself to anything and everything from toys to lacy wraps, jewellery and blankets so the creative ideas are limitless.

It’s also brilliantly portable so I can whip it out when I’m sitting in the Auckland traffic J