“I WAS INSPIRED BY A TRIP TO JAPAN.”
The opportunity to feature her knitting as part of an art trail gave Rhiannon Davies the motivation she needed!
When Rhiannon Davies had the chance to exhibit at an art trail with her photographer partner Alex Robertson, she set herself the test of using yarn and knitting techniques as an artistic medium.
“I started thinking of the cowl structure as a blank canvas into which I could just knit textures and colours as I went along,” she says. “It was really enjoyable not to work from any pattern and it was constantly interesting as the stitch patterns changed all the time – it’s a very organic process for me and meant each cowl turned out completely unique.”
She adds: “I’m not a huge fan of weaving in lots of ends, so I experimented with different slip stitch patterns to incorporate the varying colours – I also really like the subtle textures a slip stitch pattern can produce.”
Alex and Rhiannon decided to name their art trail exhibition Tanuki, inspired by a recent trip to Japan. “I just loved everything about Japan,” Rhiannon says. “I especially enjoyed wandering through the many gardens and temples – I love the way nature and design come together to complement each other within those spaces. The design aesthetic seems to be about creating simple but carefully considered items, which allow the materials and process to shine through.”
Around the same time, Rhiannon had been experimenting with felting her knitting, and so began to make a collection of gorgeous bags. “I absolutely love the unpredictability of Ì!i"w#$Ã!i`"vi%Ì]»"Ã!i"Ã>Þð"º'̽Ã">"Ài>%%Þ" exciting process because it’s really hard to tell how it’s going to come out – sometimes you see a hint of the stitches and other times you can’t tell that it was knitted at all. I was interested in combining different materials and textures, so I experimented with using leather cords, hand stitching and metal hardware to make the fastenings. Again, new ideas sort of evolved out of the process.” FIND RHIANNON AND HER KNITWEAR ON INSTAGRAM AS @RHICDAVIES.