🧵🧶Fibre Arts🧶🧵

What are Fibre Arts?

Fibre Arts refers to artwork that is created using natural or synthetic fibres. A large part of the value of fibre arts is usually associated with the artist's manual labour and skill level rather than the utility of the item created. The fibre arts movement was strongly associated with the Feminist movement of the 1960's and 1970's as a way to subvert the 'traditional' skills of homemakers. This is still seen today with huge numbers of women participating in fibre arts, often incorporating slang, pop culture, swearing and subversive messages in their work.

There are many different forms of fibre arts. Below are a few that are commonly practiced. At the bottom of the page you will find a button to further explore fibre arts.

Knitting is a method used to produce textile fabrics by interlacing loops with loops of the same or different yarns. Knitting is probably the most well known of fibre arts. It uses two needles in order to create garments or items. Knitting can be used to create jumpers, hats, scarves, shawls, coats and toys.

Knitting is one of the oldest forms of making clothing and there are still handknitted items that date back to the Eygptian period (5th Century). It is accessible as the needles needed are light weight so can easily be used by people who need to travel or take their crafts with them.

Crochet is a method of creating fabric by using a hook. Crochet can be used to create a multitude of items including clothing, blankets, toys. There has been a large interest in amigurumi crochet during the 2010's and 2020's. This can be seen with the increasing number of pop culture patterns available.

Macrame is a method of creating textiles by using knots. Alongside most other fibre arts there has been a real resurgance of interest in macrame, particularly for home goods such as plant holders in the 21st century. Many will associate macrame with the 1970's when it was incredibly popular however macrame was first introduced into England in the 17th Century in the court of Mary II.