Reverie to reality Textile artist weaves subliminal strands into tactile treasures The Creators
By: AV Kitching Posted: 3:00 AM CDT Saturday, Sep. 14, 2024

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This article was published 14/09/2024 (358 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Karen Kerr dreams in shapes.

As she slumbers, activity teems deep inside her brain as reams of unfurled rope twist into patterns and designs.

When morning breaks Kerr summons the images, sketching swiftly before she heads to her home studio. Once there, her hands take on the work of creation, making her dreams come true.

She weaves and stitches, creating physical works of art made from rope, the fruits of her imagination shaped into existence by her dexterous fingers.

“Rope seems to be my passion right now, but I don’t dream up my designs every single night,” Kerr laughs. “It’s sporadic and just kind of comes to me. Sometimes I have designs in my head that I just have to do.”

Kerr’s first foray into rope work began three years ago when her daughter Ashley requested a rope bowl after spotting one in a store.

The textile artist and accomplished seamstress duly complied, making an eight-inch wide receptacle from clothesline rope a quarter-of-an-inch thick.

She had dabbled in various mediums in the past, but none held her interest the way rope has.

“The bread bowl was the first thing I made. I was making a lot of mistakes from start to finish. It was small and it took me two hours. I sent a picture of it to her and she loved it. She is still using it,” Kerr says.

Kerr’s passion for rope has seen her experiment with various widths and materials, testing qualities like flexibility, firmness and sturdiness.

She prefers working with natural fibres, sourcing unbleached natural braided cotton rope to make her unique creations.

“I love a modern, contemporary look,” she says. “Because it is all natural fibre and unbleached cotton, from a distance when people first see it, they think it’s pottery. When they come up for a closer look and touch and feel it they are amazed that it is rope.”

To date, Kerr has produced more than 300 items from rope — and yes, most of the designs still come to her in her dreams.

“I have a binder full of drawings. Once something is made and has found a new home I move on to my next design,” she says.

Kerr also makes table runners, vases, ornaments and purses. She takes on custom work and recently made a dog bed for a friend as well as a laundry hamper for middle daughter Aynslie and a ferret home for youngest daughter Jamie.

“The majority of the bowls are made from 10-millimetre-wide rope while the purses are (made from rope) about five millimetres wide. Each bowl uses roughly 50 feet of rope and has anywhere between 15,000 to 20,000 stitches,” she says.

And while she continues to bend and stitch her pliable lines of rope with the aid of a sewing machine, she has recently started hand-weaving bowls using slightly thicker cotton rope, which has a core of cotton cord braided through it.

“The inner cotton cord is what holds the weave together,” she says. “The bowls can withstand handwashing, and they can air dry and it won’t ruin the integrity of the bowl. It won’t lose its firmness, strength or shape.”

Woven using one continuous length of rope, Kerr has made eight bowls since she started weaving four months ago. She shares her new bowl designs at @kaja_design_mb.

“Anything I do by hand takes a lot longer. It’s more intensive but in a good way. It exercises my hands, and keeps them busy. Putting together the bowls in this way is therapeutic. It’s relaxing.

“All my bowls, whether hand-stitched or hand-woven, are pieces of art that can be enjoyed not just for the beauty of the artwork but as things that can be used, too.”

av.kitching@freepress.mb.ca