Arthur, Animated: Stop-motion progression of crocheted portrait (video)

[Video link] Fiber artist Jo Hamilton says,

This is a stop motion video I made to document my process of crocheting one of my larger than life portraits in yarn from start to finish. In my work I use a traditional basic crochet technique taught to me at an early age by my Gran. I work one knot at a time, from the inside out, row by row. In making the crochet portraits I always begin in the middle with the eyes and work out from there until the piece is completed. I work directly from photographs, using no sketches, graphs or computer imaging. Each piece is handmade, labour-intensive, instinctively composed. Nothing is planned ahead; I make it up as I go along. I spend a lot of time simply looking, unraveling, and reworking until I get it right. To make this video I photographed the work after each new yarn colour or two was added, and edited the photos into a sequence. This 30 second sequence contains over 300 photos of the work in progress. The portrait is of my dear friend Arthur Cheesman, who is sadly no longer with us. Music by Aikamusic/Goldcard.

(via @craigwduff)

Jo Hamilton , with her completed portrait of Arthur. Photo: Jenny Stapleton

• [hungrylens]

  It’s too bad she puts so much time, effort, and skill into reproducing a lousy photograph… it reminds me of one of those “tattoo disasters”. Suggestion: don’t start with a flash photograph – it distorts the contours of the face into something regrettable. The time lapse is pretty cool!

  • [Ethan Taliesin Houser]

    you make a valid point about the flash photograph.

• [zarray]

  That looks shooped. I should know, I’ve seen some stitches in my time.

• [noah django]

  meh, I see hungrylens’ point, but fuck the haters–that shit is dope Ms. Hamilton.