Yarn Bombing: a craft that blew up
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- December 14, 2015
- thalo
NEW YORK, NY - Bet you were expecting to see plenty of ugly sweaters this holiday season, but here's a place you might not have anticipated to see one: Times Square. Brooklyn artist and crotchet queen London Kaye partnered with Miller Lite to bring you the largest ugly sweater you have ever seen. Here's a little bit about how yarn bombing started as an urban art form and blew up to make it front and center in one of the world's most populous areas.
The art of yarn bombing
Yarn bombing started as a bizarre (and comfy) form of graffiti. Around the world people used this fabric to showcase their skills and add a little color to otherwise mundane items like potholes, bike racks and even buses. This trend has picked up across nations, including the U.S., France and Indonesia - just to name a few.
Meet the artist
London Kaye first made a name for herself by yarn bombing seemingly every New York City surface she could, including New York subway cars, park statues, trees and chain-link fences. Her pieces don't last long because the public snatches them, but she's maintained her optimism over the years. In addition to making waves in the art world, Kaye also aspires to help pave the road for female artists in the male-dominated world of NYC street art with the femininity of yarn.
"Yarn bombing has gone mainstream with a holiday-themed billboard."
Billboard status
Agency Olson teamed up with Kaye to crotchet an enormous, festive billboard inTimes Square. The project took over three weeks of time-consuming and detail-oriented handweaving from Kaye herself. The end result: a holiday-themed sweater decked out with reindeer and the iconic Miller Lite Steinie bottle. The brand even captured the process and unveiling of the billboard and posted it on YouTube. This was Kaye's largest project to date. The billboard will continue to hang the entire month of December, making an underground craft mainstream advertising.
Photo credit:
http://brobible.com/life/article/brooklyn-girl-crochet-billboard/
