Caroline’s Red Stripes and Georgian Landscape are 5″ tall.
Caroline’s working method allows her to create shapely, three dimensional sculptures and vessels with fantastic color variations. How does she achieve such an extensive palette? By mixing the threads as if they were paint, of course!
Her “paints” of choice include sizes 3 and 5 cotton threads and embroidery floss (each strand is composed of six 9 yard long pieces), which are available in a rainbow of tints and shades. Metallic thread and novelty yarn are occasionaly utilized for special effects. Caroline usually combines 2 strands into one working thread to increase the thickness. Sometimes the strands are the same color, other times each is different. She subtly varies the hues by replacing one strand at a time with another color either as it is needed or when it runs out. The new thread is tied on with a weaver’s reef knot, then the join is skillfully hidden by crocheting over it.
Caroline’s tapestry crocheted Shell is 7 1/4″ long.
This detail shows how one color transitions into another.
How do Caroline’s sculptures stay in shape? With a wire skeleton – what else would work so well? She demonstrated the technique for me below. For a lot of color changes, as many as 7 threads are carried with the wire. When no color changes are necessary, only the wire is carried.
The florist wire that Caroline carries plays an important supportive role.
Caroline’s Blackbird is 10″ high. The wire skeleton keeps it in shape.
A painter’s sensibility and tapestry crochet are successfully married in the one-of-a-kind imaginative pieces that are available through her web site and at the Mad and Noisy Gallery in Creemore, Ontario. What an inspiration!
Thanks so much for this article, Carol! Caroline is wonderful inspiration to those of us who are beginners in this craft. I think all of us who try to design our own tapestry patterns and work other designs in crochet are fiber artists…and what wonderful company we keep!
Thank you for sharing some of Caroline Routh’s work. You and Caroline are making an incredible contribution to the world of fiber arts, especially by sharing its roots and inspiring us to keep old art forms alive.
You are both an inspiration.
Your art work is beautiful I would like to know if you have an illustrated book on how to combine the wire with the yarn so well. Also is there a way to combine this technique by simple crochet, because I have not yet grasped tapestry crochet.
My web page at https://www.carolventura.com/rightstitches.html will show you how to carry yarn, or thread, or wire, or whatever.
Beautiful work!!! I’m very impressed with the landscape especially the sky and clouds! I crocheted a hat two years ago starting with the sky, and although I thought I had lots of shades of blue, when it came to painting the sky I was disapointed in the result. It was too abrubt in the graduations, so I remedied the problem by needle-felting wispy clouds over the top. Funny thing happened then after many hours of work, I emerged out of my mobile home bus, to find the real sky full of ‘Wispy’ clouds! Yours is just exquisite, well done
hi my name is ronit
i want to make a crochet portrait
wher can i find a lesson how to make this wandrful art?
thank ronit
My free design video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZTqLx5OfI0 should get you started.
This is truly some of the most beautiful crochet work I’ve ever seen! That landscape basket is an absolutely gorgeous work of art!
[…] made my first crochet hook handles (the ones below) with Carolyn Routh. I wanted to do something that was creative and appropriate for a tapestry crochet artist like […]