Creating textured surfaces with Jenny Dowde.

‘Surface Works’ by Australian artist, Jenny Dowde, is about adding surface decoration to plain knitted or crocheted backgrounds. Through more than 30 projects Jenny, using traditional and freeform approaches, provides numerous suggestions for creating textured surfaces in knitting and crochet, using fancy yarns, handmade braids and cords, collage techniques, even computer programmes, in a well illustrated and clearly explained manner.

As someone who knows the value of a good book - she credits ‘The Crochet Workbook’ by Sylvia Cosh and James Walters as leading her down “a whole new creative path” - it’s no wonder Jenny has embraced publishing as a way of sharing her passions. A late bloomer in the professional creative sense - she was in her late 30s when she attended an art class with a girlfriend - Jenny eventually stopped working and went to art school for six years.

“I went on to complete six years of study, majoring in painting,” she recalls via her website. “I loved every single moment of this creative journey and it is one that I would not hesitate to do all over again.” Along the way her continuing journey has included learning machine knitting, working with polymer clay and getting into freeform knitting and crochet (or ‘scrumbling’ as her tutors, James Walters and the late Sylvia Cosh, termed it).

“I have a son and an understanding husband,” says Jenny explaining how she’s been free to explore all these fields and now making a living from them. Fifteen years ago she had a studio built onto the back of her house. “It’s the biggest room in the house and has north facing windows,” she says. Now she makes a living creating her own work, writing books and teaching.

“Having the studio at home is wonderful,” concedes Jenny, “though it can be tough at times to be disciplined. There is always a load of washing calling you or people drop in because they think you are not really working. Then, of course, there’s the temptation to sit in the sun, dog by my side, and read a book.”

Jenny’s own books, such as ‘Freeform Knitting and Crochet’ or ‘Freeformations: Design and Projects in Knitting and Crochet’ will be joined by a sibling in spring of 2009. This one will focus on jewellery so the artist is clearly a little more disciplined than she makes out.

She came to publishing through her participation in Passap knitting machine seminars back in the early 1990s. “I had gotten into computer design and, when the Passap dealers were meeting in Sydney, they invited me along because I had the software and knew how to use it,” says Jenny. “It was decided that Passap universities would be set up in each State. I began writing notes on what I would teach. I can’t shut up so they became 40 pages in length and eventually formed the basis of my workshops. Ten years on came the idea that I should write a book... so it took 10 years for me to do my first book but then I went mad and did three in four years!”

Jenny actually pulled out the ‘Yellow Pages’ when she had enough material to approach a publisher for her first book. “On about the fourth call a lovely woman at Penguin recommended I contact Sally Milner Publishing,” says Jenny. “I got up enough courage and think basically, when I rang, I was in the right place at the right time. My first book was an ideas book. At least that’s what I kept calling it. They’re a means to an end in my mind."

In ‘Surface Works’ Jenny demonstrates countless ways of using store-bought braids and trims, beads, buttons, lace inserts, and all kinds of ‘found objects’, to create interesting surfaces. The book includes smaller projects such as scarves, hats and neckpieces, plus a number of beautiful shawls and tops. Each is decorated in a particular way but readers have the freedom to choose their own decorative technique or to combine several to create unique results.

“Even in my workshops I don’t like clones,” says Jenny. “I love getting students to work with found objects. There’s no limit to what you can include in this work. I suppose one of the most unusual things I’ve included was paperclips, although I’ve also used faux bones made from polymer clay.

“One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen was when I taught machine knitting to textile students at the Australian National University in Canberra. One girl was particularly enthusiastic so we crushed up egg shells and put them in little pockets  in her work. We also used paper and grass.”

At the time of interview Jenny was off to complete her first overseas teaching engagement, leading workshops at ‘The Fall Knit & Crochet Show’ in Oregon, USA, on three topics - ‘arty’ adornments, freeform crochet and fancy crochet beads. Then she was going on to the Cochenille Design Retreat (see www.cochenille.com/retreat08.pdf [cochenille.com]) in Carlsbad, California. She returns to the States later in 2009 as a guest of the Midwest Weavers Conference in Iowa.

But Australian and New Zealand fans can study with her closer to home. Keep an eye on the ‘workshops’ link on her website.

Jenny’s website:
www.users.tpg.com.au/users/jdesigns [users.tpg.com.au]

An eclectic collection of textiles, polymer clay and paintings.

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