Creativity Box Yarn Page
The yarn colorways in your Creativity Box are based on the 4 groupings/themes of the box. Descriptions below explain the colorways and thinking behind them (don’t read if you don’t want to hear descriptions of the colorways!). The hotlinks to the dates just go to the landing page for those groupings and don’t include pictures of the yarn. The button below that reads SPOILER YARN IMAGES!! will take you to images of all the yarns. So be warned!
I chose 6 strong jewel-toned colors for the overall theme of the 24 yarns: Turquoise, Cayenne, Mustard, Amethyst, Forest, and Purple. I felt like these were all deep colors that were reflective of Nature, expressive of Creative Passion, and durnit just looked good together!
Group 1 (Dec. 1-6) introduces Black Mountain College and invites participants to think about, foster and create for themselves a safe space for creating. It is a space of introduction and beginning. Each of the 6 colors are here combined with black. I intended this “framing” of black to evoke several ideas:
The traditional artistic “framing” like a black mat framing a flat piece of art on the wall; the kind of traditional art most students coming to BMC were probably accustomed to
The traditional buttoned-up culture of the 40s-50s with very prescribed gender roles and restrictive social norms that prevented much mixing between genders, cultures, identities, etc.
The muddying of those very traditional roles that was not only happening at BMC, but also beginning to happen on a smaller scale in the larger culture due to the impact of war and economic upheaval
The supportive/comforting nature of a frame, a container — not only for our art — setting off something we might not have seen as “art” until it was framed — but also the safe container/ framing space we need for seeing ourselves as creative beings — and simultaneously the need to break out of all frames and expectations!!
Group 2 (Dec. 7-12) explores BMC’s invitation to experiment with materials and the idea of “our fingers as our tools.” Like the oil pastels that you are hopefully enjoying playing with, I wanted the base jewel-toned colors to start to blur into other colors. So these colorways are more tonal versions of the initial colors. To me, this represents the artists at BMC — as well as the other artists we are exploring — being willing to connect with new ideas and especially with new materials and allow those connections to alter their work. We are changed by our making, by our interaction with materials.
Group 3 (Dec. 13-18) introduces the idea of documentation and the “moment”-ness of creating that can’t always be captured permanently. The artists and collaborations explored find many different ways to depict narratives — both personal, communal stories as well as scientific data — in ever morphing ways that are changed even more by the interaction of more creators and participants. And so the yarn colorways continue to morph. The initial colors combine with other main colors for a “collaboration” of colors.
Group 4 (Dec. 19-24) introduces the “Light, Sound, Movement” multi-media workshops of BMC and of artists engaging with materials and the world in ever more intriguing and transformative ways. All the colors blend in new ways here and speckles of explosive creativity and inspiration are added. To me this reflects the potential for creating, for changing, for becoming something new — ourselves, our creations, and our larger world — when we open ourselves up to “playing” — to engaging with the world, with materials, with people, creatures, and places in new and deeper ways. The short time that BMC was housing and educating students seemed to be a place creating just such an explosive space of creative opening and play.