Wire artist Ruth Asawa

Wire knitting artist Ruth Asawa:

As I work with wire knit and crochet techniques I wanted to see some master pieces in this field and I came across the name Ruth Asawa.


This was around October last year.  I was fascinated seeing her art just in two dimensional pictures.  I became more interested reading about her in Wkikpedia, about her early life in the Japanese interment, how she bloomed despite all the struggles and how art played a significant role in her life, in her survival.


Ruth Asawa said - " Art is for everyone"  and she carried that message in her art activism.

Ruth Asawa,  a Bay Area living artist inspires me and one of my dream is to meet her in person someday.

Atleast, I wanted to see her work.  The first one I saw around Christmas time in the Ghiradelli Square- Andrea's Fountain.  I came to know that Ruth Asawa is also called as the Fountain lady!

Yesterday Nina ( my daughter) and I went to the De Young Museum in San Francisco to see her work.  It is mesmerizing.

Look at this picture

A wire knitted piece of about 3 or 4  feet diameter is joined with several spherical and hat like structures is hanging from the wall.  The whole piece is about 10 to 12 ft long. This huge piece is probably created with 15g or even thicker, may be 10 g wire, otherwise it would not have supported the structure.  But what  a delicate and lacy look  it has!

I compare it with my lame puny one that I had made . The same viking knitting method is used here too, it seems.  Correct me if you think differently,  please.   I did it with 26 g wire with the Lazee Daisee tool sitting on my lap.

                                                        alankarshilpa.etsy.com

How on earth did Ruth Asawa  manage to create this humongous piece with such ease?  What did she use to start with?  I am totally blown away.  I bow down to this artist for what she had given to us.

Do you make wire art?  Wire knit or crochet?  Then, I'd like to feature you.  Just let me know in your comment.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year my friends.

May the new year 2012 bring much happiness to us.  But hey, what is happiness really?  They say happiness is more important than any thing- fame, power  money, even  health...

Really! Yes.  Statistics show that an old person with much pain and ailment may show a bigger smile than a pretty young person who is always running to check off items from her TO DO list.

But I am a To Do check list person too and in order to achieve happiness I need that tool, my dear friend.  If I can't measure it I can't prove it.

Recently I came across an interesting book named the Happiness Project.

The writer Gretchen Rubin brought all kinds of great minds starting from Aristotle to Dalai Lama to define what this term HAPPINESS means.  She divided the whole year into 12 broad category and decided to tackle each item every month.

For example, January is for energy, February for love - relationship...etc etc.

Here I got a bit confused taking her footsteps and using her template for achieving happiness.

I thing yes, taking first thing first is an idea, but if I am all absorbed in LOVE for one month the other aspects of my life are going to feel like orphans.  Am I going to stop exercising for the month of Feb, or drop my resolutions about my infant business until August ?  How does it work?

Well, this best seller book must have gone deeper than that and I must have missed something.

For the time being I will go back to my old ways of being happy.  Just go back to my mirror to bring  a big smile that I may give a bit to each person I meet today, to  the whole world, no matter what.

Did you have a chance to go to this website of Happiness Project or read this book?  I'd like to hear your feed back. Please leave a comment.

P.S. Here is an interesting blog on this topic Take a look