Sculptor Carol Milne Knits With Glass! How on Earth Does She Do That?

Glass booties Carol Milne

Carol Milne, is a Seattle-based artist who has developed a weird and wacky approach to knitting - she knits with glass!

Yes, that's right, glass!

Carol  is a self-taught knitter, but says knitting was always more of a  hobby than a career, until one day back in 2006, she developed a process of creating beautiful knitted glass sculptures.  

Since then she has created dozens of amazing pieces, that are exhibited throughout the world and are in big demand by collectors. 

The Process:

 

On her website, Carol explains how she developed the process.

 

She said: "You may be picturing my lightning fingers, industrial needles and miles of glass strands, all poised in front of a torch. And as a sucker for a good story, I would love to tell that you’re exactly right. Like the Roadrunner cartoon character, my hands move so fast, all you can see is a blur.

"But alas, like real life knitting, with fibres, my work is a slow, and many would say, tedious, process. It involves some heat, but no exhilarating contact with molten glass."

She adds: "My “Rumpelstiltskin” moment didn’t involve spinning straw into gold, but turning wax into glass. This wasn’t something I’d ever seen anyone else do, so there was no road map to follow. It took a lot of trial and error." 

Teabird by Carol Milne

After working out a way of  knitting with glass, the possibilities were endless. Carol first knits something with wax using a technique just a little bit different than how we usually knit.

She then surrounds the wax with a heat-tolerant material. Once heat is applied, the wax melts out and the heat-tolerant material remains, giving the object its shape.

This creates a mould that’s then placed in a kiln. Glass fills the empty space and the mould is removed to reveal the beautiful glass objects you see in the images here.

 So what inspired Carol to knit in glass?

Carol explains: "I like glass because it can take on an infinite number of forms and textures.

"It can show an interior image and an exterior image simultaneously. It's translucent and transparent. It plays with and reflects light. ." 

She also believes that her work is a statement about how society is: 

She added: "I  also see my knitted work as metaphor for social structure. Individual strands are weak and brittle on their own, but deceptively strong when bound together. You can crack or break single threads without the whole structure falling apart. And even when the structure is broken, pieces remain bound together. The connections are what bring strength and integrity to the whole and what keep it intact."

What do you think of Carol's work? Leave your thoughts in the comments box below.