Maker’s Mercantile is a Washington state based community of crafters. They recently hosted a Maker’s Night with fiber and glass artist Carol Milne. Milne is known for her sculptural works knitting glass. A knitter since the age of 10, she ventured into glass casting in 2000. She noticed that the wax canes she used the mold making process looked a bit like and wondered, “Can I knit with these?”
The short answer is no, you can’t use knitting needles to knit with wax because it lacks the elasticity of yarn and tends to break rather than stretch. However, knitting is created with interlocking looks and as long as these loops come together the it doesn’t matter whether you use tools or not (for example, finger and arm knitting). Eventually, Milne reasoned that she could hand knit the wax into a knitted fabric which in turn can be made into a mold. The glass is fired inside the mold in a kiln and takes on the knitted form, creating elaborate sculptures.
Some of Milne’s more recognizable pieces features hands knitting themselves. While initially these were inspired by M.C. Escher’s print “Drawing Hands” a series of losses caused the meaning of these sculptures to shift, “I started thinking about what does it mean to become your own mentor.” Whether through death, retirement, moving away, or growing up, eventually the teachers and coaches in our life leave us. When I reflect on the idea of knitting your own hands I think about internalizing the support and guidance from our mentors and making it a part of us.