[Nfb-krafters-korner] Visiting the Crocheted Hyperbolic Coral Reef

[Dixie]

Last summer I learned from Annette about the crocheted coral reef being made
by crafters around the Washington DC area as well as across the country.

I thought it might be fun to try and see if I could make a piece that would
be accepted into the project. There were 3 categories of the reef project.
Healthy coral is vibrant in color, so those pieces are shades of reds,
greens, blues, purples, etc.  The bleached coral, is dead coral, and is
tans, greys, whites, etc.  Then the third category was coral created out of
garbage, like plastic bags, video cassette tapes, or had pieces of garbage
like plastic bottles crocheted into them.   The two pieces I created both
would fit into the "bleached coral" category.   one is a brain coral, that
is beige with brown specks.  The second one was a bell coral and was made in
a fuzzy, creamy, off white.

 

The pieces were submitted to the Smithsonian, National museum of Natural
History, October 2010.  They then categorized all of the pieces, and made
them into the Hyperbolic Community Reef.  The reef was made up of pieces
submitted by people ranging in age from 3 to 101 years old. I think the
statistics were, that there were 800 contributors and 4000 pieces. The
overall size of the reef is 16 feet long, 9 feet high and 10 feet deep.

The reef has been on  display at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum
until this past Sunday.  I wanted to see it before the exhibit closed.  I
was met by the woman Jennifer Lindsay who helped in the design of the reef.
She told me about the evolution of the project and the building of the reef.
She also had researched the pieces I had contributed and located them among
the pieces in the reef.  She allowed me to reach into the display and touch
the pieces that she found that she thought were the ones I had made.  Nobody
else is allowed to touch the display this was an accommodation she made for
me.  I also was able to touch some pieces they had out for the general
public to touch.  One piece was made out of a VSHS tape, another from a
cassette tape.  The tapes had been pulled out of their cases and the tape
had been crocheted into a piece of garbage coral.  They also did this with
plastic grocery bags.  I was also allowed to touch a piece that was made of
yarn and it was a jelly fish.  That one was really cool and I am going to
try and recreate it.  

So, do corals count as underwater flowers?  Those are my crafted flowers for
this week's question.

 

 

 

Dixie

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