Bonnie Meltzer
very mixed media
COLLABORATIVE CROCHET WORKSHOPS & EVENTS
Crocheting without patterns is easier than you think! Learn how with a Bonnie Meltzer workshop

CROCHETING OVER A CORE
a collaborative sculture workshop

See photos of more collaborative
projects on Workshops 2

While experimenting with ways to teach sculptural crocheting with the technique of crocheting over a core Bonnie Meltzer discovered an exciting way of teaching it plus a way of offering a collaborative experience. She tested the workshop with friends to see if her idea worked and how it could be improved. Crocheting Over a Core, with everybody crocheting over the same long coiling piece of rope, fabric, or cord became a fast way to teach all the variables. She didn't know then that her students would love the collaborative part.

Contact Bonnie Meltzer to arrange a
CROCHET OVER A CORE workshop

Many hands working on the same core
can make the sculpture grow fast.

Crocheting Over a Core at
Museum of Contemporary Craft

Visitors to the musem were able to participate in building a crocheted sculpture. The core, a giant ball of velvet fabric or felted Pendleton Woolen Mill selvages, went around a table. Each participant crocheted over it with a wide variety of materials. As the core went around and around the rows were crocheted to the ones beneath it. Crocheters came and went, although some stayed for the full four hours of the workshop. They also had the freedom to add their own flights of fancy as they attached one layer to another.

#CrochetingOverACore
#CollaborativeCrochetProject
#crochetSculptureWorkshops

A smaller table was set up with a different core to accomodate left handed people who crochet from left to right. Later the two shapes were added together. #LeftHandedCrochet

The shape grew over the hours. There was as much direction
as needed and plenty of encouragement to try out their ideas.

As the circle grew and shrunk some participants worked
inside the circle while others coninued on the perimeter.

Some crocheters came to my studio to finish the sculpture.
By changing the number of stiches a volume was created.

There are many surprises while increasing and decreasing stitches and attaching the core in inventive ways. The biggest one is
how a giant crocheted ring evolves into a sculture with a much smaller footprint. Another worshop will have a different result.