Kimie Okinoi

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  item 1:
   'Gathering'
Materials: used video, cassette tapes & spools
Techniques: Hand knitting
Date Made: 2004-2005
about the work

For some years I have been using old cassette tapes as a kind of knitting yarn, unwinding them from the spool. But recently it occurred to me that the cassettes contain several other bits, such as the small plastic spools. In this piece, I began to explore how to blend these spools into my knitting. I found that the more closely the spools were crowded together, the more strongly they made their presence felt, until finally they blotted out the knitted tapes that held them in place, producing interesting rhythmical effects.

  item 2:
   'Reflection'     
Materials: used cassette tapes, bubble-wrap
Techniques: Hand knitting
Date Made: 2005
about the work

Following on from my experiment knit by combining spools and tape, I began a hunt for other new materials. Because my theme is about recycling, I wanted to use something that fell within this category. This is how I arrived at the idea of using bubble-wrap, splitting it into strips and binding them together with knitted cassette tape. The semi-transparent, relief pattern fabric that resulted can be varied to make many different impressions. but I particularly liked the characteristic quality of reflected light.