Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Lily Yung Designer
One of the contemporary designers featured in the Cutting Edge show at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto is Lily Yung. Yung is a Toronto-based jewellery designer whose pieces remind me of knitted sculptures.
I had not seen her work before, but was completely rivetted by it when I saw these three pieces above. All three are made from cut pieces of felt that have been linked in various ways to create neck decorations and, in the case of the blue piece on the right, a vest.
Because these are felt pieces, they are light, while at the same time, retaining their unique shape. They are easy to wear, as a result. And fluid. Organic even, in the way that they can move with the body.
Yung also works with wire and beads:
Doesn't this just look like an example of chevron knitting?
She works with modern-day plastics, exploring and doing research into new technologies which manipulate man-made materials, as she does here with a signature piece, a neoprene necklace:
When I saw the red neoprene necklace, it reminded me of my new free pattern, Cafe Capelet --another piece where all the interest is in the negative space, the spaces within the knitted structure.
A case of reverse inspiration?
Update for those who live in Toronto or are visiting there: Lily has informed me that more of her work is on display in Toronto at the David Kaye Gallery and in a group show at "new" Gallery on 906 Queen St. West.
Sounds worth a visit.
