Fiber

Cross Stitch Replicas

Rhett Carlin | 2022

Playing off of my original recreation of Goya’s painting, I wanted to pick a piece that expressed a more immediate reference to femininity. Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” was an obvious pick, a painting which didn’t intend to depict a specific woman but rather femininity as a whole. Cross stictch is an extremely ritualistic and time consuming form of craft in much the same way femininity is built and defined.

A cross stitch recreation of Goya’s “Saturn Devouring his Son,” made with an acompanying frame intended to emulate the frame around the original. This was made with the intention of being a gift, and through the process I realized the potential the medium of cross stitch could have. It’s a fantastic way to express an abstract form of traditional femininity, and as someone who loves to play with those ideas this was a great amount of fun.

The Delivery Loom

Rhett Carlin | 2023-2024

Created using general machinery and 3D printing. The project began as a project for a class exploring the innate femininity of “crafting” and fiber work as an artform. Roe V. Wade had just been overturned, and the loom was an exploration in female agency within modern society. However, after creating the original loom and creating my first few weavings I fell in love with the process and medium of fiber arts. In total I have made 3 seperate looms, each an attempt on improving the last iteration and I am currently trying to figure out a new way to improve on the latest design. The current design was created from a vintage shoe salesman suitcase which I then gutted and transformed into a loom which was easily portable.