By Tillie Vuksich Contributing writer This year's Eatonville Art Festival will feature a unique art installation in downtown Eatonville, known in the craft community as a yarn bomb. It's a large public display of art using hand-knitted and crocheted fabric to adorn trees, lamp posts, telephone poles, benches, bike racks and anything in a high-traffic public area. It's been done in many major cities around the world since 2012. Anyone can help, whether you knit or crochet or would like to learn. Everyone is welcome to help make this a collaborative community art project. The idea behind this fun undertaking is to give the art festival greater visibility and to support local artists through a large display of art that is not only beautiful, but shows a modern use of an age-old craft. Organizers want to encourage community involvement and will work on the art instillation with twice monthly meet-ups in the meeting room at the Eatonville branch of Pierce County Library System meeting room to share news, progress and ideas. The yarn bomb will be installed one week before the festival, which will be held Aug. 1-3. After the festival, pieces will be taken down and turned into blankets for a local charity. The great thing about this type of art is that it isn't permanent, it won't harm any surfaces since it is stitched on, and can be taken down easily. The first meet-up was February 22. Lisa Hoversten and Tillie Vuksich swapped ideas and stories while knitting for the yarn bomb. The excitement grew as the two seasoned crafters took a drive through town to look for good places for an art display. There are 24 lamp posts down Mashell Avenue (between Kirk's Pharmacy and Eatonville High School) that they think will be fantastic for adornment, as well as the trees throughout the park near the high school. The second meeting on March 5 was attended by Karen Carr, Teresa Lambrecht, Carol Frisell, Sherry Hanson, Lisa and Tillieh. They worked on pieces while discussing the upcoming art festival and their plans for yarn bombing the town. It was decided that the charity to receive the funds from auctioning off of the artful blankets will be Eatonville School District students' lunch accounts, to help guarantee that all children receive a lunch. We can help make a difference in their lives, be it a small act of kindness, by paying for lunches so they can perform at their best. If you would like to be a part of this community art project, come to the next meet-up at the library meeting room on March 29 at 12 p.m. Contact Tillie for more info at 253-906-2930 or "Yarn Bombing For LunchesGÇ¥ on Facebook.
In addition to being a yarn bomber, Tillie Vuksich writes the Here to Help column in The Dispatch.
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