Creating the Classified Series
The Classified Series is a continuation of my coded pieces. I have been exploring codes and ciphers for a few years, and I love challenging myself to incorporate code in my artwork without it being obvious.
This series pays homage to some amazing women who broke the code in WWI and WWII. Each woman’s name is spelled out in Morse Code in the flowers. Using flowers represents the femininity of these women, though they were not to be underestimated for their strength and intelligence. I love that dichotomy of something being perceived as pretty on the surface, but it is quite powerful in a quiet way.
Designing and Fabricating the Artwork
I often dye my yarn and realized that Morse Code lent itself nicely with Ikat dyeing. I can take the dots and dashes of Morse Code and ikat dye my yarn to create a code.
Ikat is a form of resist dyeing where you wrap yarn or fabric with a cellophane-like tape to stop the dye from penetrating that particular part of the fiber.
Each woman’s name is in a single strand of Morse code, so each flower is her full name. One of the beautiful things about needle punch is that you can easily pull it apart. This piece can be decoded, though you would have to destroy it a bit, pull one of the flowers from the back of the piece to remove the entirety of the code, and then have some fun decoding it.
