By Carolyn Hanson
Art can use any medium. Some are familiar, like paint, fiber, wood, marble and glass to name a few. It’s customary to see paint on canvas, sculpted marble or knitted garments. Yet, what about using a medium untraditionally, like knitted paper, specifically, newspaper. A few years ago, I discovered Ivano Vitali, an Italian artist, whose medium was newspaper. He transformed newspaper into yarn by tearing it into strips, folding and then twisting it into a medium that could be knitted.
Ivano started as a sculptor; however, in 1995, he decided to use discarded materials and chose newspaper. He knits, crochets, sews and weaves his paper creations into garments, tapestries and objects. To him, they capture stories.
The exhibit shared on Pinterest that caught my attention, showed wall tapestries where he had separated newspapers by color: blue, red, black/white, and multi-color. They were unadorned pieces in a simple garter stitch constructed on huge needles, e.g., thicker than a broomstick handle. Immediately, I was intrigued and decided to try my hand and create a unique version of my own.
It was the summer of 2016. Sunday’s version of The News-Press, a southern Florida publication, became my medium. Sitting on the beach with a cup of coffee, I read the paper and then began to tear it apart, page by page into long strips. I folded the strips and connected one to the next without adherents. Next, I twisted them tightly and wound them into balls. This became my beach task for weeks. [Just want to say that while tearing, twisting and winding, only one person was curious, or brave, enough to ask what I was doing. That person was a child, btw. When did we lose our childhood curiosity?].
With enough balls of twisted paper, at least 4 Sundays worth, using size 17 needles, I cast on stitches and began knitting. Knitting on straight 16” needles was tough since the twisted paper was similar to a super bulky yarn in thickness and quite stiff. My design evolved as it progressed. I decided to make a piece with open sections-windows- to be filled later with other materials. Then, summer ended and other projects jumped ahead and years passed. Occasionally, I would pull it out and think about how I wanted to progress, but not much happened. I was unsure how to finish it, how to mount it, and how to hang it- though it’s surprisingly sturdy.
Finally, in 2021, I was able to resolve all of the outstanding roadblocks. The tapestry became a collage of my summer vacation’s beach-combing finds. [I love collecting beach detritus.] The windows were filled with shells, driftwood, starfish, feathers, and fern stems. The mount was a long piece of driftwood. The tapestry was woven onto the driftwood. Two large pegs hold the tapestry to the wall.
A smaller version was requested by my niece, AC, an art aficionado for sure, and hangs in her Brooklyn apartment. Love you, A.
They were fun projects, simple and easy to do with a bit of time on a Sunday afternoon. Like Ivano, it appeals to my passion for reusing, recycling and repurposing. Make your own version. Add fiber to your décor.
Find Paper Yarn Instruction on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTszmBfT_QE