Crochelves

 

random images from an internet for an inspiration

===================================

There is not so quite quiet street on the edge of Edge Hill district and Toxteth Liverpool, that is lined with local mostly asian shops, some of it in shipping containers which probably becoming now the next hip thing on the city streets.

On a steamy summer evening all but a few were closed. 

Only one or two doors were open to the sidewalk, one of which was filled with what can best be described from a distance as “stuff” - I mean - everything. 

I wandered out of the blazing sunlight and into Lena's house where she created her art at home. Seated on a small chair underneath a small jambox speaker rigged from a beam in the wall was artist Lena Berg, dressed in a vintage dress and a crochet hat. 

“Come on in!” she called me and turned off speaker.

"What are you listening?" I asked.

"Audiobook".

She looked tired.

“I work all day long” she explained as she noticed my eyes studying the wool and threads on the floor around her.

 After studying at Liverpool Art College and John Moores University Lena worked only at home on her own collection. 

 “I love seeing how my paintings look next to the crochet creatures I make,” Lena explains. 

Lena Berg never sells her work.

“Half the space is filled with my paintings, and the other half is filled with textiles and yarn,” she says. 

Lena’s home or it is studio abode is a visceral place of shapes mess and patterns in spirited colours. 

 “I love seeing how different colours interact with one another in an organic way,” Lena explains of her work. 

Organic is the operative word: She mainly uses recycled yarns for her textile art, as well as naturally-dyed yarns. 

“I want to be really intentional about the sustainability of my materials,” she notes. “I try to buy dead stock, and everything I use is a natural fiber like wool or cotton.”

Lena is passionate about preserving the beauty of Mother Earth, especially since she grew up in the village, and now she often travels to the her favourite villages in Wirral to spend time coastal walking and  “recharge in nature.” 

But she does love her small terrace house apartment in Toxteth and what she is able to craft and create at home.