“Yarn Bombing” Hits the Sawdust Art Festival

July 5, 2011
For Immediate Release

“Yarn Bombing” Hits the Sawdust Art Festival
The 2011 Sawdust Art Festival runs everyday through August 28, 2011

Laguna Beach, CA – High on telephone poles on city street corners, across bridges that span major U.S. Highways, over abandoned cars in run-down neighborhoods, and now finally on over 20 trees on the three-acre site that is home to over 200 Sawdust Festival artists for the summer, a quiet revolution continues.

Known as “Yarn Bombing,” or “Knit Graffiti,” men and women of all ages and ethnicities, have been meeting “underground” a couple of times a week across the country and in Europe to crochet or knit colorful patterns into pre-determined sizes to fit urban and suburban structures, landmarks and just plain trees since 2005; “and after I saw some pictures of these artistic endeavors in national magazines and on the internet, I decided to bring that art form to our community,” said Michelle Boyd, local artist and wife of Laguna Beach Councilman Kelly Boyd.

Boyd, who earlier this Spring got permission from the Board of Directors at the Sawdust Festival, put together a small group of volunteers, “many who’d never knitted or crocheted before, and we met several days a week for over three months to prepare to adorn some of the Sawdust Festival trees with our creations; which we did just a day before the show opened.”

The group, calling themselves, “The Twisted Stitchers Club,” even got some support from the Suzy Q Center; “their creation adorns the biggest tree on the Sawdust Festival Grounds,” Boyd said, “and it’s so appropriate with the sea-life they incorporated into their design.”

Boyd, who said she loves “sharing and inspiring” this art form, added that their creations are not for sale on the Sawdust Festival grounds, “or anywhere we put them for that matter; we just want people who gather anywhere to enjoy art.”  The yarn bombing artwork installed by the Twisted Stitchers Club will remain on trees on the Sawdust grounds now through Monday, July 11. Be sure to check out samplings of this unique movement before then.

To check out more details about the Sawdust Art Festival’s 45th annual summer season and calendar of events, please visit www.sawdustartfestival.org or call 949-494-3030. The Sawdust Art Festival is open 10-10 daily June 24 through August 28, and is located at 935 Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach with free City trolley service to and from the Act V parking lot. Admission prices are: Adults $7.75, Seniors (65+) $6.25, Children (6-12) $3.25, Children (5 & under) Free; Summer Season Pass $15; Annual Pass $20.

The Sawdust Art Festival is a non-profit art organization dedicated to educating the public and promoting the art created in Laguna Beach.

The Sawdust Art Festival thanks its 2011 sponsors Honda, 104.3 MYfm, Hoegaarden and Kendall-Jackson.

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