Kittie Kipper's plan for a sustainable art installation as part of our Heritage Celebration Week is a great way to get crafty during lockdown!
Using ghost nets collected from the beach at Tide Mills and Seaford, Kittie’s plan is to weave together hundreds (or even thousands!) of woven circles to link together the many different parts of Tide Mills. Using her crafty kits and tutorial videos, you can help to create this fantastic piece of art and clean the beach at the same time.
Kittie is a fibre artist and weaver using foraged plastic materials, primarily ghost nets, to try and encourage makers and creatives of all ages to use materials that are already in existence as discarded waste. Clearing ghost nets is vital for ocean health as well as mammals fish and birds.
Find out more about Ghost Net Weaving...
In your kit will be a needle, some raffia and some green ghost net.
Ghost net? That sounds spooky right! Here is some information on what these mysterious nets are, and why it’s important to help get them out of our oceans…
Ghost nets don’t trap ghosts, but they do trap fish, turtles, seahorses, dolphins, whales and lots of other sea creatures. Its name comes from the very sad reason, that many of our precious sea creatures die when they get caught up in them.
Ghost nets start out as fishing nets. They become ghost nets when fishermen lose their fishing nets over board. Because they are lost at sea, there isn’t a fishing boat to pull the nets back up, so they drift around in the water as they travel on the currents.
Because fishing nets are designed to catch as many fish as possible, when they are no longer attached to a fishing boat they are STILL fishing. They rise up with the heat from the sun, and drop down deeper at night when it’s cold. This means they catch animals from up at the top of the water, and right down at the bottom
Animals cannot free themselves from these nets. Because of this they sadly die whilst they are trapped. This in turn means bigger fish come looking for food and then THEY get trapped too! It’s a very sad thing so it’s time we do something about it!
Every piece of net we can take out of nature will mean our marine life, or animals that live in the sea, won’t get stuck in them. This has a positive impact on the marine environment. It’s very important to look after the ocean. Every second breath you take comes from the plants and the plankton under the sea, so a healthy ocean means a healthy planet.
By making a big art piece from these nets, we can share the story of what a danger ghost nets are, and teach more people about getting them out of the sea. You are doing an important job!! So let’s make something great together for the animals in the sea. They need your help, so let’s get weaving!
Everybody’s circles will be woven together before and during the Tide Mills Project Heritage Celebration week, joining all the parts of the site together! Please return all of your woven circles back to the same place that you got your kit (most likely from your school or from Kittie directly).
If you’re an individual and would like to get hold of one of the kits to take part, please contact Kittie Kipper via Instagram. If you’re a teacher or group leader, please contact us.
