Undertow, 2021
Cotton Rope, Drift Wood, Kancan Denim
“When I'm creating art, it can be either very smooth sailing the whole time or it can be a big rollercoaster ride”
-Rachel Breuklander
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Rachel is a Southern California fiber artist, working primarily with macramé and weaving techniques. She loves spending time out in nature with her pup Finn, traveling, and camping- and her love for the outdoors often inspires her work. You will often find her incorporating themes of desert landscapes or ocean scenery into her work. She enjoys using organic, natural fibers and playing with color and texture to explore new techniques in her fiber art.
MEANING OF DENIM
Rachel describes denim as representing confidence. She further explains how she always feels her best when she wears jeans and a plain T-Shirt, which is something most of us can relate to. Rachel displays this confidence during our interview while showing us how she makes her macramé pieces, all while wearing her own favorite pair of jeans.
“I always feel the most confident when I'm wearing denim”
-Rachel Breuklander
ABOUT THE WORK
The title of Rachel's piece is Undertow, which is the current below the surface current of the ocean. She explains how she wanted her art to show movement, which she accomplishes by using both light wash and dark wash denim pieces to display depth and motion, just as the ocean does. The incorporation of both denim and cotton rope allowed her to further mimic elements of the sea by creating a foam like detail by knotting together the cotton rope on the bottom half of her art. Rachel also told us how she found a piece of drift wood while hiking that eventually became the "hanger" for her macramé, a rather distinct creative touch.
“You go back and forth between 'I love this, I hate this, what am I doing, where is this gonna end up?' and then the final product is 'I love this again'”
-Rachel Breuklander
Website: thelarksheadshop.com
Instagram: @thelarksheadshop
