Balita Knits

•  Balita Knits are wonderfull creations by the lovely Barbara Gaete who hails from Chile. She is a backpacker who is knitting on the road and currently resides in Brisbane.
  
  How do you create your work.
  
  I'm an experiential kind of person. I've been always creating things, and handicraft in general is my passion. If I choose to do things by hand, is because I like the original way of making things. Trying to be as far as possible from machines. I like it also because I feel it like a kind of meditation or therapy, and in the process of making something with hands, is when I can really connect with what I'm doing.
  
  That's why I do everything by hand :Needle knitting, crochet knitting, and even finger knitting. Sometimes I surf on internet looking for new ideas, but even when I find something I like, I end up changing it when I knit. This is because I like to knit and design while I'm in the process, so depends on the day, and the inspiration I have, what I can make.
  
  What inspires you to create?
  
  Everything. People, art, culture, other artists, aboriginal art, etc. While I'm travelling, I've been sticking to a certain kind of things, like accessories, because I have to move, knitting on the road. But travel is also a good source of inspirations, not just because of the new things that you can see around you, but because of the variety of experiences where you can find new feelings and emotions to express.
  
  What are your hopes for the future?
  
  Well, like I said before, one of my motivations is to help keeping the original way of making things alive. Nowadays knitting is something that old people do, but youngsters rarely learn and not even think of knitting. So boring! But the more people see me, specially travellers, the more I get request for teaching class. And there's more people who can enjoy the feeling of wearing something made by themselves, or making a gift themselves.
  
   I hope that with the time, more people can appreciate the difference of something made by hand and as a piece of art, with all the energy and dedication that the handicraft artist put on it when was creating, instead something made in massive production, full of alienation, rush, competition, production for profit, and of course, I have to say, unacceptable working conditions.
  
  Name a few things that make you happy?
  
  When people can recognize their own roots and culture, and keep it alive. When they can recognize themselves as part of it, and feel so proud of being that, so they could say it out loud, and defend it from everything. There's nothing more important than where we come from, and I think artists, we have the duty of showing people what are we, through the arts.
  
  Who are some of your favourite Artists?
  
  Victor Jara (writer and singer), and Violeta Parra (writer, singer and plastic artist), both icons of Chilean folklore, and they dedicate their lives to spread our culture, in different ways. I follow mostly Violeta Parra, because of her multiples skills, always giving messages behind her creations. She was famous in Europe, when in 1964 she exposed her embroideries and paintings in the Louvre museum.
  
  I always ask who peoples favourite music artists are as I like to stick a clip at the end.
  
  I'll give you a Violeta Parra song “El rin del angelito”, which talk about our old cultural believes of what happens when a baby dies, and the images in the video (from the movie "Violeta went to heaven") show what they use to do, when they had a wake before the funeral of a baby.
  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  

  
  Links
  https://www.facebook.com/balita.knits?fref=ts
  
  

  Violeta Parra - Rin del Angelito