An ocean of life

It is often said that ours is a blue planet.

The amount of water that sustains life on Earth is a vital part of life and that gives the planet its distinctive colour. Endlessly fascinating, the oceans hide a lot of their secrets in the deeps but in the shallower waters, where humanity can easily swim, live the corals and marine creatures that need sunlight to survive.

Erik Speer, an artist who lives in New York, has a degree in marine biology but, following a diving accident, re-enrolled at Parsons and graduated with an associate science degree in fashion design. Now Erik uses his education to create large-scale wall hangings, recycling old and waste materials to knot, crochet, braid and weave pieces that are inspired by the undersea world.

If you fancy having a go for yourself head on over to this website where you can find easy-to-make knitted fish and corals. If you do not knit but want to see how others have made their own creations check out the crochetted coral on the Hyperbolic Reef project or Mlle Hipolyte’s paper crafted representations.

PS If you want to see how those amazing photographs of our blue planet from space are taken have a look at this video. Isn’t that amazing!