Amanda Taylor Lipnicki

Statement

After teaching math at universities for well over a decade, I started combining various hobbies with my love for math. One of them became fuel for a body of work that has brought me great joy: the mathematics of automating patterns for crocheting and knitting model surfaces. I have also been experimenting with lighted displays, darkening spaces, and wire sculptures. Another focus of mine has been mentoring student work in math and art through teaching. This year I hope to bring a group of students from Alfred University to the Bridges conference.

Artworks

Last summer, I was thrilled to see the work of Ruth Asawa in person. Through inspection, I saw that her work was not crocheted. Rather, it is closer to knitting, but where each loop has a twist. My wire quadrics were hand-made using this cross-loop method. The work is challenging and painstaking, requiring shaping both before and after interlocking loops by hand. The patterns for these quadrics were output using the Crochet Calc program and quadrics worksheet documented by my paper provided in the link.