crochet artist trevor smith crafts retro-domestic appliances from wool

portland-based crochet artist trevor smith harks back to the domestic world of the 1950s, crafting a range or retro appliances from wool. a toaster oven, digital alarm clock and an old hairdryer, all have been carefully constructed using foam armatures.

images courtesy of trevor smith

under the wings of his mother as a child, smith has had a life long interest in crafts. today he still finds himself sourcing inspiration from spreads in midcentury magazines.

‘what I’ve created is a collection of appliances, food, household items and six tea-cosies, and it sort of has a 50s, 60s, 70s retro domestic theme,’ smith said in an interview with ABC back in 2017. ‘it was sort of the space age and atomic age and a lot of the things did have a space-age design about them.’

smith uses pure wool and incorporates foam rubber, polystyrene, foamcore and wire to create the base of his forms with each piece taking 15-30 hours to make. he exhibited his woolen electronics along side a platter of similarly retro crochet foods as part of his 2018 exhibition at the michael reid sydney gallery titled ‘cocktail hour‘. 

project info

artist: trevor smith

exhibition: cocktail hour