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Crochet creations on show in new exhibition

Janine Giles-Holmes with 'Adam' Pics by Eyleen Gomez

Janine Giles-Holmes passion for her intricate hobby crochet is evident in her latest exhibition currently being held at The Nook in the Arts and Crafts Centre, in Casemates.

Ms Giles-Holmes is most known for her crotchet mice. However, her dolls, bags, flowers, clothes and jewellery are also becoming well known pieces.

“Originally, I started doing the mice many, many years ago. Jyske Bank ordered a lot of them for two years running for promotional purposes and then I did a scarf with the name of the bank,” she said.

Part of her exhibition includes a bride and groom, ballerinas and now also larger mice, including ones made with plush wool making it very soft to touch.

Hours upon hours go into each creation and the smaller the item the more fiddley they are and time consuming it can be.

Also, these fiddly works affect her tendentious and she is currently experiencing a flare up with due to making more mice over last weekend.

From mice she moved onto making the dolls, with her favourite ‘Adam’ being the first boy one she made.

“I made the dolls and then depending on how I want them to be dressed, I make different clothes for them,” she said.

“They can have handbags and I do them in different colours.”

“The hair on these ones [pointing at Adam] takes me a day because I have to weave that in individually as each hair is weaved in.”

Ms Giles-Holmes is also a hairdresser so she also gives each doll a hair cut if required. Some have their hair in plaits and a cap which takes considerably less time than weaving the hair into the dolls head. Some of her dolls are very trendy also with different hair colours such as blue being weaved into their head of hair.

Each doll is named via popular opinion on her Facebook page.

Also in the exhibition are flowers, which she has stopped making due to the negative effects it has on her tendons. She aims to focus more on clothes, mice and the dolls.

Her bags are hand sewn lined with felt so it don’t fray.

Ms Giles-Holmes started knitting when she was young and is self-taught crochet over 30 years ago. A lot of people ask her if she could teach them. But, as she is left handed she can’t.

“I can’t teach a right handed person. Not even a mirror image because if they do something wrong you can’t take it off them to show them how to do it because it is the opposite,” she sad.

“Which is why don’t follow patterns either. Nowadays they are doing patterns for left handed but I don’t really follow patterns because I prefer being creative and making my own designs.”

The exhibition continues at The Nook until May 13 and more of Ms Giles-Holmes creations can be seen on her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/JGH-Crochet-Creations-548928868526211

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