wahine toa

A collaborative exploration of the Willendorf Venus.

Bringing together a community of makers to contribute to an installation celebrating mana wahine and the beauty of the female form. The hand makers used either a crochet pattern to recreate the Venus or a knitted pattern, depending on their stitching preferences.

The works (left to right) are:

Alison Milne

Anna Hanson

Juliette Laird

Melanie Pritchard

Debbie Cole

Sue Elliott

About the Venus of Willendorf

The Venus of Willendorf is an 11.1-centimetre-tall (4.4 in) Venus figurine estimated to have been made 30,000 BCE.[1][2] It was found on August 7, 1908, by a workman named Johann Veran[3] or Josef Veram[4] during excavations conducted by archaeologists Josef Szombathy, Hugo Obermaier, and Josef Bayer at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, a village in Lower Austria near the town of Krems.[5][6] It is carved from an oolitic limestone that is not local to the area, and tinted with red ochre. The figurine is now in the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria - as sourced from Wikipaedia.

About Amigurumi | Willendorf Venus

As Patrycja says “if you are a history lover, a cultural assets’ collector or always wanted to have a Willendorf Venus at home without actually having to rob the NHM, you can now make your very own crochet Venus following my pattern below; for a jail-free curriculum vitae and a naked, 11 cm (like the original!) decoration at home.”

Technical Information: