Pictured: The anatomically correct model of the human brain Art made of wool

As complicated to create as the brain is intricate, a psychiatrist has knitted herself an exact replica of the human body's most complex organ.

Taking Karen Norberg almost a year to knit, the 1.5 scale brain is colour-coded to represent the different elements and areas that make up the human mind.

Knitted using 100 percent cotton yarn, the woolen brain is nine inches at its longest excluding the spinal cord that exudes from its base.

Ms Norberg says: 'The traditional fibre arts - including knitting and crochet - are a very flexible medium for making complex forms,'

'The process of construction was also much more similar to the actual growth of a real brain than it would have been if I'd been using a material such as clay or metal.

'You can see very naturally how the 'rippling' effect of the cerebral cortex emerges from properties that probably have to do with nerve cell growth.
'In the case of knitting, the effect is created by 'increasing' the number of stitches in each row.'

A passionate knitter in her spare time, Ms Norberg, from Boston, was inspired to attempt the challenge of knitting a human organ.

She said: 'I was ready to start a new project, and was looking for something related to the human body, that would also have an element of humour,'

'In this case, for me, there are two humorous aspects: one is simply to undertake such a ridiculously complex, time consuming project for no practical reason; the second is the idea of making a somewhat mysterious and difficult object - a brain - out of a 'cuddly', cheerfully coloured, familiar material like cotton yarn.'


Knitting each of the brains' different cores separately and then joining them together through a stitch, Karen spent over one year on and off creating her brain art in her down time.

'I begin by constructing separate elements that make sense as related structural forms - the brainstem, the cerebellum, the deep structures involved in memory and emotion (like the amygdala and hippocampus), and then the cortex,' says Dr Norberg.

'Then I assembled the parts together. The spinal cord consists of straight strands of string extending backwards from the base of what's called the brainstem.'
Karen's brain art caused such a stir amongst her colleagues that the Boston Museum of Science now has a permanent exhibit for it.

'The brain is the seat of the mind; but it is a biological, evolved structure - we're extremely good at doing things that our computers (so far) find difficult, and we're bad at doing things computers can do well,' says Karen.

Lost for ways to fill her spare time, Karen is now exploring ways of furthering her incredible brain art.

'I'm thinking of posters or t-shirts, but I am not so sure whether people will want to walk around with a knitted brain on the front of their clothes,' says Karen.

Intricate and painstaking, Karen's brain art is definitely the smart way to use a ball of wool.

Related Posts by Categories