Winter months can be dreary, but residents and visitors of Port Aransas have more to look forward to than Christmas lights going up during the holiday season. The Bollard Buddies project is brightening up the shore of Nueces County beach for the ninth year with a collection of crocheted, knitted, sewed, or glued together coverings that range from intricate patterns to iconic characters.
When Diana Vondra, the creator of the Bollard Buddies project, first stumbled across a yarn bombed street in Avignon, France in 2015, she immediately thought of the South Texas coastal city she currently calls home. She felt that the plain wooden bollards along Port Aransas’ shore that prevent cars from driving onto the beach would be the perfect canvas for her own yarn-bombing stunt. Little did she know that the first 82 buddies she made in 2016 would grow into a project with over 500 buddies crafted by herself and volunteers, stretching from Horrace Caldwell Pier to the stone jetties.
“It started very simple,” Vondra says. “And now, some of these projects are just unbelievable.”
Bollard Buddies was initially intended to be a way for Vondra and the group of women who crocheted hats at Port Aransas’ Presbyterian Church for nursing homes to use their yarn scraps. Now it’s transformed into an annual event that begins between Christmas and New Year’s and continues until March, drawing visitors from near and far to both admire the buddies and create their own.
Fran Low is from Ontario, Canada, but she’s been making the almost 1,500-mile trek to Port Aransas for the past five years. She stumbled upon some of the smiling buddies during her first visit to the city, and as a crocheter herself was immediately inspired to create Canadian Mountie and Canadian goose coverings.
“I couldn’t believe the creativity and the opportunity to be able to display crochet,” she says. “What initially drew me was that you took something ugly and turned it into something that people could appreciate.”
Fan favorites include music icons Dolly Parton, Cher, and Bob Marley as well as characters like the Hungry Caterpillar, Bluey, and Arnie the Armadillo, who holds and empty Lone Star Beer in his crocheted hands. Other buddies represent sports teams and colleges like the University of Iowa, Wisconsin’s Green Bay Packers, and the Minnesota Vikings.
Candace Tidmore has made about 30 buddies, including Arnie the Armadillo, Vincent Van Gogh, and Harry Potter. She’s no stranger to yarn bombing. Previously, she crocheted a covering for her car that she drove through Corpus Christi’s Barefoot Mardi Gras where someone spotted her and told her about Vondra and the Bollard Buddies project.
“It really is a fun, funky art installation,” Tidmore says. “They have a life beyond the beach.”
During the months when the buddies are “unemployed,” they’re safely packed away in one of 26 bins that Vondra stores in a spare bedroom. Though, occasionally, they can be found roaming around town. Pictures on the Yarn Bombing & Bollard Buddies in Port A Facebook Group show them visiting local businesses, having drinks together, or, as is the case with Bob Ross, stationed at the Art Center of Port Aransas.
While buddies are retired after a couple of years due to wear and tear, Vondra tries to preserve them for as long as she can. But new buddies are created each year to keep the project fresh for new and returning visitors.
“Some people come from miles to see them,” Low says. “It’s well worth the visit.”
