Cutting Fabric to See Differently
On a recent trip to Pittsburgh I was finally able to visit the Andy Warhol Museum. As much as I am ambivalent about his iconic pop culture status (and his films), I have always appreciated the way his work makes us look at things differently. The repeating images and color distortions force the viewer to look again and notice things that our brains typically gloss over. I experimented with these techniques in my own artwork when I was a youngster.
I'm now circling back to my Warhol-ian inspiration in some of my quilting. My first attempt was this Elvis Quilt (available on Etsy). Along the bottom of the quilt you can see different neon blocks of dancing Elvises. The fabric was a series of these panels. The fabric feels a bit like Warhol in its raw format because of the neon colors and the sharp contrasts between the black and white clothes and the bright backgrounds.
I used the One Block Wonder technique to go even farther in the Warhol direction. This means I took six panels with the exact same image and stacked them on top of one another. I then cut triangles and sewed them together to make hexagons of repeating images. You can see these hexagons most clearly with the faces below.
As a side note, Elvis was a subject of Andy's work as well. I saw this piece of eight life-sized screen prints of Elvis at the museum. He was fascinated with celebrities and used his art to draw attention to the ways that being a celebrity distorted how we saw people. I love art when the visual effect is also a commentary on some aspect of social life.
After returning from this trip, I came up with another way that I could use repeating images in my sewing. Instead of making hexagons, I could cut narrow strips of stacked fabrics and create new visual effects. Here's an example of the fabric print in whole and then what it looks like to repeat the images. When you repeat the images, your eye is drawn to several things. In some of the sets, you can more clearly pick out the type of succulent featured. In other sets, the pots or the background prints become much more dominant. In both cases, the the repeated images make the colors more vibrant and the shapes take a new form.
I decided that this repeating images layout would be nice for a small pencil or make-up bag. I added a zipper and contrasting liner, and loved it so much that I made another. And another. And some more! All of these bags are available on Etsy, but here are a few pictures of the final products.
I love how these turned out. This is also a great way to use up fabrics in your stash. I recommend using fabrics with a strong motif and moderate to high contrast. Also, matching the fabrics exactly can be tricky, and some producers are better than others at consistency in printing. For example, I tried to create a repeated pattern with this feather fabric, but it looks like the fabric shifted during printing and one set of feathers was distorted. I made the most of it and turned this bag into a mix of strips, with no repeating pattern.
Like with Warhol art, I love that these new designs make me stop and look at the fabric with a new set of eyes.
I'm now circling back to my Warhol-ian inspiration in some of my quilting. My first attempt was this Elvis Quilt (available on Etsy). Along the bottom of the quilt you can see different neon blocks of dancing Elvises. The fabric was a series of these panels. The fabric feels a bit like Warhol in its raw format because of the neon colors and the sharp contrasts between the black and white clothes and the bright backgrounds.I used the One Block Wonder technique to go even farther in the Warhol direction. This means I took six panels with the exact same image and stacked them on top of one another. I then cut triangles and sewed them together to make hexagons of repeating images. You can see these hexagons most clearly with the faces below.
After returning from this trip, I came up with another way that I could use repeating images in my sewing. Instead of making hexagons, I could cut narrow strips of stacked fabrics and create new visual effects. Here's an example of the fabric print in whole and then what it looks like to repeat the images. When you repeat the images, your eye is drawn to several things. In some of the sets, you can more clearly pick out the type of succulent featured. In other sets, the pots or the background prints become much more dominant. In both cases, the the repeated images make the colors more vibrant and the shapes take a new form.
I love how these turned out. This is also a great way to use up fabrics in your stash. I recommend using fabrics with a strong motif and moderate to high contrast. Also, matching the fabrics exactly can be tricky, and some producers are better than others at consistency in printing. For example, I tried to create a repeated pattern with this feather fabric, but it looks like the fabric shifted during printing and one set of feathers was distorted. I made the most of it and turned this bag into a mix of strips, with no repeating pattern.
Like with Warhol art, I love that these new designs make me stop and look at the fabric with a new set of eyes.
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