Archive for Wearable art

Some More From my NeMaS Wearable Art Collection – Magenta Jacket

Commercial jacket embellished with appliques,buttons, beads, and ribbonThe final piece from my NeMaS wearable art wardrobe is this commercial silk jacket that I embellished with appliques, buttons, beads, and ribbons. I used to wear this out to dressy dinners and got quite a lot of compliments on it. As with some of my other wearable art, this quilt on my body did not have much on the back. I quickly discovered that sitting against a chair back with bulky buttons poking into me was not very comfortable, so the back of this is bare as far as embellishments go. As with some of the other pieces of clothing, there was a limit as to how far up a sleeve I could decorate, and how far down into a pocket I could sew buttons and other additions to the wearable “canvas” I was creating on this commercially made jacket.

Detail of button, bead, and ribbon embellishment at top of magenta jacketIn this detail shot of the top of the jacket, you can see the pleated gold ribbon that I put down the front. It was way too stiff to put around the neck, so I left the part of the soft, silk collar that was against my neck plain as I hate scratchy things. I did couch down some flat burgundy and gold braid on the seam where the collar meets the body of the jacket. I machine embroidered on some fabric motifs that I had left over from a quilt that I had just completed. One of my favorite motifs at the time, a black rose on a purple background, is shown just to the bottom left middle of the detail photo above. This was 1985, and Woody Allen had just come out with the movie, “The Purple Rose of Cairo“. The title of the name intrigued me, as I love clever word phrases. Also, being an avid rose gardener, there were no purple roses on the market at the time. Yes, I know that this is a black rose (none of them for sale either), but this fabric was as close as I could get to something that was vaguely like the title. Of course, there were buttons to add to the front; I can always find a place for some buttons!

Bottom edge of front of jacket embellished with appliques, buttons, beads and ribbonsHere is the bottom edge of the front of the jacket that has a natural curve upwards where the two sides meet. More gold ribbons, more black lace, and buttons, buttons, buttons. If you look at the flat gold and burgundy braid to the left of the pleated gold ribbon, you’ll see that the way the gold piping on the edge moves in and out makes tiny burgundy circles. (Sort of little mini button-like motifs.) Then I added a different flat gold ribbon to repeat the color of the pleated one. Next came vertical rows of gold buttons of two types to play off of the rows of ribbons. I like to repeat similar sizes, colors and shapes, but on different scales to enhance the composition. It’s kind of fun to look down and see lots of details when you’re wearing something like this.

I’m often asked how do you clean something like this and the answer is that you don’t. No dry cleaner would take a piece like this without you removing all of the embellishments. If I wore in a restaurant back when people smoked at dinner, I would hang the jacket outside for a day to air out. I did spot clean small areas on my wearable art clothing when needed, and there was a wine disaster on one piece that needed some additional appliques to be sewn on to cover up the stain. I wish that I had stored this jacket in a cloth clothes bag, because when I brought it out to photograph it, even though it had been in a closet for years, the shoulders had faded some. Using a silk jacket to embellish was a risk because of the silk’s fragile nature, but I did enjoy wearing this piece out to dinner.

Have you made any wearable art and what did you learn about embellishments, and care of the piece. Did you find that your work was commercially viable or did you care?

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my healing work at www.hearthealing.net and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Wearing Love on my Jacket

Commercial jacket with appliques and button and bead embellishmentBack in the 80s, I was embellishing a number of commercial garments with appliques and button and bead additions. This one I call my “Love Jacket” because of the “Love” pin on the left side of the zipper. It’s patterned after a US Postal Service stamp that came out around then for Valentine Day love letters. This bomber style jacket came with the large gold “fingerprint” motifs already stenciled on the jacket, so I wanted to add my own “touch” with the embellishments. There are a number of stars in various forms, and some circular designs that I like to collect in my fabric stash, as their shapes play off the round shapes of most buttons. There are a number of zippered pockets, and the problem with getting designs sewn onto the pocket, was being able to reach far enough into the pocket to fasten on the motif without sewing through the entire pocket. I would suggest that before you start such a venture, make sure that you can get your hand easily into whatever part of the piece of clothing you’re trying to embellish.

Back of commercial jacket with appliques and button and bead embellishmentsThe back of the jacket didn’t get as much embellishment, because, well, if I can’t see it, then it’s not as important. It’s sort of like one of my cats who thinks he’s hidden when his head is under the bed, even though his whole back end is sticking out. There are some French-like words stenciled on the back, but they don’t make a whole phrase. I used some shisha mirrors to add shine, replicate the circular fabric motifs that I sewed on the back, and to repeat the large circle at the bottom of the jacket. While it’s still easy to find sources for those mirrors on line, the little gold and solver covers with tiny pearls that hold the mirrors in place no longer seem to be available. They’re an example of a design element that when you find that you like them, then buy as many as you can afford, as they probably will quit making them at some point.

Detail of front of commercial jacket embellished with buttons, beads, and appliquesThis detail photo of the front of this embellished jacket shows the red, green, and purple “Love” pin at the bottom of the jacket to the left of the zipper in this photo. There’s one of those shisha mirrors up next to the knit collar, also on the left in the photo. There’s another one in the right middle, where I repeated the round shapes with a number of clock faces. Time marches on, as does Love, and I suppose I could go on and get quite pensive here, but I’ll spare you the ramblings. Suffice it to say that my life has changed drastically, for the better, I might add, since this jacket was first made.

This style of jacket was so much a product of the 80s, as were the embellishments. I did frequently wear it, even to school when I taught 7th grade science. I imagine that the kids, now parents, still remember their wacky science teacher. I however, had great, good fun wearing my art on me and showing others what I had created.

How do you show others what you create? Are you big and bold, or do you hide your work in your studio or closet? If you don’t go public, why not??? 

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my healing work at www.hearthealing.net and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

An Ethnic Vest from my NeMaS Days – Magenta it is!

Front of hand appliqued and quilted Ethnic VestBack of hand appliqued and quilted Ethnic VestIn a previous posting, I wrote about how I considered starting a tribe of one, the NeMaS people, because gallery owners kept telling me that my work was “too ethnic”. Well, a woman has to have more than one outfit, so I started making some clothes to show off my work. This is a hand appliqued and quilted. waist-length, size medium (was then, sigh!) vest for dressier occasions than the blue jean vest in the last posting. The first photo shows the front; the second is a view of the back. There’s no shaping or darts to tell the front from the back, as this is basically a “bib” type top. It slips on over the head and ties on the sides. I was flat chested enough at the time that I didn’t need to wear a bra under it, nor could anyone really tell that I wasn’t. The piece used several commercial “Bavarian” style woven ribbons that I bought at a “jobber’s store” by the reel. (A jobber is someone who buys up huge lots of fabric, ribbons, zippers, buttons, etc that didn’t sell well, and then re-sells them at a huge discount.) I used to spend quite a bit of time in that store, until one day, I went and it had sold and moved; no info given. I hate it when that happens!

Detail of front of hand appliqued, hand quilted ethnic vestIn this detail of the front, you can see that the hand quilting did not quite get all of the areas to lay flat. The central design motif, now, looks to me like a cross-eyed owl. However, that certainly was not my intent at the time. I was just arranging shapes, colors, and designs in a pleasing pattern. The orange stripe down either side is actually made of small, orange, print fabric pleats. They give another textural interest to the surface besides the flat appliques. Each of the appliques had their raw edges turned under by hand and then stitched into place. I became “consistently inconsistent” for while the original shapes were cut off with plastic templates that were quite precise, sewing them down wasn’t always so even.

Detail of front of hand appliqued, hand quilted ethnic vestThe back of the vest, has similar issues regarding having all the areas lay consistently flat. The motif doesn’t seem to have the “face” look that the front does, and is more typical of the ethnic or geometric style that I was using at the time. I love bright colors, (another reason that gallery owners said my work was so ethnic), and I naturally gravitated to complementary colors like purple and yellow. Purple is also my favorite colors so it appears in a lot of my work.

So instead of wearing my “art on  my sleeve”, I made clothes to show off what I was creating at the time. It certainly made for a lot of great conversations at parties and events, as there was definitely no one showing up with the same outfit. I got a few commissions by being my own walking sign board, and helped to promote my art as well. However, these days, the Internet is so much more efficient to spread the word about what I’m doing. After all, most of you, I’ve met through this blog, so thanks for telling others about me.

Have you ever worn any of your art work and how did that turn out for you. If you haven’t, then what’s holding you back from doing so???

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my healing work at www.hearthealing.net and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

You Can’t Have too Many Buttons, can you? Wearing your Passion on your Jacket.

Jean Jacket covered in buttons and pinsI have always had a passion for buttons. Lots of them! So when in 1978, when I saw Jacqueline Bisset in the movie, “Who’s Killing the Great Chefs of Europe” wearing a jean jacket covered with buttons, I knew that I NEEDED one. However, her’s was totally covered with buttons, and at the time, I was just starting my acquisitions, so I decided to make my own.

I began with a navy corduroy jacket, that I outgrew, and so transferred what I had sewn on that one to a more sturdy jean jacket. That one wore out, and so I transferred the buttons and pins over to the new one. I can’t remember if the jacket in this photo is the 3rd or 4th version of my wearable collection, but it is indeed the current one that is hanging in my studio.

Besides buttons and pins, my brother gave me his lieutenant’s bars from the Army to grace the shoulders. There are some other treasures that you’ll see in the following photos, such as patch from the cruise ship, the QE2. However, most of the items seen on the jacket are metal buttons as they seem to hold up the best.

Top of jean jacket showing butons and pinsHere in this photo of the top of the jacket, I’ve used black arrows to point out some of the details that mean a lot to me. The upper arrow on the left of the photo points to a pin of a pair of deers whose heads are touching lovingly. Walt Disney’s movie “Bambi” was a favorite of mine, and I got that pin for Christmas in the 2nd grade, as I also has a dress with deer on it. The black under that one on the left is of a “hep cat” pin, that was a remnant of the Beatnik era from the 50s when I was little. Not quite sure why I kept those pins, but they stayed in the bottom of my jewelry box for years until they came to live on this jacket.

The black arrow on the right is an insignia that I bought from a Russian soldier in Hungary. The Russian army had pulled out and the soldiers were forced to pay their own way back home. Many were selling pieces of their uniforms to buy a train ticket, and so I felt sorry for the young man who had been abandoned by his country. His red star in the middle of a half wreath of silver leaves may have been a war decoration for all I know.

In this photo I wanted to show you that I added buttons upIn this photo I wanted to show you that I added buttons up the bottom of each sleeve as far up as I could reach inside to sew them on. Apparently, many military uniforms had buttons on the sleeves so that the soldiers wouldn’t wipe their noses on them. While I have never been tempted to do that, the buttons do make me very much aware of where the ends of the sleeves are, as because their edges project, they easily get tangled on things.

Here in the States, there is a long tradition of button peddlers who wore their wares on their jackets. As they went from town to town, the seller would cut off the buttons that were needed for purchasers in each town they came to. In England, a 19th century street sweeper collected money for those even worse off than he was. He decorated his clothes with buttons to call attention to himself and to aid in his charity drives. That tradition has been carried down into the present by “Pearlies” in London. They have a ball and an official web site. Their suits and dresses are totally covered in white pearl buttons sewn in patterns. What I want to know is how they sew the buttons all the way up their sleeves?

Buttons are a big part of my life and I’m constantly looking for ways to display and wear them. In a past blog, I wrote about my button bracelets (scroll halfway down the page to see them.) While I’m not sure that you can have too many, buttons, wearing as many as are on the jacket can be heavy. I’m just glad that I never fell into a pool while wearing this jacket, as I’m not sure I could get it off fast enough before sinking.

How do you show your passion for your art? Have you figured out a way to wear any elements of your media?

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form below or by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com (be patient as it loads; it’s worth it), my healing work at www.hearthealing.net and can find me on Google + , Facebook (for Transition Portals) Facebook (for Fiber Fantasies),  and Twitter.

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.