Messenger Bag Revisited

Last week I decided to revisit a project that I made almost 6 years ago, a messenger bag made with plarn and featuring arrow designs.  You may remember me mentioning it last month in my post crocheting with plastic bags; a six year journey.

I had a lot of fun with this project.

Before I even started, I dug out the original bag from a box in the attic.  It looked really sad. The edges are all wonky from lack of knowledge in crochet, and because I used to use it quite a bit, it was more than just a little worn looking.

The last time I went thrift store shopping I bought a bunch of old fabric strap belts with metal rings to use as bag straps.  I got the idea from my friend Chris and her mother while at the Car Kulture Show last month.

I decided that a messenger-style bag would be the perfect application for one of these belts.

The pattern of this bag is very simple and almost identical to the original, except of course for the strap and the placement of the arrows. I also decided to incorporate some pink bags to go with the strips in the strap.

So what do you think?  Do you like how my new one came out?

If you really dig this bag and you live in the Cleveland area you will be able to purchase it from the gift shop at MOCA (museum of contemporary art; Cleveland) as of this Friday, September 23rd which marks their very last opening reception at their current location at 8501 Carnegie Ave, Cleveland.

For their farewell season they’ll be showcasing the works of sculpture Ursula Van Rydingsvard who is a “distinctive and compelling voice in contemporary art” and is “best known for creating large-scale, often monumental cedar sculptures that exude great physical and psycological power.  Her sinature abstract shapes refer to things in the real world–simple vessles, bowls, tools and other obejcts–each revealing the mark of the human hand while also summoning natural forms and forces.”

After dropping off nearly all of the plarn items that I have made to date at MOCA this morning I was privalaged to a sneak peak of the exhibit and let me just say it’s very impressive!  If you are in the Cleveland area this is a must-see for sure!  The opening is free and open to the public and will start at 7pm, but come early at 6 to hear Ursula talk about her work in person.

Going to the birds

I’ve been working on some more small-scale fabric collages (5 x 7) yesterday and today and came up several designs; three of which have been completed. I’m fairly happy with the Pretty in Pink Bird (above), but not too excited about my Rubber Ducky (below). I think my favorite is the Angry Mama Bird. Tell me what you think.  As I mentioned in my previous post I’m looking for a constructive critique of my new work.

Wanted: Constructive Critique

Today I am sharing some fabric collages that I’ve been working on lately in hopes to get some responses from my readers.  So if anyone is out there, please have a look and respond with your thoughts with a comment.

The following tells a meandering tale of how it is that I came to make fabric collages, so please bare with me.

It all started when I was accepted to participate in another indie craft fair organized by the Cleveland Craft Coalition.  Though the show is called Spring Showers and has a loose shower theme (think baby and bridal), they also excepted me as an “other” vendor, meaning that although I didn’t fit into those categories they’d let me participate anyway.

I haven’t really found my niche yet, so I’ve been trying to play around with a lot of different materials and mediums, mostly trying to incorporate materials that I already have on hand while trying to come up with a somewhat cohesive collection of products.

Thinking spring, I started crocheting a bunch of brightly colored flowers then added fun buttons and made them into hair clips.

While thinking about how I could display them at a craft fair I came across a small stash of old, wooden picture frames.  I grabbed one of the frames, attached some strips of bedsheet  fabric and vola!  A hair clip display!

I propped the display frame against the window on my work table so that I could look at it and decide what to do next.  The hair clips were fun to make, but at the last CCC craft bazaar a few other vendors where also selling hair clips (all of which were super cute!).  Though mine aren’t like the ones being sold at Bella Dubby last month, I thought it was probably best to focus my attention on making something other than hair accessories.  So, it was back to the drawing board…

Looking at the flower hair clip display gave me an idea though.  I really liked the way they looked with the frame and started to ponder how I could make some visual art incorporating the crochet flowers.

Of course this lead me to pull out all my fabric…

Playing around with materials, I came up with the following four pieces.  All of the following four pieces are intended to be put in frames, though only some of them are photographed that way. Also, keep in mind that I intend that the frames be painted white (something that I need to do on Tuesday when it will be a bit warmer I hope).  The first two pieces are 8″ x 10″ and the other three are 11″ x 14″.  These aren’t the best photos, but they give you an idea of what I’m talking about…

To create these fabric collages I was stitching the layers together both by hand and with my sewing machine. In some parts I was also using some really old (and extremely wrinkled) stitch witchery to adhere some of the layers together, mostly to help with the sewing.

Soon I ran out of the little stitch witchery that I had so I went to Pat Catans to see if I could buy some more. What I found was something that was similar in concept, but this stuff came on a role and had a piece of paper on one side that you peel off so as to adhere one fabric to the other. It was a lot more controlled and precise than what I had been using, but on the packaging (which I had failed to read throughly before buying) said not to use if sewing was needed. Hmmm…

Since I was half way through a design I was working on already, I decided to give it a try. Here’s the result:

Above; moose antlers, 11″ x 14″

Interesting, but not exactly what I had in mind.

The new fabric adhesive product gave me an idea for making smaller projects though.  Up until this point I was limited to how much detail I could get with the fabric pieces.  Make them too small and the pieces would lose their definition if they frayed at all.  This fabric adhesive, however, made my cutting precise and kept the cut fabric looking sharp.  That made me think that it would lend itself to more of a graphic look.  My original idea was to use mat board in conjunction with painting stretchers.  I have several reclaimed modular stretcher segments but the lengths are pretty long.  I wanted to work with a smaller, more intimate scale, at least for now.  I’m much happier with the way these last two came out yesterday.  They are both roughly 5″ x 7″ and mounted on some scrap double thick mat board and remind me of post cards (hmm…this sounds like another idea…).   I like the way that the base fabric wraps around the board, giving a nice, finished look.  I can attach a small piece of hardware to the back for easy hanging; making a frame unnecessary (ironic, since the frames are what lead me to make hangable art in the first place).

Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think about this direction that I’m headed.  That’s one thing I miss the most about being in art school, the  constant access to peers and professors ready and willing to give their opinions about your work.