making :: my materialized exhibition wall hanging

I think I may have said this before, but a couple of times a year I like to participate in swaps or exhibitions or the like :: they make me think outside of my day to day printing and creating, and often lead to something I love. Such was the case with making my entry for the Gleaners Inc "Materialized" exhibition. This is my finished piece ...

So the whole exhibition revolves around a little swatch of fabric we were all sent when we signed up. The fabric (design or colours or both) was our inspiration and we could make anything we liked! For me it was the colours that struck me first, and I knew I wanted to use my "Sevilla" design to reflect the almost moroccan tile design of the fabric swatch. I wanted to make a wall hanging.

I chose a deep indigo denim to print on - for both the colour and the weight as I wanted it to hang nicely. Once I had worked out which colours I would use (mint, mustard, lavender, pink and blue), the ink was mixed and the slow process of taping and printing for each colour began ...

The finished printed area is quite large - larger than the screen, so I had to "join" up the design for length, which meant double printing of all five colours for each section! All in all it took me about 5 hours to complete the printing, which I did over a couple of days.

The finished piece was then sewn to include two rods - one for hanging at the top, and one for weight at the bottom. The whole thing measures about 1.2m long by 55cm wide. I love the scale.

I know when I've made something special when Mr Yardage says, "let's just keep it and hang it in the house"! Of course, I didn't keep this one. It is currently on display at Gleaners Inc in Brunswick for the month of March. There is a little opening night drinkies tonight if you happen to be in Melbourne.

And, incase you were wondering, this wall hanging is for sale. Contact Liz at Gleaners Inc for details. I am in the process of printing myself another one just for us {and for you too if you would like :: just send me an email}.

Have a great weekend!