Fish Bag

As part of my Textiles Degree work I was required to design a functional item from scratch and include many of the techniques covered thus far in the course material. I decided I would like to create a bag and had been spending time sketching in koi carp and goldfish in a "Japanese" style using watercolours and pencil. The idea for the fish bag kind of carried itself along, resulting in the piece below, which I feel has a personality all of its own!

The "Live" side of the Fish Bag

Close up of the tail of the fish, I appliquéd, fabric painted and quilted the tail

I created the gills through fabric manipulation and folding, then added the  gold padded detail using hand stitched appliqué 

I freehand quilted the body of the fish and created the fins using the same techniques as the tail

Close up of the quilting hand painting and appliqué used to create the scales of the fish

The reverse of the bag - Ghost Fish

I deliberately left the appliquéd edges and quilting rough to give the impression of decay

I chose a raw silk to give the feeling of cold, and and carefully quilted around the silver fabric paint to give the impression of a fish bone