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!
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| The "Live" side of the Fish Bag |
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| Close up of the tail of the fish, I appliquéd, fabric painted and quilted the tail |
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| I created the gills through fabric manipulation and folding, then added the gold padded detail using hand stitched appliqué |
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| I freehand quilted the body of the fish and created the fins using the same techniques as the tail |
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| Close up of the quilting hand painting and appliqué used to create the scales of the fish |
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| The reverse of the bag - Ghost Fish |
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| I deliberately left the appliquéd edges and quilting rough to give the impression of decay |
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| 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 |
