Upcycle Final Report: Fabric

Material

For my upcycling project, I chose to work with old clothes that I had laying around my closet. I’m used to painting of canvases, therefore using fabric as building unit was difficult specially having a limited color palette.

I chose to use a Styrofoam board as a base to attach all the fabric on. There is no relevance to using Styrofoam as apposed to any other material rather than it being conveniently sitting in my storage room.

Aesthetic Inspiration 

After many sketch attempts, and browsing different aesthetics I can utilize, I drew inspiration from the surreal collage images that I came across in Instagram

Manufacturing Process

I let the material lead me to what I wanted to create. I wanted to use the Sherpa jacket lining to make a polar bear. Then, I added a mountain background to bring it to life.

Next, I decided to use my Photoshop skills to fill in my sketch using the image swatches I had to make a prototype that looks like this:

Next, I started sketching on the board itself to help me visualize and better estimate the areas I needed to fill in.

I started cutting the fabric into big blocks that cover the section I needed it to cover on the board before I further tailor it to shape. Then, I used glue-gun to attach the pieces to the board.

Here’s the final results:

Lessons Learned

If I were to redo the project, I would use different type of glue because glue-gun’s heat started melting the styrofoam. It also made it emit some fumes which I don’t think were safe to inhale.

Also, I would have use stencils for all the pieces not only the bear to make the cutting and fitting process easier.

PowerPoint Presentation

Source: https://www.instagram.com/mooncrab.jpg/

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7 Comments. Leave new

  • Joshua Engmorris
    May 5, 2019 2:35 pm

    This came out really nice. I like the design process you used with photoshop to prototype. This is also a really cool way to recycle old clothes. You may get to keep some of the sentimental value of old clothes without having to hold onto things you don’t wear anymore.

    Reply
  • Something as simple as fabric you managed to make into a masterpiece. That is truly amazing! Great color choice as well. They contrast well but aid each other without detracting from the overall aesthetic

    Reply
  • I liked how you used something so simple to create this project and turned it into a piece of art. Just using fabric and scissors to create such a wonderful piece of art is truly inspiring!

    Reply
  • Hadeel, this turned out amazing. I remember you showing me this when it was in the design phase and I love how it turned out. The way that you left the silver of the background showing was also a really good idea.

    Reply
  • Danielle Glanville
    February 15, 2019 1:14 pm

    I really enjoyed your presentation because the flow of it and color choices resembled your final project. I think the idea to photoshop the design before starting was really smart and creative. It is also evident that you put a lot of thought into your design process throughout, by thinking of ways to improve. If you make one of these again, you could try using fabric glue and see if that works better than the hot glue.

    Reply
  • Christopher Seighman
    February 15, 2019 1:11 pm

    I really liked how you used Photoshop with your sketch to get a feel for how it would look before you actually cut any material! The colors really contrasted well with each other to give the piece depth.

    Reply
  • You have great taste in art! It is a great idea to use photoshop at the design phase. The final product came out really great! I think you should put a hanging mechanism on it so that you can hang it on the wall!

    Reply

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