I have
a penchant for art history, and many of those influences can be found in my
bags. The most striking example is probably my needle felted version of Edvard
Munch’s The Scream, which took me many, many hours and ended up looking
stunning on a bright red canvas bag, custom-made to the proud new owner’s
requests.
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| The finished piece took at least 12 hours |
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| I love how the red canvas frames the design |
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| It's a big bag! There are pockets inside too |
I
loved the finished result and I’m sure I’ll make similar needle felted scenes
in the future, maybe a Monet Water Lily Pond or a Van Gogh Starry Night style
picture. The only drawback is that too much needle felting hurts my shoulder so
I have to ration the amount of time I spend per week on a project.
A far
easier to make artist inspired bag was my own Frida Kahlo bag. A friend bought
me a Frida themed cushion for my birthday with the express intention that I
made myself a bag with it, so I did! The image itself wasn’t a gaudy modern
interpretation (and I’ve seen some really shitty ‘Frida homages’ in recent
years…), but instead a photograph taken of Kahlo and used on a Vogue cover in
the 1930s. Simple but effective.
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| A bit smaller than the Scream bag, this is my go-to library bag |
A less
obviously inspired bag incorporated tiny needle felted lilies, in an art
nouveau style. Inspired by the lilies of Georgia O’Keeffe, and the swirling
style of Alphonse Mucha, the central design is less overtly influenced than the
Scream bag, but the impact of art history is still there.
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| The tiny flowers took a few hours to complete |
