In October of 2006 as part of my work with CreativeFestival I was invited to participate in the Jewels and Jeans Auction in support of the Sick Kids Foundation. For the purpose of the auction a group of Canadian celebs graciously gave up some of their treasured denim to an equally impressive group of textiles artists who embellished the jeans to be auctionned. Amongst the celebrities were Avril Lavigne, Darcy Tucker, Silken Laumann, Steven Sabados, Chris Hyndman, Marci Ien & Seamus O’Regan. Amongst the artists were Christine Alexiou, Debbie Bates, Lily Chin, Gunnel Hag, William Hodge, Kenneth Kin, Bob Pennycook, John Willard, Robert Wylie and little ol’ me! I count myself lucky that the jeans I worked on had somehow been overlooked until the last minute – otherwise it was unlikely that I would have come up with this gig.
Having just recently completed two Colour Vie silkscreening workshops with Gunnel Hag I decided that I would put her products to use in my own way. Over 3 days I silk screened, free-hand painted and otherwise embellished Seamus O’Regan’s jeans with a Newfoundland theme.
There are 3 logos which I silkscreened using a waste paper technique – O’Reilly’s Pub, Ches’s Fish & Chips and the Rooms Corporation (the provincial museum and archive for which Seamus O’Regan serves as a board member).
The other emblems on Seamus’ jeans were hand painted and tinted using Colour Vie pigments.These emblems include a fish, a jigger, the provincial and republican flags of Newfoundland, a shamrock, an English rose, a Beothuck figural sculpture and the Matthew (John Cabot’s ship).
Using a deep blue Sharpie I first traced the images onto the denim from paper cartoons that I had hand drawn on newsprint. Then using black pigment and a fine paint brush I built up the lines around each of the emblems. Once the black lines were dry I applied translucent pigments using a dry brushing technique to colour the emblems. Once the painting was finished and dried I heatset the pigments using a hot dry iron.
After the initial painting was complete I used Swarovski crystals, sequins and Kreinik press on threads to finish embellishing Seamus’ jeans. The crystals bonded well to the denim, but the press on thread required some stitching to keep them down. The iron on adhesive of the press on threads held just well enough to keep the treads from shifting under the presserfoot of my sewing machine.
Prior to the auction, they appeared on Canada AM (on October 18th, 2006) and were exhibited during the CreativFestival Fall show at the Metro Convention Centre. Shortly thereafter the jeans were featured on the cover of the November edition of “Arts in Motion” (the Markham Arts Council newsletter).
Since the auction I have been told that Seamus’ jeans went home with a high school home economics teacher who not only loves them dearly, but uses them as a teaching aid in her classroom.
Process photos COMING SOON!
