Comments on: Heavy Bedding.

Heavy Bedding.

Existential Dread — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:19:12 -0800

Ben Venom makes heavy metal quilts.

Mr. Venom is "...interested in juxtaposing traditional handmade crafts with one of the more extreme musical genres, Heavy Metal." His work is influenced by Ozzy, Toxic Holocaust, Slayer, and mustaches. You can also see his work increase in complexity. Via Reign in Art.

By: AsYouKnow Bob

AsYouKnow Bob — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:30:52 -0800

But...those are made of FABRIC. I call shenanigans.

By: Bookhouse

Bookhouse — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:31:44 -0800

WANT.

By: Existential Dread

Existential Dread — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:33:02 -0800

I want the throw pillows.

By: infini

infini — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:55:58 -0800

Mr Venom needs an outlet in Finland, a land where I've seen skull imprinted pacifiers for your head banging toddler.

By: sbutler

sbutler — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:02:20 -0800

But...those are made of FABRIC. I was also a little disappointed they weren't literally made of heavy metals.

By: kenko

kenko — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:19:25 -0800

No, Ben Venom is something secreted from special-purpose glands that only people named Ben have.

By: at the crossroads

at the crossroads — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:25:18 -0800

cute

By: Roachbeard

Roachbeard — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:27:12 -0800

Definitely impressive, but I'm slightly saddened that the t-shirts and patches that he makes these things from are no longer available out there to decorate the bodies and jean jackets of young met'lers on the hunt.

By: the noob

the noob — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:38:15 -0800

They, aren't.... very well done. I have the feeling that since the accident Ben doesn't like to go outside, and mum's seen a dramatic improvement since he's started doing his quilts.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:52:00 -0800

This is the kind of post where you wish you could link to the opposite, like, say, someone who makes original S&M gear out of recycled portraits of Lawrence Welk and Doris Day.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 23:56:33 -0800

He put the crazed into crazy quilting. What a cool idea. Ben Venom rocks.

By: Iteki

Iteki — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 02:47:26 -0800

Thought this was going to be about weighted blankets for people with autism. He should totally make these into weighted blankets.

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 02:50:55 -0800

Yep, I've pretty much instantly fallen in love. Oh, just another way to miss San Francisco. And a cozy, rockin' quilt as winter approaches here. At least there will always be heavy metal in my life.

By: KathrynT

KathrynT — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 02:56:05 -0800

They, aren't.... very well done. I'm a quilter, albeit a rank amateur, and apart from a little border ruffling, I'm not seeing it. What makes you say that?

By: shelleycat

shelleycat — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 03:06:52 -0800

I like them. He has a good eye for colour and shape, and I particularly like the ram's skull one at the start.

By: PeterMcDermott

PeterMcDermott — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 03:10:35 -0800

I'm not a quilter at all, but I don't think they're very well done either. The cotton that they use to make t-shirts doesn't seem to me to be at all suitable for quilting. There's nothing particularly inspired or interesting about the designs. They speak to his metal obsession, but unless you share that obsession -- so what? I'm guessing he's not going to be getting any props from the American Quilter's Society any time soon.

By: GenjiandProust

GenjiandProust — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 03:18:52 -0800

I wish that he made curtains, so I could sing "Ace of Drapes" while I was hanging them.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 03:19:44 -0800

A quilter never wins, a winner never quilts.

By: lapsangsouchong

lapsangsouchong — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 03:38:43 -0800

Some of them aren't so good, but I like the Lucifer Pillows. Also the cross-stitched Flying V and the little bird that's had an encounter with Alice Cooper. I sent the link to my mum before posting this comment. Hoping for a Lucifer Pillow for Christmas.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 06:35:55 -0800

Many of them aren't that interesting, quilt-wise, but that first one in his gallery "Don't Wake Me Lucifer", with the demon goat skull made of smaller elements... that's outstanding.

By: Secret Life of Gravy

Secret Life of Gravy — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 07:03:32 -0800

Looking through his gallery is a bit of a let down because after the first 2 the end results get progressively weaker. Still, I would say his has a good idea. I adore mosaics, stained glass, and quilts-- anything that uses color and geometry to achieve a sum that is greater than the parts, I think the problem here is the "parts." I agree with PeterMcDermott that the artist is handicapped by his materials: T-Shirts and jean jackets are not good choices for fabric collages.

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 07:19:50 -0800

QÜILTZ

By: middleclasstool

middleclasstool — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 07:21:26 -0800

This is the kind of post where you wish you could link to the opposite, like, say, someone who makes original S&M gear out of recycled portraits of Lawrence Welk and Doris Day. This close enough for you?

By: infini

infini — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 07:22:55 -0800

QÜILTZ in the wööd?

By: FatherDagon

FatherDagon — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 07:27:04 -0800

There's nothing particularly inspired or interesting about the designs. They speak to his metal obsession, but unless you share that obsession -- so what? So if you're a metal fan, you'll be into metal things. But if you're not a fan of metal, you... won't be into metal things. A brilliant critique!

By: catlet

catlet — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 07:49:30 -0800

Ross Palmer Beecher uses old license plates to make traditional quilt designs. At Quilt Visions 2002 (the big biennial art quilt show before Visions opened their own museum), I saw a quilt made of metal that met the show criteria (a quilt is made of three layers, backing/batting/top, connected through all three): it was large strips of metal woven openly, like paper weaving, quilted with large rivets. It was stunning and I voted for it to be Best in Show, although I think the winner was an alphabet quilt with three-dimensional unicorns. I wish I was kidding. I'm still hunting a pic of that and will post it if I find it.

By: Fui Non Sum

Fui Non Sum — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 09:16:00 -0800

They, aren't.... very well done. Aw, boo! I was super impressed with this one, which doesn't appear to be in his gallery yet. It was pictured on his blog. There is a lot of white space on the edges of the quilt, but that design in the center is intricate, well-balanced in terms of color & shape, and frickin' enormous (maybe that's not something to be impressed by, but I'm easy to please). I agree with Shelleycat, he really does have a well-developed sense of color and balance. The way he arranges the different t-shirt parts to make an interesting-looking shape is more difficult than you might think. It's possible to learn all of the mechanics of quilt-making, but selecting and laying out the colors and patterns takes no small amount of natural ability.

By: Existential Dread

Existential Dread — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 09:46:58 -0800

They, aren't.... very well done. I felt that this one was beautiful and technically quite impressive. The photos are posted in reverse chronological order (newest first) and you can see him get better almost exponentially.

By: bitter-girl.com

bitter-girl.com — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 12:22:53 -0800

Yay, my question made it in! (the interviewer, who's a friend of mine, had asked me what I'd want to know about Venom's work as a fiber arts person, and I wanted him to ask how the hell he was making the jersey work in that context) /fibernerd

By: medeine

medeine — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:14:40 -0800

These are pretty cool and made me grin. Of course, I am a fiber arts nerd and a metalhead. I am actually part of a quilting group composed of pretty much all metalhead ladies, though we have only made one quilt thus far. But it was badass...we quilted a big Sasquatch onto it. Anyway, neat. It's making me want to go throw on some Voivod records and crank up my sewing machine.

By: 1000monkeys

1000monkeys — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 17:02:54 -0800

Cool. I'm not really into his style, but I just got into sewing and quilting. I'm handpiecing an English Paper-Pieced Hexagon quilt right now and then I'm going to handquilt it. Groovy.

By: Rykey

Rykey — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 20:02:57 -0800

\00/-

By: FelliniBlank

FelliniBlank — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 06:12:51 -0800

As a (regrettably former) quilter, I give Rob a thumbs-up. One's early quilts always suck, and plenty of your granny's textiles joints like Keepsake Quilting offer patterns using non-trad fabrics like denim and old tshirts. Some of his piecing and applique are complicated indeed. Now I'd like to see some intricate background hand-quilting. If he can work all the lyrics to "Paranoid" on unbleached muslin, which really isn't as hard as it sounds, (and wow, wouldn't Black Sabbath lyrics make a striking whole cloth quilt?), I'll order one!