I couldn't believe it when I saw this photo, because it's for a show at the Textile Center in Minneapolis, which is a nationally-known and respected center for fiber arts. Did they run out of good ideas? What's with the sensible shoes? Ack! If I made this purse I would puke on myself. If someone gave it to me, I would puke on them. Not that I'm an ungrateful person, I just have this aversion to ties being made into anything else. Perhaps this is a sign that ties are really not earth-friendly, because there is so no way to reuse them and not look absolutely hideously ridiculous.Unfortunately, the website for the Textile Center does not have this picture on it. Instead there are pictures of richly colored textiles from India, the current show in the Joan Mondale gallery. Perhaps they deemed a photo of the tie purse too embarrassing to leave up on the website. But the postcard provides shock value and gets your attention amidst a pile of other junk mail. Hmmm.
The point is, ties are ugly. Not ugly like Ugly Dolls, which are cute, or dogs that are so ugly they are endearing. Ties have no soul. They try to be bearable as ties, and sometimes they are, just barely. But most of the time they are cheesy, over-the-top with power madness, or just plain dull. And surprise, surprise, none of these are features I look for when I'm hunting for fabric! So although I can understand the urge people have to turn them into something else, unfortunately they're always going to be recognizable as the hideous soul-crushing uniform of corporate America. Perhaps cutting them up in very small and unrecognizable bits and leaving them out for birds to bling up their nests with would be a more humane gesture all around...
—Carrie, Finding Jim Macinko, Alterior Motives
Personally, I am sort of charmed by quirky re-imagined neckties, but I take Carrie's point.
(photo: Carrie)
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3 comments:
Every tie worked into some other garment is one less tie I'll ever have to rope around my neck.
Not that I often wear ties. And I chalk that up to things like that purse.
I actually love ties as a concept, and I actually gaze at ties longingly, but I never buy them and I never use them in crafty ways. I like them as an idea, like the garter. They are not appealing once they are used. I don't know why that is. Perhaps to me, the excellent ones exist merely as a billboard for silk-substrated lovely art and graphics. The huge percentage of them have horrifying design, but the small percentage which are truly arty look fabulous on that silk and in that size.
That said, the tote back or purse sucks, and so do the shoes.
Love,
Me
I actually love items repurposed from ties--especially the weird novelty fabric ones. That's why I have a blog about it http://sewingwithneckties.blogspot.com
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