Swiz

I have been working on a custom t-shirt method this year but have been incredibly negligent about taking photos of finished shirts. So I've taken some shots of the original designs with my new camera. The method involves using a light box and dye/paint pens. I primarily use Fibracolor brand pens that come in sets of 8 colours. As you can see I use tonal dropout images in one colour to keep things simple while keeping the shape and detail in an image. I drape the t-shirt over a clear perspex screen with a flourescent bulb directly underneath. The die is applied directly to the fabric and is fixed by using a hairdryer then ironing the image before washing. Most light boxes use white perspex to diffuse light behind your work but in this situation the back layer of the t-shirt acts as diffuser. It is important not to stretch the t-shirt as it distorts the image. Unlike screen printing which applies dye/paint to the top surface of the t-shirt fabric. This method dyes the fabric itself w...

This is the most recent saddle to be completed, an old diamond back Velo MTB saddle. I trekked out to Archerfield to check out vinyl samples only to be very disappointed ! $28/metre for the wrong colour, and too thick! I also looked around for 4mm shoe tacks with not luck. I decided to check out Reverse Garbage just in case their selection of vinyls had improved. Going to RG proved to be a good move! I found some soft mid green leather look vinyl and grape purple vinyl. Later I discovered that I had a little jar of shoe tacks hidden among my collected bits and pieces. I had been reading recently about the elastic qualities of upholstery vinyl and how most are mono elastic having much more stretch along the weft of the backing fabric. I aligned the warp along the length of the saddle when cutting out the vinyl. This allowed me to use the elasticity in the weft to stretch around the most difficult part of the saddle shell around the back near the rail fixing points. I was able to work...

Erik from Gear Brisbane sold the first of my upcycled saddles a few days ago and I'm stoked! I had been preparing for the worst and bracing myself for disappointment. I have been slack about getting something on the blog and hadn't even checked the CD of photos my photographer friend Darran Childs-Brown had taken for me at The Crosstown Eating House recently. The saddle (I call it Blue Boy) has recycled padding reinforced with heat extreme temperature resistant and uneven surface conforming tape from venture tape. I've used a rare unprinted tennis racket cover in bright blue (maybe you can tell me which specific hue?). Above you can see the different phases of the upcyling process. I haven't taken detailed photos of the of the upholstery stage as my technique is rather messy at the moment (something for the future I think). Poor planning has meant that the saddle has some rough edges like the cheese cloth layer showing through underneath, and there's some slight p...

I am Swiz , aka Michael G Swifte. I like making lamps from found objects. I also like riding bikes and after joining the single speed craze I decided that I could apply my lamp approach to bike saddles. Learning to repair and reupholster has been challenging. I've found no experts or fonts of knowledge in the bike saddle area. Materials are hard to acquire and the work is painstaking and hard on the hands. I've tracked down a few key materials for reconditioning old and damaged saddles: short leg staples (6mm), extreme temperature resistant tape, and flexible fabric adhesive. I have a collection of tennis racket covers which are the ideal size for saddle covers. They have a fabric backing, sporty printed designs, and are fairly thin and flexible. I hope to move to a different staple gun with an even shorter leg staple (4mm). I've also acquired a hair dryer to soften vinyl while stretching. I haven't tried yet but hope it will allow me to get a better finish around the...