Inspired by a burst of happiness, Hanabi is adorned with fireworks and blossoming flowers. The textile collage, by Brooklyn-based French/American artist Elodie Blanchard, that inspired Hanabi is a part of her trilogy Flower I, II, III of vibrant bouquets and floral fields made with repurposed textile scraps.
Her materials of choice are used clothing, textiles, packaging materials, helium balloons, and production leftovers, which are most often the result of our over-consumption. She transforms the rejected and the commonplace into fantastical sculptures, collages, and playful environments through material exploration, repurposing, and a near-meditative process of repetition. Through layering and stitching, she combines these materials to form textures and patterns in her collages. The technique employed is reminiscent of appliqué with raw-edge fabric, with free machine embroidery adding intricate details to the textile collage.
Blanchard’s collage has been reimagined and digitally printed on polyurethane topped with an inherently Graffiti-Free® 100% silicone layer, preserving the original work’s intricate details and rich colors and adding a luxurious ultrasoft hand. Beyond its aesthetic allure, Hanabi passes 15 weeks of hydrolysis, surpasses 300,000 double rubs, and complies with Cal 01350. Derived from the Japanese word Hanabi, which means fireworks, color names are inspired by different fireworks shapes: Crossette, Dahlia, Willow, Waterfall, and Silver Dragon.