Artist Zoe Feast transfers her patterns from fabric onto slices of wood
Chicago-based artist Zoe Feast is a multi-talented creator. Although she is best known for her playful fabric designs, the artist has recently decided to create her energetic motifs in a different medium. The whimsical illustrations of her can now be found on wood slices.
The materials for this collection come from a habit restoration project, for which she and a team of volunteers cleared non-native plants to return the land to a prairie state. Feast breathes new life into these fodder pieces by etching delicate designs into their surface.
From densely packed botanical patterns to playful animal designs, these prints blend perfectly with the textured look of wood. Although Feast doesn’t normally work in this medium, he was inspired to do so after visiting his local library.
“My local library has a creation center and I was inspired to do something with my patterns after seeing their laser engraving machine. I source the wood from a local forest reserve where I volunteer,” says Feast. “Wood is part of the material we clean. The fact that you can use it to make beautiful objects is perfect.”
Each of the precise engravings originated as Feast fabric patterns. “A lot of my inspiration comes from nature, the first collection of fabrics I have at Spoonflower, Prairie Beauty was directly inspired by the work I was doing with my habitat restoration team,” she adds.
Perhaps as a result of this, the pairing of wood and repeating patterns seems like a match made in heaven, as each piece looks like it was made to be that way.
A selection of Feast’s original prints went up for auction on February 20. You can buy them through their website and find the Feast fabric patterns at Spoonflower. Be sure to follow the artist on Instagram to keep up with her latest projects.