Inspired by Kara Walker: Mixing up the Mixer

A few weeks ago I found some wall vinyl on sale. It came in 16-foot strips of different colors and I couldn't resist. I had visions of decorating a wall with it, inspired by the artist Kara Walker. She cuts out silhouettes to paste on walls in order to tell a story. Here is an image of her exhibit at the Whitney. 

Perhaps I wanted tell my own story with vinyl on the walls of my living room. Crazy? Probably. But my wall pops couldn't go to waste so this morning when I was mixing up a new recipe of bread... I had an idea.

I found a motif I loved from a textile website and printed it out. I wish I had more colors of the wall pops now, because the design would look even more amazing with three colors. But I’m happy with how my monochromatic pattern turned out 

 1. Tape the backside of the vinyl to the printed pattern of choice... And then tape both to the window. It makes it so much easier to trace a design when light is shining through. Copy the entire design on the back of the vinyl with a pen.

2. Now tape the back of the vinyl to a cutting board. I use a thick wooden mat board. The reason for so much taping is to keep the design in place while cutting and drawing. Also, the wall pops like to roll up so you will need to tape them down to stay flat.

3. Optional: I kept the printed pattern close by and set the pieces on their corresponding shapes as I cut them out of the vinyl. This was purely to stay organized or else it would be confusing to remember where most of the little shapes went.

4. You are welcome to eyeball the design from here, but in order to keep the spacing correct I taped the vinyl outline onto the kitchenaid on one side. As I peeled the backing off of the vinyl and stuck it in place, I simply lifted up the outline from the side that wasn't taped down.

 Here's the final result! Next to a fresh slice of bread. Yum. If you don't want to bother with making your own design there is a website that sells them. Who knew? Oh well, I believe the best part of reaching a goal is completing the steps in the process.