By Mary Boldinova
Before Katie Byers’ sculptural banana peel landed on the cover of the current issue of dsm magazine, it took a solo trip to Kentucky. Buckled up in a small box, it traveled from Des Moines to Paducah, the fiber-art capital of the United States, on an exclusive invitation to Fantastic Fibers, an annual international juried exhibition. It was selected from more than 500 entries across 36 states and nine countries.
Very few bananas are born in Iowa. Even fewer are made entirely out of thread. This banana peel — one of the very first pieces Byers created by free-motion sewing on water-soluble fabric — is both.
Free-motion sewing is like drawing with a sewing machine. It’s a technique where the machine’s feed dogs are lowered to allow the artist to move the fabric freely in any direction to create stitches or quilting patterns. The idea first came to Byers during the pandemic lockdown. She had just completed a hand-stitched portrait and felt inspired to experiment with creating images with thread instead of color or paint.
Dusting off the trusted sewing machine she’d bought a couple of decades earlier, Byers (pictured) wondered if it had what it took to try free motion. She called The Stitching Place, a small quilt shop in Indianola. The shop didn’t carry the model anymore, but the owner on the other end of the line assured Byers that she didn’t need to buy anything new and told her exactly how to set up her old machine.
The lion she created that day is her first drawing on a sewing machine and the first piece she ever shared on her Instagram. Soon, she was posting free-motion sewn portraits one after another to the amusement of a growing audience.
Byers continued experimenting with the technique, looking for ways to challenge herself and push boundaries. When water-soluble fabric came into the picture, one-dimensional pictures transformed into sculptures.
“I have an Andy Warhol book with his banana on the cover sitting on my coffee table. I look at that frequently,” she said. “I was trying to think of everyday household things to create, and I had a banana sitting on my counter.”
One by one, she sewed five flat peels with various shades of yellow, green, brown and gold tones — and some blue for the fruit sticker — to replicate the one she had in front of her. Once the fabric dissolved and the peels dried, Byers hand-sewed them together at the top. And when spring came around, she was shipping it off to Paducah.
“Even though I have no art degree and was very new to the art world, I decided to enter a piece, and it got in the show,” she said. “It was a huge honor.”
Now the banana peel is back with her other artwork at Mainframe Studio 207, where she welcomes visitors by appointment.
Byers has been working mostly from home for the past two years. After her husband, Jay, died last spring, she’s put a priority on healing and being present for her family. Her oldest daughter lives with her and is finishing a degree in digital animation at Des Moines Art Community College. Her youngest is graduating this month from the Savannah College of Art and Design and has lined up a job with Abercrombie as a brand-new menswear designer.
“I have two creatives, and they’re really the ones who inspired me to pursue my art as a career,” Byers said. “They have been creating and posting things on social media for years. I’d make things and show them, and they’d always say, ‘You’ve got to show people. You need to post that.’”
Her latest obsession is suminagashi, or “floating ink,” an ancient Japanese marbling technique that creates intricate patterns using only water, black sumi ink, paper and a solution that helps the ink spread and swirl across the surface.
You can see her latest work on Instagram at @katiemillerbyers — or make an appointment to see our cover star in person.
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