Artist irons face portraits out of fabric

• Benjamin Shine is an artist who uses tulle to create portraits.
• He uses an iron and a special technique to shape the fabric into meticulously detailed facial features.
• His process allows him to create realistic portraits that look more like smoke than fabric.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Narrator: Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. There are faces living in this fabric. And these faces are made by pinching, pressing, and folding tulle to create details that, when they come together, form a face that looks like it's rising out of smoke. Creating them takes nothing more than a single piece of fabric, an iron, and a lot of patience, but the technique isn't as simple.

Narrator: Benjamin Shine has spent 10 years mastering intricate details like this, and this, and these. The secret to it all was learning how to tame tulle. So what does it take to turn an otherwise shapeless fabric into these bold, flowing portraits?

Narrator: Benjamin chooses to work with tulle because the fabric is suitable for creating shading. He can create bolder lines and shadows by layering and bunching it together, or spread the fabric further apart for a light and airy effect.

Narrator: The first step is to ready the canvas so the tulle sticks from the heat of the iron.Then Benjamin picks the perfect color and size tulle for his portrait. Each one can take up to 3 meters of tulle to create.

Benjamin Shine: This blue is my favorite color. Tulle can be dyed with such vibrancy and seem to represent energy to me. They just have life to them.

Narrator: Then it's time to pull out the iron.

Benjamin Shine: You know what, the cheaper irons are the ones I prefer. The cheaper the better. It's because they are so light. The ones with all the bells and whistles are incredibly heavy. I usually attach my tulle to the top and then work my way down to maintain a sense of flow. The first part is getting that initial shape down.

Narrator: It's important for him to leave enough tulle for areas like the eyes, nose, and mouth in order to be able to add those small, meticulous details.

Narrator: The most important part of his technique is finding the perfect combination of pressure from the iron and timing, so he can heat the tulle for just long enough without melting it.

Narrator: The perfectly placed folding and bunching of just the right amount of tulle, mixed with the strategic shading, is what makes our eyes register a face when looking at the fabric.

Narrator: The majority of his work is portraits, because he says that if he can master the details of a face, then he can really create anything with the material.

Narrator: One of the ways he has been able to adapt his technique has been working with a textile designer to create a tulle-like material made out of a recycled plastic mesh.

Narrator: This way, unlike normal tulle, he can turn his portraits into freestanding sculptures that can withstand the elements. It allows him to take his artwork from the indoors to the outdoors.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published in October 2019.