Ben Venom thinks that by making quilts out of old metal tour shirts, he should be able to score big time…kind of.  His theory is that if Dee Snider could dress like a tit and pull chicks, then why can’t he?  It stands to reason that a dept hand at quilting and manly metal would make for an irresistible combination.

Vernon says the idea for his style of quilting came about three years ago.  he was invited to an exhibition in Germany and wanted to do something for the show that would not cost too much to ship.  he remembered a recent show he saw on quilts and thought of his worn out Testament tour shirt.  It was a match made in heaven (or hell), why not use all his old tour shirts to make these blankets of beauty?

Some of his handiwork has sold for up to $8,000.  It stands to reason why they fetch such a high price, when Ben says that vintage tour shirts can easily fetch up to $100. 

Ben says he likes the paradox of metal and quilting.  Sometimes, he slips in some subtle things that metal heads would only pick up on, like quilting a work that had Metallica on one side and Megadeth on the other.  most wouldn’t catch it, but metalheads definitely would.  He says of his work;

“I see it as a high-speed collision of polar opposites like Large Hadron Collider —particles are shot at each other at an extremely high rate of speed and scientists measure the resulting explosions. It is at this point when something new is born. In addition, quilts are traditionally made from soft fabric and heavy metal music refers to a load, aggressive, and heavy sound. Just in the definition of each you can see the complete opposite sides of the spectrum.”

Listen to a recent interview Ben did with NPR here.

If you would like to check out more of Ben’s work and browse his collection of metal quilts, go here.