Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Mettje Swift has been making banner art for almost 50 years. Starting in 1978, she has created cross-street banners, indoor installations and other fabric-based works using translucent nylon.
“Banners are as old as people,” said Swift, founder of Banner Art Studio in Del Norte. “They’ve always been used to make a statement about who you are, what your aspirations are, and where you want to be.”
She began with sewing and theater stagecraft in college before learning the border appliqué technique that shapes her work. She hand-cuts and sews each piece together using a layering technique similar to stained glass, allowing light to pass through. The lightweight material also moves with the wind, adding movement to the piece (but not too much movement, like the doomed “Valley Curtain” piece from the artist Christo in 1972).
Swift’s process is labor-intensive. Each project begins with conversations about what a client wants to express, followed by large-scale pattern-making, hand-cutting each nylon piece with a heated tool and sewing the panels together one by one.
A single cross-street banner, which costs between $6,000 and $7,000, can take up to six weeks to complete in her studio.
Read more about Swift at rmpbs.org/news
Produced by Ziyi Xu
#bannerart
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: bit.ly/3zeF6Ch
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• Newsletter: rmpbs.org/newsletters
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Mettje Swift has been making banner art for almost 50 years. Starting in 1978, she has created cross-street banners, indoor installations and other fabric-based works using translucent nylon.
“Banners are as old as people,” said Swift, founder of Banner Art Studio in Del Norte. “They’ve always been used to make a statement about who you are, what your aspirations are, and where you want to be.”
She began with sewing and theater stagecraft in college before learning the border appliqué technique that shapes her work. She hand-cuts and sews each piece together using a layering technique similar to stained glass, allowing light to pass through. The lightweight material also moves with the wind, adding movement to the piece (but not too much movement, like the doomed “Valley Curtain” piece from the artist Christo in 1972).
Swift’s process is labor-intensive. Each project begins with conversations about what a client wants to express, followed by large-scale pattern-making, hand-cutting each nylon piece with a heated tool and sewing the panels together one by one.
A single cross-street banner, which costs between $6,000 and $7,000, can take up to six weeks to complete in her studio.
Read more about Swift at rmpbs.org/news
Produced by Ziyi Xu
#bannerart
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: bit.ly/3zeF6Ch
------------------------------------------------------
Follow Rocky Mountain PBS on our other platforms, too.
• Newsletter: rmpbs.org/newsletters
• Facebook: facebook.com/rmpbs
• Instagram: instagram.com/rmpbs
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/rocky-mountain-pbs
