He's a jean-ius! Artist's amazing pictures of London life made from DENIM he finds in charity shops

Ian Berry started making pieces full-time after he was made redundant

Recently returned from Miami exhibition where work fetched £4,500 a piece

Searches for denim in charity shops and friends and family give him theirs

An artist who uses old denim jeans to create pictures of London street scenes is taking the art world by storm.

Ian Berry started making the denim pieces of art full-time after he was made redundant from his job as an art director.

The 28-year-old hasn't looked back since and recently returned from an art exhibition in Miami, Florida where his work fetched £4,500 a piece.



Taking the art world by storm: Artist Ian Berry takes old denim jeans, cuts them up and glues them back together to depict London street scenes

Among his collection are pictures of the London Underground, Piccadilly Circus, Hampstead Heath and Camden Town.



Mr Berry was first inspired to take up his denim art when he found some old jeans while clearing his old room after returning home from university in 2006.

To produce the works of art, Mr Berry cuts pieces of denim into precise shapes before painstakingly gluing them all together.

Although he mainly uses old jeans he also likes to dabble with old denim jackets and dresses.

Jean-ius: Ian Berry stands in front of some of his work on display in an art gallery in Miami

To achieve different looks, he sometimes uses bleach, either with a stencil and spray, and experiments with different colour jeans.

Mr Berry hunts around charity shops to find old jeans and friends and family also donate theirs to him. He also has a supply from a warehouse in Sweden.

Mr Berry said: ‘Anything denim I will use. Jeans are obviously the major ones I use but I do like the jackets as they have lots of interesting bits like seams to play with.

‘I like to use coloured jeans sometimes. People see them and ask if it is paint or something. But it is all jeans.

Change of direction: Mr Berry started making the pictures after he was made redundant from his job as an art director

Waste not, want not: The pictures are all created using old denim and show scenes such as the London Underground, Piccadilly Circus, Hampstead Heath and Camden Town

Unique: Mr Berry uses bleach, with a stencil or a spray to achieve different looks in his pictures

‘I have probably had a thousand pairs of jeans. I end up rationing some of the better shades as they really can set a piece off.



‘I don't throw any away and I have a system of areas where smaller and smaller bits go. ‘The smallest pieces will be saved for things such as bushes and trees.’

Mr Berry's denim art comes in all sizes and he once did a mural on a wall in Indiana, USA, which measured eight feet by eight feet.



To make the art Mr Berry, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, sits on the floor with the denim hanging around him.



Inspiration: Mr Berry started the denim art after he found some old jeans while clearing his room in 2006

Painstaking: Ian uses extra sharp scissors to cut different pieces of denim into precise shapes before gluing it all together

Lengthy process: Mr Berry can spend up to half a day looking for the right piece of denim for his piece



Finding the correct piece of denim, even for the smallest detail in his pictures, can take up to half a day.

He has made around 80 pictures so far but says the rate at which he makes them will decrease as he spends more time on each individual piece.

He said: ‘There will probably be less and less made each year as I get more detailed and make bigger images.

‘I really wish I could make them faster but I'm more interested in making the work better than making more.

‘The commission list is getting longer and longer, but I concentrate on the gallery shows as this is more important.