Handcut leather with hand-drawn “shrinky dinks”

I’ve been working at getting a collection of my earrings packaged and ready to go for this Monday. I’m meeting with someone from a new gallery near my hometown to give her some product for her store and talk about going there to install my giant crochet tree sculpture from two years ago into a new space in the next couple weeks! I’m thrilled and my grandpa is going to be happy to get it out of his basement ;) 

leaf me alone

Happy Holidays Everyone! I’m thrilled that Christmas is now over for another year.

I’ve been working on some new ideas for earrings using green plastic pop bottles and some craft feathers. I’m loving the transparency of the plastic. I bought a tiny exacto knife that fits in the palm of my hand- its amazing for small detail cutting.

starting mid January I’m taking a night class for making jewelry! so excited.

Flower of Life

 I was able to do a lot conceptual work on this piece and planned it all out to make it symmetrical and balanced. Which made it was easy for me to calculate how much of each of the materials I used in total:

66 pop tabs, 68 wine bottle lids, 26 bread-tags, 40 toilet paper rolls, 28 Danactive bottles, 84 yogurt cups, 23 lightbulbs, 20 bottle seals, 12 plastic drink bottles, 36 pudding cups, 11 hotel snack tin bottoms, 28 hotel snack tin lids, 160 juice/milk/cream carton seals with loop, and the only thing I can’t really be sure of is how many phone/electrical cords, cables, and wires I worked with….. Everything is attached to a chicken wire base using sewing and crochet techniques.

Thanks to everyone who helped me collect items for this piece. much love!

Mandala Installation day-at last!

Here it is on the floor of the Gladstone hotel yesterday, I had to spend some time reshaping it and fixing things after I was forced to fold it and crumple it and literally slam the door on it to get into the car to transport it from my house in the rain. I was so focused on finishing the piece all month I didn’t spend much time thinking about moving something of that scale. haha…always learning. It turned out well anyway the materials I worked with are wonderfully resilient. I will be going back soon with my good camera to take some pictures of it hung on the wall. I’m very happy with how it looks. So more pictures to come! Tonight is the opening! Come see it in the flesh…as well as all the other talented textile artist’s work in the show!

Photo credit and a Giant Thanks to my friend Dave for helping me transport and install this piece.

almost there!

Its still a work in progress, I have more stuff attached to it now but here’s another little peek from a few days ago. By the end of the week I should have some good finished photos. I’ve been taking so much time off work for this piece its wonderful I’m starting to feel human again

I also really need to collect a bunch more of these milk, cream and juice carton seals by thursday…ahhhh

knot it

I practiced some macrame with electrical cords, trying to brush up on some knotting techniques for an upcoming workshop I will be teaching at Sheridan College.

gold!

I made this one as a birthday present for my dear friend and co-worker Teresa at the Holiday Inn. English isn’t her first language and we often have trouble speaking to each other and understanding but we never give up trying. She’s a sweetheart and  has always been a big help in collecting materials for my art projects throughout the years and so I thought I’d show my appreciation by making one for her so she can see what it is I do with the pop tabs, plastic creamers, twist ties, etc. firsthand.

This is the first time I tried trapping a vegetable net in the frame as a border and I’m pretty excited about it.

pop up power

       I’m getting ready to set up my work at the library in my hometown in two weeks (Easter weekend). I’m trying to have a substantial amount of pieces to arrange on the wall, I have a few more frames that I’m excited about on the go and as always…I’m having fun.

Here’s one of the latest, which is made up of: pop-tabs, purple mesh wine bottle protector, yellow bread-tags, white garlic netting, blue/green plastic bottles, the stems are either twist ties or telephone wire. Plus black velvet fabric and a found plastic vintage frame.