DIY Recycled Plastic Flowers

Nature certainly does a great job this time of year. My yard is full of daffodils and narcissus. My kitchen is full of things in the recycling bin on their way out the door. I put these two ideas together and made my own homage to plastic flowers using paper coffee cups and lids, green straws from Starbucks,  a brown paper bag (and a little hot glue). The outer petals are made from the lids, the inner petals from the cups, the leaves from the straws and the pot from another cup and a brown paper bag. I'm old enough to remember plastic flowers -- the fake flowers people used before silk flowers were invented. Boy were they ugly ... and not very realistic. Not surprisingly they're selling on Etsy these days because they're also wonderfully tacky. 

Sweater & T shirt Necklace

Easy & almost free necklace #2. I cut a felted sweater (orginally striped) into squares, threaded them on a scrap of wire and strung on my favorite kind of cord (a strip of an old T shirt). This T shirt happened to be tan and looks just like faux suede. Cost of necklace: free. I was going to donate the sweater & T shirt anyway. Plus I can make probably 30 from one sweater and T shirt.

I didn't travel to the tropics to take this photo. I used an Elephant Ear plant in my back yard as the background. The bulbs are inexpensive and can be brought inside and stored for the winter. The leaves can be over 2 feet long and will turn any back yard into a tropical paradise. (A few Tiki torches can't hurt either.)

Trashion

Following the pattern of TV’s “Project Runway,” my  8 to 11 year old students create these designs in my "Trashion" workshops. The girls are divided into teams and given an array of trashy items I’ve collected. And of course we have runway shows with guest judges. Every summer we exhibit the work. In the of 2011 we collaborated on a fundraiser with Donna Karan’s Urban Zen and exhibited the collection in the store. This summer we had a spectacular runway show in the Hamptons. (Ironic, yes!) Here are some additional photos.

I'll be at Maker Faire this coming weekend, September 29th & 30th. 

I love the magical process of collaboration  and invention that occurs in these classes. Thanks to  Treehugger.com for the wonderful article about my work!

Bender on the Beach

Yesterday the surf was really rough so all kinds of things washed up on the shore. My favorite finds were colorful and plastic. I know I "should" hate the garbage that washes up on the shore but I just can't. Yes, I hate it from an environmental standpoint, but from a creative standpoint I totally love it.  I started making and photographic faces on the beach with the stuff I collected. This one looks like one of my heros, Bender from Futurama. 

Driftwood Jewelry

Traditional jewelry just isn't looking right to my eye lately, so I got the idea to combine beach finds with stitching to make jewelry. I experimented with drilling pieces of clamshell with my Dremel and a diamond tip drill bit. When I got the holes close enough to do some stitching the shell broke ... so I decided to switch to driftwood. First I added a little paint in colors reminiscent of weathered post beach clubs (that I never belonged to), and then a bit of embroidery floss and wire. Really fun, I'm going to make more. 

Ocean Inspiration

Every day different things wash up on the shore. Some days there's lots of sea glass, some days there is an astounding array of deflated mylar balloons with their ribbons attached. Once in a while there are tons of starfish, or Monarch butterflies who aren't going to make it to their winter vacation.

Today was driftwood day. Because I need garden markers for the seed I planted, I gathered up pieces that were once part of a show fence along the dunes. That trusty wood burning tool turned them into easy garden markers. I also found a giant piece of driftwood, and a man joking said that it would make a good weapon. I said "Its for the peas" (pictured above, just peaking through the ground).

My favorite beach find transformation was when I found lots of chowder clams at the shoreline, still alive and kicking. I collected as many as I could carry in my scarf and brought them home to make a big pot of chowder. 

Well Loved Quilt Rewind

I bought a well loved old quilt that was really falling apart. Many of the squares were torn or missing but I loved the worn and faded the remaining fabric. It was extremely fragile so I decided to make a fabric collage using Misty Fuse. Its a very sheer fusible webbing that bonds the fabric permanently and is nearly invisibly when ironed. I frayed the fabric a bit more and added a few extra fibers. 

Recycled Bangle

I used a cardboard tape roll end as the base of this bracelet. To make it smaller & fit I removed a 1.5" wide slice from the cardboard and taped it back together. Then I wrapped it with some bits of yarn from my stash and finished it by using hot glue to line it with a scrap of leather. I think its going to be a big year for bangles! No more cardboard tape rolls are going in my recycling bin. Today's Creative Blog. 

Painting with Wool

I started with a (rummage sale) fuchsia wool sweater. Great color but otherwise not so cool. I put it in the washer & dryer to "felt" it and cut a piece out of the back. Then I took some colorful fluffy wool roving, laid it out on the sweater and used a felting needle (a large needle with little barbs) to poke the roving into the sweater backing. Quite addictive & comforting, its like painting with wool. You can find all the supplies you need to start your own experimenting on Etsy, as well as items for sale that are alternately beautiful and downright scary.

Vintage Record Boxes

I can't resist buying albums for their cover art ... if they're under $1. I have some framed but also wanted to enjoy them a little more so I made these 2 part boxes (like the ones puzzles come in).  I lightly scored the front of the album with an exacto knife to prevent cracking. I used the back of the album for the bottom of the box and sized it 1/4" smaller to fit inside. Clothespins kept the sides in place while the glue dried. 

Holey Cashmere!

I love to give a helping hand to a good cashmere sweater with lots of moth holes. Poor things! Once a beloved member of the wardrobe --  then left at the end of the day on the rummage sale table. I make the holes larger, add a few new ones of my own then patch with cashmere scraps and wool embroidery floss. 

A T Shirt, Bleach & a Doily

I needed to help upcycle this T shirt because of a bleach accident. I loved the red tones the bleach brought out so I picked up a cotton doily (yard sale find), soaked it in straight bleach and started using it to "print" this shirt, resulting in a kind of a tie dyed/floral effect. 

So You Say You Want a Resolution?

We did a family project for New Years last year. First we decoupaged the jar. Then we wrote our resolutions on pieces of paper and sealed them up in the jar for a year. When we opened it there was a definite trend ... the more specific the resolution the more successful it was. Duh! Why was I surprised?