Art Is A Refuge...

The sordid mess of the oil spill, the G20 fiasco, the senseless brutality at a local animal park - enough!  As if it's not hard enough trying to just live a simple, clean life.  Try avoiding plasitc, or eliminating foods containing soy, for instance.  Each of these is a post in itself, but they are not what this post is about.  This post is about the hope that keeps us going, and allows us to do things that redeem us again and again. 

Random acts of kindness, a new baby, a smile from a stranger

- thank God for these things.

And art.

Art is the result of creativity, and creativity is a connection with the universe and it's Creator.  No matter how small or sporadic, it is still a vital connection.  I know everytime I make something I am recharged and refreshed, even if I have dry spells when nothing materializes.

We are in between homes - our cute little condo now belongs to someone else, and we have not yet found our next dwelling - so most of my time is being spent house-hunting!  Meanwhile I still have two books to illustrate.  Which means I haven't painted, and haven't made any fabric art, or jewelry.  But about a month ago I made these (and more stuff that I've yet to take pictures of), and yesterday I took some quick (and not so good) pics.  Ah - just looking at them charged me up again!  Yay for handmade!

These are all defintely Nature-inspired!

Pink and orange and green - tropical yumminess for a forest princess.

A fuzzy moss-inspired cuff in woodsy colors...

  This one has it all - fabric, fused, recycled plastic, metal, ribbon, sequins, 

and lots and lots of beads...

Fusing the colored part of the scrap plastic was an experiment, but it was worth the idea

- I got a swirly, textured look I could not have contrived!

I fused some red plastic (from a clothing store bag) and hand-shaped it

to make this huge flower ring. 

It has a weathered, leathery look that came out great.

Layers of fused plastic, beads and a shred of gold melted in for shabby/industrial chic.

So there you are - makes you forget about horrible things, doesn't it?

Until next time, Peace!

Fused plastic fantastic

Fused plastic? When I first heard that term I thought it must be some long drawn out funky process that I wouldn't be able to do. Surprise! It's only a matter of using a hot iron on the plastic (under something stick-proof, like wax-paper, of course). So a few weeks ago I played around with used plastic bags that we end up accumulating even though we use cloth bags for grocery. These are thin, thin bags, with some writing on them in black. They are the ones on big rolls under the fruit and vegetable counters.

So anyway, I fused a bunch of bags, making an 8-ply fold for each bag and ironing them together. The result was a delicate, translucent, pliable plastic. I made a bowl out of some ( maybe I can take some pictures of that when our camera feels up to the job) but from the left over pieces I made these:

I wish I had better pictures, but here goes:

OK, this picture is REALLY grainy...


Can you see the cut out plastic house? There's some of the writing showing through, which looks pretty cool.


I embellished the house by stitching all around it as well as stiching a door shape on the front, drew some tree branches, and sewed on a random, connected ovals crochet piece I had previously made. It's now a cloud!

And here's the second one I did. Here the fused plastic is the cloud, which I made by simply cutting little circles and then sewing them on to the paper in an overlapping pattern.


With more mehndi-like embellishments:


These were so much fun to make. And I liked the fact that I used up some of that plastic! Do you have a recyling story to share?