waste not gift box

You may remember the fabric collages (created using recycled fabrics) I started making last spring and how I decided to reproduce them as greeting cards.  This is a great option for those of you who produce 2D or even 3D work that is time-consuming because it is a way to make multiples of your work that are quick and affordable to both you and your customers.

In my case, I used a flat-bed scanner to import my collages into a digital format, but you could easily just photograph your pieces instead (especially when dealing with work that is more 3D in nature.)  What I really enjoy about my scans however, is the detail of the fabric textures that I was able to retain.

Making the collages; fun.
Importing them into Adobe Illustrator and formatting them into cards; tedious.
Getting them printed; a chore.

Usually.  It’s really getting better though.  One of these days we’ll get it right.

I say that because every time I’ve gotten them printed something goes wrong and several pages come out that are unusable (as cards).  Now I’ve never had to pay for these misprints, which I am very thankful for, but at the same time I feel bad because I really don’t like to be wasteful.  And though an unknown percentage of the paper used in my cards is recycled, they are overall my least eco-friendly product that I carry in my line.  (Though I have sourced a local print shop which I love, so as to make it more “green” in terms of transportation to and from the printer since I ride my bike, plus it helps support another local business).

The issue with this last print run was that it wasn’t printed on the correct weight paper.  Luckily it was a very small run (only about 12 letter sized sheets of paper worth).  I didn’t even realize the mistake until I was home and about to fold them into the cards.  I felt really bad because this was really my fault that I hadn’t reminded the printer to use his heaviest weight paper.  Now we’ve devised a system so that hopefully these types of misprints wont happen in the future.

But in the mean time I had about 24 cards worth of cover stock paper printed with my card imagery that I wasn’t able to make cards with (plus a bunch more from other runs).  Sure I could have just thrown them in the recycling or used the backs for something else, but that’s not really my style.

So I decided to make origami gift boxes with them instead.  In the past I have made these out of junk mail and have put bows on them, but I like these particular boxes bow-less better.

AND they are the perfect size for my little fabric scrap flower brooches too!

Do you have a story about how you turned a mistake into something usable?  I’d love to hear it!  Please leave me a comment below!

The First Cardinal Sin of Art School

The art professor asks, “why did you pick these materials?”  and your response is, “these are the materials I had.”

If you have ever said this to your professor, you have committed the first Cardinal Sin in art school.  This unforgivable laps in judgement happened to me often in my early art school days, but I soon learned to hear the response only in my head while my mouth wove a very different tale about the intent and meaning that these materials bring to whatever piece I happened to be making.  Did they buy it?  Most of the time, probably not.  Did I buy it?  No.

Now to be fair, this question was almost never raised unless the outcome of whatever project I was working on happened to fail miserably.  And so, I found the loop-hole in the system; I could use whatever materials I wanted (i.e. materials that were cheep, free, or lying around) as long as I made them work in my favor.  Hmm… now I was getting somewhere.

My very first project in my very first design class was called a transformation project.  In a nutshell, each week we had to make something using 12 (or a multiple of 12) of something to create something else, transforming it in such a way as to make it either extremely interesting or completely unrecognizable (or both).  The object that I chose to transform was a humble paper bag and for my first project from this series I made a teddy bear.  Though I had never really had any particular interest in sewing up until that point (I had gone into art school loving to paint), I somehow ended up making this bear using nothing more than the travel sewing kit my mom packed in my college dorm supplies*.  To my relief the teacher loved it.  I had discovered Fiber and a whole other side of craft that I never knew existed.

Though this first project was a success, I had many, many more failures in turning humble materials into artistic and academic gold, but that didn’t stop me from trying.

Now, nearly eleven years removed from my first day of art school, I am reminded of this “Cardinal Sin” because of what I find myself doing on a daily basis; I make things out of the materials that I have.  If I don’t have it, I don’t make it.  Period.  It’s kind of worked into my newly found business model of using primarily recycled/repurposed/reused materials.  To me, it’s a challenge of having a material and then finding a new use for it.  It’s exciting.  It’s fun.  It’s me.

I’ve recently realized that I’m an adult now and I live in that place that adults used to talk about incessantly while I was in college called “the real world.”  And, in the real world, one does not need to follow the rules of the “art world.”  That said, I very much enjoyed my time in art school and I really did learn a lot from my professors.  Namely, I learned about construction, craftsmanship, and intent and how these elements are important to think about when creating something.

My intent is to use materials in such a way as to give them new life.  In the most basic and conventional sense I am making these objects useful again, but really I’m trying to take this work to the next step and move beyond recycling or upcycling.  What this means, I’m not really sure.  (Transforming maybe?)

Throughout this post are photos of some projects that I’ve been working on recently.  There’s origami gift boxes made from junk mail, old calendars, and magazines.  There’s earrings made from recycled buttons (yes, every one).  There’s greeting cards with funny sayings made from cereal boxes.  These objects are where I am right now in my quest to figure out where I’m going.  To see them (or better yet, buy them!) and me in person, I invite you to come out to the Rowdy Indie Craft Fair this Sunday.  I’d love to chat with you!

*If you look closely at the bears eyes you can see that they are buttons, but since my cheep sewing kit didn’t include black buttons I just painted them.

**this post was just added to Made By You Mondays on Skip to My Lou, and The Inspiration Link Party 12 on Homework.

Comming up; Sandusky Art Walk

Beginning in May of this year, The Sandusky Art Walk will happen the first Thursday of each month through December and was created to bring “art and fun to downtown Sandusky [Ohio].”  The August Art Walk will take place tomorrow from 5-9 pm.

This will be my second time participating in this art walk (again set up outside of Kharma Salon & Boutique, 125 W. Water St., Sandusky, OH 44870) and I’m super excited about it!  It was during the July Art Walk when I had the revelation that I should focus my attention solely on making items from recycled/reclaimed/reused materials.

This will be my first craft event since that time and I’ve really put a lot of thought into using the discarded materials around me (buttons, cereal boxes, old fabric, and plastic grocery bags, just to name a few). Here’s a small preview of what you will see when you visit my table…

Handbags and baskets made from plastic grocery bags (aka plarn).

Recycled cereal box greeting cards with fun cereal puns.

Lots of new gift boxes with bows made from recycled junk mail.  And much much more!  Hope to see you there!

Lakewood Etsy Craft Party 2011

The Etsy Craft Party in Lakewood, Ohio was a lot of fun tonight.  It was a nice combination of upcycled paper crafts, meditative drawing, and good company!

The Zentangle ladies were there explaining the meditative qualities behind Zentangle and how to do it. Below are some examples of Zentangle.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any really good close ups of the intricate designs, which are truly stunning.  The idea is that you brake your piece of paper (or tile) into smaller sections and concentrate on filling that section with a pattern.  It’s more about the process than the finished product (though the finished product is really cool) and it’s supposed to be very relaxing.

In addition to Zentangle, I was teaching how to make several upcycled paper projects, which included the origami gift boxes with bows and tags shown above.  The box itself is made using card-stock weight junk mail, while the bow is made out of glossy adds, and the tag is a bit of card board packaging like from a cereal box.  To watch the Etsy video that taught me how to make the origami boxes above click here.

In contrast to the Zentangle table, serene and contemplative was exactly what my crafting table wasn’t tonight!  Their was glue, little scraps of paper, scissors, skewers and every other supply that I brought in a big mass of confusion, helped along by my first two students of the night; a set of brothers, one seven and one four.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of these two little guys because, as you can imagine, my hands were full.  I did however, get some shots of most of the other people who made gift boxes with bows and tags, so here they are…

I was also prepared to teach paper bead making tonight, however, that pretty much went out the window after my first two pint sized students.  Note to self; paper bead making should be done by persons 10 and over.  I wasn’t really prepared to teach small children at this event, I didn’t have any crafts appropriate for children their ages.  I tried to make it work anyway with the paper beads but it didn’t go very smoothy.  Here are some beads I made earlier as examples.  For a really great video tutorial on how to make these click here.

Therese (left) is the owner of Keyhole Gallery, the location for this fabulous event!  Therese was teaching how to make origami pendents today, but unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures.  I really wasn’t on the ball today.

This was a really great get together and their is talk of us doing this again sometime in the near future, probably this summer!  I hope that we do and generate even more interest and have more people come.  It’s such good energy being around other creative people.