Reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose...

...renew, upcycle - whatever you call it, making the old into new is a passion of mine.

I've turned dryer sheets into curtains , 

'I Should Have Listened to Mom' cafe curtains

a damaged child's board book into a colour fix, 

a broken boot into a sculpture,

discarded wine bottles and glasses into table art, 

 

cigar boxes into keepsakes,

worn-out blue jeans into print-making templates, 

buttons into decorative elements,

empty paint tubes, beer bottle caps, vintage hair clips and outdated costume jewellery into paintings, 

scraps of paper into mini accordion books,

throw-away boxes into memory-keepers, 

wine and beer bottle caps into gardens, 

an obsolete law book into a different kind of garden, 

torn and pages-missing soft cover books into a table sculptures,

foam scraps into monoprinting templates, 

and the list goes on and on.  My passion  obsession for making the most of things means that I look at everything with an assessing eye, knowing it could be something entirely different.  (Don't worry, John, you're safe . . . so far.)

Word has it that there is going to be a Trashion show here in town in May, where artists are encouraged to turn trash into fashion.  Anybody got any used dryer sheets they can spare? I feel some new clothes coming on.

It's curtains for me...

....and for you as well.  I've been promising the follow-up on this story for a while, and now is the time.

The curtain project was an ill-conceived thought, the execution was painful, and the results were so haphazard it's a wonder the project was ever finished.

As you can see from the beginning of the story, they were designed to fit a tight-cornered bathroom window and I'm glad to say that they really fit well there above those colourful heels.

'I Should Have Listened to Mom' cafe curtains
 ©  Win Dinn

The range of painted dryer sheets is extensive, running from lemon yellow through several shades of gold and sienna, dancing briefly on a tint of burgundy and accented with so many shades of red, yellow, gold, sienna and orange embroidery floss it's hard to count them (Thank you for that, Alice).

When one gets to the close-ups, you can see why I feel like they may last only a nano-second or two, even with the plain dryer sheets holding them together on the back.  The embroidery helps to tie them somewhat (or at least it would if I had had any idea of means and methods in that regard), and I'm pretty sure the extensive amount of mop-up paint does the same.

I have to admit that I was intrigued by the massive number of YouTube videos on the subject of embroidery stitches - there are literally hundreds of them, and when you consider the combination possibilities of the stitches the variety is endless.

 As always, it is the colour and texture that does it for me.

 When one looks closely, there are worlds within worlds in each dryer sheet.

From raw edges to flawed embroidery to daisies, stamping and endless hours hunched over an embroidery hoop,

I can only be pleased with my lunacy tenacity to see them hanging in the Material Changes show (see the previous post) and know that soon they'll be home again.

While I take a break from the purpose-driven creative activity of the last few months, I'm going to enjoy the feeling of making something that is so totally senseless, and possibly incubate something at least as crazy.  I could turn those pieces of painted cheesecloth into tiny jackets for the hummingbirds I see out the window (they're shivering in the rain right now), or paint a fuschia horse (oh, wait - I already did that!).  I'm sure I can come up with something.

How about you?  What's on your incubation list?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.