Recycled and Re-made

Hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine right now. I’m glad to say it has finally returned to Denmark after a very rainy June.

I have a couple of items of my own work to show you, thought I’d never get finished as I’ve been so far behind, but I’m happy with the results.

Chandelier
The chandelier will form part of a collaborative July exhibition at our Gallery. Most of the Artists exhibiting use vintage or recycle in some way; it’s very different from other stuff we’ve shown in the Gallery, so it may provoke some interesting reactions from the visiting Danes and foreign tourists.

I found this brass chandelier in a charity shop, looking like it had seen better days. I’ve used old quilt fabrics; I find that they have a lovely faded quality that I like. Went the whole hog on this one and decided to wrap the links of the chain with embroidery cotton and wool to tie the colours together. The only new item I’ve used are the wooden balls which again I wrapped to form decoration where you would normally have crystals on a glass chandelier. Added some paper mache flowers, some bias binding and some paint for the candlestick parts and ‘Voila’!

I secretly want to keep this one but I always feel like that when I finish a piece! I must get a grip, and sell it!

Lamp
The lamp I’ve made for my own home using vintage silks I’ve had for many years.

I think it’s quite a fun piece now with the ribbons and the wrapping, and the light has a really warm tone when it’s on, so will be nice for cosy evenings.

I’m still playing around with ideas for the trimming, hence the pinned lace doilies!

Bowls

Had some fun making some paper bowls last week, wanted a nostalgic feel so used vintage books and magazines with colours and text that was appropriate for the ‘feel’ of them.

Have just started a larger bowl to exhibit along with these and am experimenting with stitching some of them too.

Thanks everyone for continuing to follow my blog and for the lovely and sometimes funny comments you leave, they make me smile.

I’ll be back soon with some of my favourites in Art, Design and Vintage.

Large Luscious Woolly Pom-poms

Calling all crafters and skilled creative people everywhere, please be part of my flickr friend Elvis Robertson’s pom-pom project.

For those of you who haven’t seen it on-line, this is a wonderful collaborative project which aims to bring together the International craft community and show what they can do by creating ‘blossom’ in the Autumn. Elvis will hang the pom-poms in the trees in Lower Gardens park area in Bournemouth, once the leaves have fell from the trees.

Having been part of various collaborative ‘art happenings’ or events myself, when I lived in the UK, it feels great to once again be part of a wonderfully worth while project.

It gives you a great feeling to be involved with the community and contribute towards something as visual and fun as this, and the pom-poms are not difficult to make. Here are some pictures from people already part of the group.

Elvis has set up a pom pom blog and flickr site specially for this purpose where you can see more images and find out more about the project, including a short tutorial on how to make the pom-poms. They are easy to make and very satisfying to ‘play with’ once finished as they are so soft and woolly! Even if you can only find the time to make one, that’s fine.

For me, an added bonus of this project is that you can recycle your left over wool or wool found in charity shops, boot sales etc…

Elvis herself, is an active and enthusiastic recycler. As an establishes Textile Artist, she only uses vintage materials in her work and has exhibited at liberty London, and Browns. Pom-poms are very much part of her own work where she uses them to finish and embellish her beautiful memory quilts. See below

She has a great personal blog which features not only her work and her memories but also the art and design of other great Artists.

Her flickr site shows more great pictures including some of her stunning home. Elvis’s work has a wonderful nostalgia about it and her choice of colours and fabrics are so well put together. She works under her label ‘Lovely’ and in addition to her memory quilts; she makes beautiful wall and window pieces, to commission.

Her work is concerned with memory, gaps in memory, intimacy, community and humility. Lets all work together to make Elvis’s Pom-pom event as spectacular as possible.

Before I end this post, I just wanted to say apologies for the wait, I am 3-4 weeks behind with my blog my website and my artwork, due to a severe eye infection!!!

I am now up and running again and will endeavour to finish my two new lamps so I can document them on here next week.
I would also like to thank and welcome any newcomers for joining my blog, and those that continue to support it :-)