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Foam Magazine Print Feature DIY

April 9, 2012 in DIY, doilies, dream catchers, nature, reuse

Lahaina Aloha

Lahaina Aloha: A Mermaid Catcher!

Foam Magazine ran a feature about my work in their print magazine and asked me to make a little video to accompany their online DIY article. Great excuse to learn how to use iMovie on my iPhone!


Music by Kevin Macneil Brown: http://kevinmacneilbrown.bandcamp.com.

Here’s a shot of the magazine with the article.

FOAM Magazine Feature

Sea Dreamer feature in Foam Magazine

I made two pieces for the feature — one is called Lahaina Aloha (after a Beach Boys song) which features a huge doily center and salvaged hula grass from SCRAP PDX. It also has hand-felted jellyfish from my mermaid-in-arms Suki Kapinao of Suki Healing Arts. Her stuff is super fun and you can see it on her Etsy shop: http://sukihealingarts.etsy.com.

Lahaina Alohoa Dreamcatcher Detail

with Suki's jellyfish!

With sand from Canon Beach, Oregon, The Great Salt Lake, Utah, and Bellows Beach, Hawaii

Lahaina Aloha detailThe other piece I made is called “Little Surfer” and I got a lot of the materials at the hardware store…chain…paint samples…neon nylon…

so easy!


Thanks Foam!

Valentine Heart Garland

February 13, 2012 in craft, decor, DIY, Paper, reuse, trash

heart garlands

heart garlands

I’m not into flowers and chocolates but I do love an excuse to cut hearts out of paper. In Montpelier, Vermont where I was living the Valentine Phantom would plaster the town with thousands of red hearts. That means spending several hours in sub-freezing temps in the middle of the night taping pieces of paper to every window on every store in town. Amazing when you drive down the street on Valentine’s day…

Sometimes my friend Suki and I would do guerilla arts and crafts for V-tine’s with kids or other women and would write love poems on pretty paper and stick them in random public places…on elevators…bathrooms…etc. I love the idea of spreading love…not just romantic love…but love for everyone.

Anyway, here’s a simple project I used to do with my students. Start by taking a magazine and cut strips about 1″-3″ wide. I used an older Free People catalog.

Fold strips accordion-style…

If it’s helpful, you can draw a heart on one end, but make sure you leave a little room where they will connect to each other on the folds!

Cut the top half…

And then the bottom! Unfold and tape together to hang where you please, or to wrap around a small gift.




Epic Dream Catcher Raffle at Free People Portland!

December 7, 2011 in art, craft, doilies, dream catchers, feathers, holiday, Portland Oregon, reuse

I made a huge-normous dream catcher to be raffled off at the Free People Portland store as part of an upcoming DIY event on December 2nd.  I also made a smaller one, so there are two chances to win! Raffle tickets are $5 at the store and some of the proceeds will benefit Adopt-a-Family Portland. The drawing will be held on Dec. 15th via Facebook.

This piece took about 3 days to complete and features vintage metal fringe, a detachable fox tail fur charm, earrings from fortune cookie fortunes and vintage lace, with a huge vintage doily behind a hand-woven “web” with vintage button “spider”. There’s also a plastic water bottle feather garland, which was featured on the Free People blog!  You can see tons of photos here on my Flickr.

dream catcher for Portland Free People store

the beast! it's over 6 feet tall!

 

detail of the large piece at Free People

detail of the large piece at Free People

fox tail charm detail

this piece features a detachable fox tail charm!

lace & fortune cookie earrings

on either side of the piece hang earrings featuring fortune cookie fortunes and vintage lace!

FP Dream Catcher

The second one I made is MUCH smaller, but no less charming! It features vintage trims and gold painted feathers.

two dream catchers for raffle

here are the two raffle prizes!

raffle prize #2!

raffle prize #2!

pic of me and the beast!

pic of me and the beast!

vegetable prints

October 19, 2010 in art, craft, garden, nature, print, reuse, trash

all those leftover veggies from the garden can make some nice prints!

these were made from cut lettuce heads, apples, and leaves with acrylic paint on canvas:

lettuce core rose

lettuce core rose

apple core & parsley print

rose from lettuce

rose from lettuce core

apple core detail

apple core star print

apple core star print pattern

apple core star print pattern

bottle cap art

April 18, 2010 in craft, reuse, school, sculpture, trash

i recently finished an artist-in-residence at the Danville School in Danville, Vermont for their three-day arts festival.  the theme was “ReUse” so we made some sculpture out of bottle caps and other items that most people would throw away…

the complete set of photos is on my Flickr page.

cap detail with brushes

cap detail with brushes

bottle cap mural

bottle cap mural

recycled magazine folding origami book

recycled magazine folding origami book

bottle cap sculpture

bottle cap sculpture

trash sculpture detail

trash sculpture detail