JANE KOOPMAN ART AND JEWELRY

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from a girl who has never been able to keep her room clean
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7/17/2014

A Sixth Grade Landscape - Part 2

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In my last post, I explained the story behind A Sixth Grade Landscape: an art piece I made out of trash items collected by sixth graders from Chedoke Public School. I visited the class in May to deliver the finished piece, and it was a highlight of my year for sure!

It was wonderful to see all the faces behind the unconventional art materials that went into this artwork. After I revealed the piece to the class, the kids came in for a closer look. Some of them could pick out the pieces they contributed: "that's my old friendship bracelet", "those are my old pencil grips". It was a delight for me to see the kids interact with this work that we had, in essence, created together.
upcycled art
Sixth Grade Landscape (photo, Jennifer Miscas)
After all the kids had a closer look at the artwork, their teacher, Jennifer, brought home what this collaborative art project was all about: "I hope this experience has helped you think more carefully about what we throw away, and to find creative uses for the things we might throw away every day". Her words so articulately echoed what drives so much of what I do in my creative work.

It has been such a thrill to meet a teacher and a group of students who are keen to be more creative and responsible in their approach to garbage. A few weeks ago, Jennifer sent me the article some of her students wrote about our project for their school newsletter. They've summed up the experience better than I ever could.

From Junk to Art!

Our teacher, Ms. Miscas, was inspired to take up a challenge she read about in Hamilton Magazine last summer. The article was written about a local artist, Jane Koopman, who encouraged people to begin collecting small throw-away items in a "Jane Jar". Once the jar was full, Jane would happily use the collection to create up-cycled works of art.

In September, Ms. Miscas challenged our grade 6 class to begin filling our own classroom "Jane Jar". She encouraged us to put items in the jar that represented us as 11 and 12 year old students at Chedoke School. By January we had filled our jar with broken pencils, hair bands, old toys, friendship bracelets etc...Jane picked up our jar and went to work creating a unique art piece just for us!

The reveal took place in May! Jane created a stunning picture that represented some of nature's most beautiful things: flowers, trees, and the sun, using many of the objects we collected. It was fascinating to see our pencil grips turned into blades of grass, and our play money turned into flower petals!

Not only do we now have a unique art piece to hang in our classroom, but we also learned that the smallest bits and pieces that we might normally throw away are valuable items to eco-friendly artists in our community.

We can't wait to start our next "Jane Jar"!!

Written by, Ahmad Hamadi, Mariam Rabaiaa, Kyra Guzylak-Messam, and Kailyn Walsh (on behalf of our grade 6 classmates at Chedoke School)

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7/3/2014

A Sixth Grade Landscape

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upcycled art
A few months ago, I embarked on a project with a sixth grade class at Chedoke Elementary in Hamilton. Jennifer Miscas, the teacher of this fine group of students, started a Jane Jar with her class at the beginning of the school year, and in January, she contacted me to see if I would create an art piece from the jar's contents. (You can read more about how this came about in my original blog post about the project's start.) I was thrilled and honoured by Jennifer's request.

I finished the art piece in May and delivered it to Jennifer and her class. And with my impeccable timing, I'm finally getting around to writing about it just as all the kids head out for their well-deserved summer vacation. Sorry, guys. Nevertheless, let me tell you the story of how some sixth graders' junk turned into fabulous art supplies.

This is how it all started: a big jar, full of lovely trash.

Jane Jar
I upended the jar and dumped the contents onto a tray to see what would emerge. The bright colours were what first caught my eye. With all the broken toys, school supplies, and accessories that are part of sixth graders' lives, there were lots of vibrant pinks, greens, oranges and blues. Then I picked out interesting shapes and lines, and an idea began to form: a sort of fantastical landscape. 

Some of the Jane Jar contents could be used as-is, but a lot of the trash had to be modified to become part of the artwork. For example, I coiled all the friendship bracelets, hair elastics, and ribbon-y bits into circles, and set them with acrylic medium. I did the same thing with all the loom bands that had made their way into the Jane Jar. I later strengthened the loom band swirls with a coating of epoxy resin. 
upcycled art
the rough sketch
upcycled art
repurposed friendship bracelets, hair elastics, ribbons, and loom bands
As you can see below, the state of my desk was rather chaotic as I made all the components.
art studio

The Best Art Supplies Ever

Eventually all the garbage and repurposed components came together into this assemblage art piece, which I titled "Sixth Grade Landscape". Can you see what's in it? Keep reading to find out . . .
mixed media art
photo, Jennifer Miscas
In my usual forgetfulness, I forgot to take a photo of the artwork, so Jennifer kindly provided me with this one. I've numbered the sections so you can see what went into each area of the artwork:
1. I made the sun out of a lid from a sports drink, a plastic basketball from a broken keychain, broken pencils, and broken pencil crayons.
2. The trees in the background are made from friendship bracelets and broken pencil crayons.
3. The blue flower has a lot of components. 
  • I made the lighter blue "petals" by painting toy money and wrapping pieces around pen caps and pencil grips; pen and mechanical pencil parts form stamens of a sort. 
  • The dark blue petals are made from a correction tape dispenser, which I embellished with pen parts and an eraser. 
  • My favourite petals are made from a toy dinosaur and a lego man embellished with a mechanical pencil hat and a plastic gear at his feet.
  • The centre of the flower is made from a plastic gear and a piece of marker lid filled with tinted resin.
  • I made the leaves out of more paper money, an instruction sheet for a Webkinz toy, and a piece of lined paper. I painted the leaves green and outlined some of them with lime green nail polish. 
  • The dots around the flower are made from loom bands and pieces of pen filled with tinted epoxy.
4. The magenta flower also has oodles of components. 
  • The centre of the flower and the petal at the bottom left are both hair barrettes.
  • The upper right left petal is made from a jelly bracelet filled in with tinted epoxy.
  • I made the remaining petals out of pages from a little cupcake-shaped notebook, perfect for forming interesting petal shapes. All but one of the petals have pencil grips in their centres with stamens made out of springs from pens. The other petal has a hair barrette as its centre. 
  • The purple dots around the flower are made from a ribbon dyed with acrylic ink. 
5. The bottom of the artwork is covered with sliced up pencil grips and a sliced up pen lid. 

I think that's everything . . . 

You might notice that not all of the components I made out of the kids' trash made it into the final artwork. These pieces are destined for another art adventure in my studio, and I have carefully stashed them away until their destiny is revealed. I have done the same with any of the garbage I didn't use from the sixth graders' collection.

In my next post, I'll tell you about Part Two of this story: my visit with Jennifer and her delightful sixth graders. It was a great time, and I can't wait to tell you about it, so stay tuned.

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4/2/2014

Inspiration Every Day

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Every day, everywhere we go, our eyes take in images. Usually, our brains don't register the interest, beauty, or complexity of the things we see because we're focused on other things. As a result, we miss a lot of opportunities for delight, inspiration, and heart lifting.

So lately, I've tried to keep my iPad mini with me when I'm out and about so that I can capture the mundane and spectacular sights that invoke responses in me. In so doing, I'm creating a catalog of images to peruse when I need a creative recharge, an idea for a piece of art or jewelry, or simply some cheering up.

Here's a sampling from my stash . . . no enhancements, no Photoshop . . . just the straight goods.
Picture
roof beams at a winery in Prince Edward County, Ontario
Picture
atriummy place in downtown Toronto
Picture
Picture
Picture
beautifully dilapidated garage doors in Hamilton, Ontario
Picture
My niece likes to play with Photo Booth on my iPad. This is a particularly awesome result.
Picture
a bird at the bank

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2/19/2014

Sweatshirt Upcycle: A Cozy Rescue

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upcycled sweatshirt
I am very attached to this orange sweatshirt. There's no reason for it: it's old, the drawstring for the hood has long disappeared, and orange looks terrible on me. But it's cozy and lumpy and soft and warm, and I love it.

So when I got a stain on it a few months ago, I was dismayed. 

I've had it in my mind more and more that I'd like to upcycle my clothes that are worn, stained or ill-fitting. This seems to me a responsible way to manage my wardrobe: it would save me money and allow me to save beloved pieces. It would also prevent my clothes from becoming part of the pile of second hand store discards that get shipped overseas by the pound. (Millions of pounds of bulk second hand clothes get shipped from western nations to developing nations. There are mixed opinions about how these shipments impact local economies.)

The only problem with my upcycling ambitions is that my sewing skills are, well, scarce. I have lots of ideas, but I'm not sure I have the skills to execute them. Serendipitously for me, some inspired young women in my church decided to start Sewing New Hope: a community sewing circle. 

Since January, we've hauled out our sewing machines every Thursday night and done some sewing between sips of coffee and intervals of conversation. Among this lovely group are some ladies with mad sewing skills, and they willingly help the rest of us who don't always know what we're doing. Each week has a project or sewing skill to focus on if we want, but we can also work on our own projects. This is my opportunity to bring some of my upcycling ideas to life, and I figured I'd start with my beloved orange sweatshirt. 

Here's what I did.

Okay, so you can't really see the stain very well in this photo, but trust me, there's a stain. In the next photo, you'll see what the weird circles are.
upcycled sweatshirt
I cut circles out of some cotton t-shirt scraps in brown, light blue, medium blue and burnt orange. With safety pins, I pinned the circles onto the back of my sweatshirt because I wanted to create reverse patches (that's what I'm calling them, anyway). Following the advice of one of my smart sewing circle friends, I hand-basted the circles onto the shirt so that I wouldn't have to deal with pins while working with the sewing machine. For those of you who are sewing newbs like me, basting is loosely stitching something in place. It is also, of course, what you do when you cook a turkey.
upcycled sweatshirt
And another tip for those with limited sewing experience: sewing circles with a sewing machine is not as simple as it might seem. Maybe modern machines can be programmed to sew curves - I have no idea - but my old-school Singer sews straight lines. This means I had to use a very light touch with the foot pedal and lift the sewing machine's presser foot every few stitches so that I could turn the fabric. I used brown thread to stitch all the circles.
upcycled sweatshirt
Here's what my sweatshirt looked like after I sewed the circles onto the back and turned it right side out. 
upcycled sweatshirt
Next, I cut the sweatshirt fabric from the front of the shirt to reveal the patches beneath. With one hand inside the shirt holding the patch, I pulled the front fabric up with my other hand to separate the two pieces of fabric. Then, I nipped the front fabric, being careful not to cut the patch, and then cut out a circle along the stitching.
upcycled sweatshirt
upcycled sweatshirt
upcycled sweatshirt
upcycled sweatshirt
So there you have it: my beloved cozy sweatshirt reinvented. Not only is the unsightly stain gone, but my shirt has a unique and colourful new style that I'll be glad to wear. 
upcycled sweatshirt
upcycled sweatshirt
Sorry if I've blinded you with all the orange. 

Now. What shall I upcycle next?

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2/7/2014

Studio Reorganization Mission Complete!

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After a month of sorting, pitching, pondering, cleaning and arranging, I have finally completed my mission to give my art studio an overhaul that will make my work experience more organized and inspiring. It was a more intensive process than I had anticipated because, the deeper I delved into the clutter, the more meticulous my sorting and arranging became to help this reorganization be effective for the long haul. 
art studio organization
art studio organization

So, let me take you on a little tour. Yay! This is what you see when you walk in the door. On the right is my macho work area for stuff that involves pounding, drilling, torching and smashing. On the left is where I more gently work on art and cards.
art studio
First stop on the tour: my art desk. I had two goals when I rearranged my desk: create lots of work space, and keep close at hand the things I use a lot. I have organized my most-used art tools into a series of pottery and wood containers along the back edge of my desk. The art supplies I use the most sit on a lazy susan (I'm bad at putting things away, so this caters to my bad habit). All my pens and markers are organized in those little plastic drawers and the organizer that sits on top of them (which I made with toilet paper rolls). In the bottom right corner of the photo you can see where I toss my trash and recyclables.

I'm really happy with this workspace now. I've got lots of room to stretch out my work, and I've got most of what I need right in front of me. And I love sitting by the window.
art studio
Beside my desk is a little caddy that holds random (and painstakingly organized) scraps that result from my creative adventures. I won't bore you (or risk being made fun of) by itemizing them all. The drawer unit on my desk holds administrative-ish stuff, like labels, a calculator, and the receipts I accumulate through a week. The unattractive drawer unit under my desk holds bags of various sizes and scrap paper that I use for experimenting or making paper. Maybe some day I'll try to make that thing look a little more pretty.
art studio organization

To the right of my desk, I have stored frequently-used art supplies within easy reach on low shelves along the wall beside me. My tubes of acrylic paint hang on the wall from binder clips: now they're easy to access, and they look funky too. (Thank you, Pinterest universe, for the idea.) I got a bargain on a bunch of plastic trays at a local reuse centre, and I used them all to keep my full sheets of paper organized. A tower of paper makes me happy inside.
Picture
On the left side of my desk, I've stored more art supplies and tools. Here you might notice some of the things I wrote about in my last blog post: binders that keep my scrap paper organized, wine boxes that store cutting tools and embellishments, and the fabric box unit that stores my ribbon scraps (in the lower right side of the picture). The thing on the wall above the ribbon scraps in a clementine box that I've fit with wooden dowels to store spools of ribbon.

This is an Ikea shelf that anchors to the floor and ceiling, so it's very sturdy and un-wobbly. It's great for storing all my clumsy sketchbooks and pads of paper (on the top shelf). The shelves are adjustable, and I've set up a short shelf in the middle to store large pieces of paper that need to stay flat. One other trick you might notice: a section of an Ikea wine rack keeps my rolls of paper organized, and laying a piece of cardboard across the top of it creates a mini shelf.
Picture

The back wall of my studio is home to upcycled materials. The centre column of this shelf holds the upcycled materials I use the most, including postage stamps, bottle caps, beach glass and vegetable bags (sorted in bins on the floor). A couple more bins of upcycled stuff sit on the low shelf on the left. I wanted to keep my upcycled materials together in one place so that, when I sort through loads of garbage, it's easy to organize and put away. In another corner of the studio, I have a bin unit that holds other upcycled materials I don't use as much that patiently wait for their debut in a new project.

The left column of the shelf stores all my substrate and t-shirt scraps, and the right column holds my printmaking and sewing supplies. 
Picture

My grunt work station didn't change very much through my art studio overhaul. The biggest thing I did here was sort through all my beads and modify how I store them. I grouped them together by material (i.e. glass, wood, semi precious) and colour, and moved some of them into the side drawers of the desk to alleviate some clutter.
art studio

Welcome to my studio's walk-in closet, the unglamorous hideaway for the things I don't know what to do with. Well, that's less true now because I spent some time organizing this little cavern too. 

Until now, my inventory, packaging materials, and shipping stuff were in different places in my house because they didn't fit in my studio. The reorganization in the studio meant that I could empty some things from the closet and make room for a shipping centre of sorts. I emptied most of the drawers in the dresser (most of which hadn't seen the light of day in many moons), and relocated their contents (much of it to charity). Now the drawers store shipping and packaging materials. My jewelry and card inventory now rest on top of the dresser (foreground), along with the rest of my shipping materials. My artwork is the only part of my creative inventory not stored here: it's in another room in the house where the temperature is more stable than this sketchily insulated closet.
art studio
Shipping is a much easier process now that I don't have to run around to three different places to put together a package.  

So there you have it, folks! I feel relieved and excited to have this reorganization project finished. My workspace is now inviting and organized, and still bright and quirky the way I like it. I have no doubt that the arrangements and decor will continue to change over time, but this is a good foundation: a great way to start the year.

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1/31/2014

Organization Ideas for the Art Studio (and anywhere else, for that matter)

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So, January's nearly over, and my daunting art studio organization project is nearly done. Next week, I'll do the dramatic "reveal" of my new space, and in the mean time, I thought I'd share some of the tricks I've used to get there. I've gleaned many of the ideas from books and Pinterest, and some I even came up with all by myself.

Cutting Through the Clutter

art studio organization
This idea from Kathi Lipp's book The Get Yourself Organized Project helped me feel less overwhelmed as I approached the chaos in my art studio. Lipp suggests that, when you begin to clean up and organize a room, you have ready three boxes and two bags. In Box 1 you place anything lying around that needs to be put away within the room. In Box 2, you place the things that belong in other rooms of the house. Box 3 is for the things you want to give away. The two bags are for garbage and recycling.

In the photo, you can see my three boxes. Using this little system cleared the clutter so that I could focus on organizing my space. After all, what's the point of putting things away if you don't know where you're going to put them? The three boxes also kept me on task. Instead of getting side-tracked by putting things away in other parts of the house, I just put them in my "other rooms" box to deal with later.

Scrap Paper Organization

scrap paper organization
I have a lot of scrap paper, and keeping it organized has always raised my blood pressure. I never know where to put it, and more so, I don't know how to find the pieces I want to use when I need them. 

I came up with this idea, and I'll see how it works: I sorted all the scrap paper by colour, assigned each colour a binder, and organized the paper in each binder with page protectors. The page protectors help me organize the scraps into similar sizes and shapes - as you can see below - so that I can find exactly what I need when I'm working on cards and art. 

I adhered coloured stickers to each binder's spine so that I can easily pull the binder I need off the shelf when I want to use some paper or put it away. As you might have guessed, the white binder stores white and off-white papers. The binders are within easy reach of my art desk to accommodate my laziness.

scrap paper organization
scrap paper organization

Mmmm . . . Wine Boxes

wine boxes
Wine boxes are great for storage. They look nice, they have lids, they have handles, and they have compartments. And if you're lucky, they smell like wine.
wine box storage

Herding the Hoard of Ribbon Scraps

Like scrap paper, I have a lot of ribbon scraps. They have sat overflowing in a plastic container in a tangled mess that looks like a bowl of spaghetti. To start sorting this out, I untangled and unknotted the ribbon spaghetti, and sorted it into different types, like fabric, wired, gift-wrapping ribbon, string, etc. I had an empty small storage unit with fabric boxes and figured this would be great for keeping the ribbon organized. 

I wrapped long pieces of ribbon around toilet paper rolls, fastening them with tape. I had some sections of narrow cardboard tube (no idea where I got them), and they were perfect for wrapping short pieces of gift-wrapping ribbon. Short pieces of fabric ribbon got wrapped around clothespins, an idea snagged from Pinterest. 

It took a while to do all this, but now that it's done, I think it will be pretty simple to prevent ribbon spaghetti in the future.
ribbon organization
ribbon organization
ribbon storage
photo, craftstorageideas.com

Organization for Lazy People

I will be the first to admit that I am bad at putting things away. If something can't be put away quickly, I put it off. There. I said it.

So rather than fight it, I am arranging things in my studio to accommodate my laziness. One way of doing this is to employ what I will call the piggy bank tactic. When I'm sorting out my upcycled materials, I find it tedious to pull containers off shelves and open lids to put things away. I realize how ridiculous that sounds. Nevertheless, I thought I would make life easier for myself by cutting slots into the lids of containers so that I can just drop items into their proper places, like putting coins in a piggy bank.
I use postage stamps in my artwork, and I have a lot of them. I store most of them in ice cream containers organized by country or continent (clearly, I eat a lot of ice cream, and I'm not ashamed). With a slot cut into the lid of each container, I don't need to pull anything off the shelf when I put my stamps away. I just deposit each stamp into its designated container.
art studio organization
Similarly, I have a giant hoard of bottle caps that I use in art and jewelry. I keep the caps in a large flat box so I can easily pick through them when I work on a project. When I'm not using the caps, the container sits on a shelf under a stack of other containers, so it's a little tricky to get to. I cut a slot into the lid so I don't have to unearth that large container each time I put away bottle caps.
art studio organization
Over the next few months as I work away in my studio, these organization ideas will be put to the test. I have high hopes that they'll help me stay organized and make my work easier. 

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1/21/2014

A January Project: Organize my Art Studio

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art studio organization
I've been sort of dragging my feet into the new year because, throughout the closing months of 2013, I resolved to dedicate the month of January to getting myself organized. I'm not one for new year's resolutions (because I know I won't keep them), but January is the natural time to take stock of how last year went in my home and with my business, and determine what needs to get done in the months ahead. November and December were a flurry of activity, and I looked forward to January when I could take some time to assess. Now that January is here . . . I feel pretty sluggish about making plans and getting organized.

Besides business planning and attending to some household projects, I am trying to reorganize my art studio this January. Not that I didn't try, oh, maybe eight times already in 2013. Each time I went through a crazy busy few weeks, I got frustrated with the clutter and chaos that accumulated (see evidence above). This month, I'm determined to devote the time and energy to designing a creative space that will really work, that needs only minor adjustments in the year ahead. As I embark, it feels a little insurmountable.

See Jane Get Organized.

So, I've decided to document my haphazard journey through the headaches, blank stares, and exasperated sighs of sorting out a busy space so that others - especially other messy creatives like myself - might learn some things along with me.

I've thought a lot about what I need my art studio space to be. I've done a lot of research about storage ideas and room layouts (oh, how I love you, Pinterest), but when it comes down to it, the most clever or most beautiful ideas won't work if they don't suit my space and my work habits. So, I've come up with three qualities that my art studio must have: 
art studio
markers

1. Practicality

The things I use the most must be within easy reach (in close proximity to where I work, at a shelf height I can reach).

I need some empty spaces where unfinished projects or odds and ends can reside until I have time to put them away. Several organization blogs and books I've read say that you shouldn't have empty spaces where clutter can accumulate. Clearly, those authors are not as flawed as I am: my reality is not so orderly, so I'm going to accommodate my more casual working style. So there.

I have a lot of things to store in my studio: upcycled materials, tools, art supplies, books, shipping and packaging supplies, and jewelry making supplies, to name a few. I want to group them together according to their purpose so that it's easier for me to find things.

2. The Capability to Evolve

My work habits and projects change over time, so my storage and organization can't be so permanent that they can't be altered. That is to say, I don't think I'll ever have a studio with spiffy built-ins or wall-mounted shelves, a la HGTV. I opt for open shelves and an eclectic hoard of different sized containers that can accommodate my changing work.

3. Inspiration

art studio organization
I spend a lot of time in my studio, obviously, so it needs to be a space in which I want to spend time. It must be bright and comfortable, and most importantly, it must inspire my creative senses. For me, that means using quirky upcycled storage pieces, hanging other people's artwork on the walls, taking some time to add decorative flourishes to mundane storage items, and having an idea board where I can tack up random images/objects that tickle my fancy.

Starting at the End

It's hard to know where to start when I survey the mess of bits and pieces that call my studio home. So, I have tried to picture what I want the end result to be. My hours of Pinterest perusing have shown several possibilities that usually fall under two extremes.
The Magazine Art Studio Perfectly Staged for Creating . . . um . . . Conversation?
craft room
source: Pinterest
Seriously? White shag carpet? Imagine it in six months with paint globs, glue gobs and tiny pieces of paper all through it. Certainly, there is a place for everything, but as soon as the occupant of this idyllic aqua oasis takes anything out of a mason jar to do some work, they'll have nowhere to put it. Unless they wear a giant apron with big pockets. But that would be rather uncomfortable.
A Real Artist's Studio Where Chaos is its Own Form of Organization
Picture
source: littlemichaelbigworld
True, this is more representative of my sense of order, but I would cry if I had to work in here. This is the art studio of twentieth century Irish artist Francis Bacon. I get a little short of breath just looking at this photo. How did this guy find anything? Perhaps he knew what was in and under each heap of stuff. I often use my creative nature as an excuse for my messiness, but this is a little extreme even for me.
I'd like my studio to be something in between these two extremes. I can sort of see it, so I've started setting to work. I'll keep you posted . . . .

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7/11/2013

Retro Kitchen Storage Repurposed as Groovy Bead Storage

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I was super stoked to find this cool retro kitchen storage unit at my local reuse centre. I walked past it a few times, not really noticing its potential until - BAM! - it hit me: this would be perfect for bead storage in my studio. To be specific, seed beads.

I think this plastic contraption was made probably to be a kitchen cupboard organizer for spices, by a company called Kitchen Art. I'm guessing it was made in the 80's.

I have my seed beads organized into bottles by colour, plus some additional tubes full of beads. I stacked my bottles o' beads on the tiers of the kitchen organizer and put the tubes of seed beads into the organizer's handy pull-out drawer. Everything fits perfectly and is within easy reach of where I work. Dreamy bead storage. I love it when I find obscure and handy things like this!
repurposed spice rack
Picture

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6/27/2013

An Old Jewelry Box Gets a Facelift . . . With Some Old Jewelry

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On Etsy.com, where I have my online shop, I am part of a team of other wonderful creatives who share my passion for upcycling. Each month, Team Upcyclers hosts a challenge: one of the team members chooses an item to upcycle - like wine corks, old sweaters or old neck ties - and the other team members respond by submitting new and innovative ways of reusing and repurposing the challenge item. You can see some of the past challenges by visiting the Team Upcyclers Blog.

This month the upcycle challenge was to find a use for old and broken jewelry. This was a timely challenge for me because I recently acquired a few shoe boxes full of old and broken jewelry from my Mom and a couple aunts. I have reused a lot of the jewelry from these generous ladies to make other jewelry, but there are a few odds and ends that I can't use to make jewelry. This month's Team Upcyclers challenge provided the perfect opportunity to come up with some ideas.
old jewelry box
One night, I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea of what to do. Why not spruce up an old jewelry box by using old jewelry? It was hard to get back to sleep as I imagined the possibilities.

This week, I headed off to a local reuse centre (the Burlington Reuse Centre - bar none, my favourite place to shop), in search of a jewelry box in need of some love. I found this adorable little jewelry box with a drawer. It was pretty dirty and had a few chinks taken out of the finish, so I figured it was a perfect candidate for some upcycled glory.

jewelry box project
After taking it home and cleaning it, the first thing I did was sand down most of the dark finish to smooth out some of the chinks and scratches. Then, I picked through my stash of 80s earrings, broken brooches and partner-less earrings to see what ensemble would work. The moment I saw this box at the reuse centre, I knew I could use some old earrings as drawer pulls . . . a moment of upcycling destiny, I'd say.

upcycled broken jewelry
I decided to go with a pearl theme. I picked out some post back earrings and a brooch that had fallen apart (on the right in the photo). I also used some earring posts that had lost their dangled attachments.
upcycled broken jewelry
Post back earrings are perfect for this sort of project because the posts can be used as pins for attaching to surfaces. I cut down each post at an angle to create a sharp pinpoint. Then, I arranged all the pieces the way I wanted them. Based on my layout, I drilled tiny holes into the wood, into which I could insert the earrings. Before pinning the earrings into the wood, I added some glue (my beloved Weldbond), just to make sure everything stayed secure. I attached the brooch pieces with glue, tucking them underneath and between the earring pieces.

And here's the result! I'm pretty happy with how this little jewelry box turned out, and I think it will make a great addition to the top of my dresser. Thanks to the Team Upcyclers challenge, I got motivated to rethink, and found a new purpose for some long-neglected implements of fashion.
upcycled jewelry box
upcycled jewelry box
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4/24/2013

Tubular Tutorial: Create a Craft Organization Station with Recycled Toilet Paper Rolls

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My new favourite discovery is the virtuous versatility of the toilet paper roll. This sturdy paper tube is handy for so many things, and I find myself using it more and more in my studio to organize art and craft tools. My newest endeavour is an organization station (yes, I'm rhyming on purpose) for all my markers - made with 28 recycled toilet paper rolls - and I thought I'd tutorialize the process for those of you who could benefit from some colourful tidiness.
Here's what you'll need:
  • a fairly sturdy box: use whatever size will accommodate your storage needs - I used a shoe box
  • enough TP rolls to fill it
  • double-sided tape (glue would also work, but DS tape is quicker for those of us who are impatient)
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  • something to add weight and sturdiness to the base of the box: I used an end piece off some hardwood flooring - another option would be to stick together a few pieces of heavy cardboard
Start by lining up your TP rolls inside the box to see how they'll fit. If you have a gap at the bottom, that's perfect: you can place your weighting wood/cardboard there. If you have gaps at the sides, you could adhere some cardboard to the insides of the box to fill the gaps (or get creative by adding in some other odds and ends).
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I set my end piece of hardwood flooring inside the long side of the shoe box. If you have no room to set your weighting inside, just adhere it to the bottom of the box.
Now, take one of your TP rolls. Put a piece along the length of the tube at the side (at 9:00), and another one along the bottom (at 6:00). (Sorry, the TP roll in the photo is flipped over so you can actually see the tape.) You'll affix the 9:00 sticky side to the side of the box, and you'll affix the 6:00 sticky side to the bottom of the box. Repeat this across the bottom of the box. You'll need to apply double sided tape to three sides of the last TP roll in the row.
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Repeat the process for the remaining rows. For the top row, you'll need an additional piece of double sided tape on the top side (12:00) of each roll. It's a little tricky getting the last TP roll of each row into the tight space, but you can be pretty aggressive. It's cardboard, after all.
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And there you have it, folks: an uber cool organizer with lots of tubular compartments for all your crafty tools. If you're really ambitious, you can decorate the outside of the box. I covered mine with some old wrapping paper I had laying around.

And hey, if you're not arty or crafty - and don't get all keyed up by seeing beautifully organized markers - you can use this organization station to store other stuff around the house. You could use it to store wires and cables, your assortment of string and twine, pens . . . anything you like . . . except knives, maybe.
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I like markers.

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    Jane Hogeterp Koopman

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