JANE KOOPMAN ART AND JEWELRY

Messy Rest

ideas and observations about everyday wonders
from a girl who has never been able to keep her room clean
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4/11/2013

Don't Trash Your Wrapping Tissue Paper

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We've all seen it: the tissue paper carnage that results from Christmas mornings, birthdays, baby showers and wedding showers. Giant clouds of tissue paper get stuffed into big garbage bags to be put on the curb, bound for the landfill.

Tissue paper is one of those grey area products when it comes to recycling. Some municipalities won't recycle tissue paper because it often contains additives - like wax, glitter or foil - that are problematic in the recycling process. We can, of course, reuse tissue paper in our own gift wrapping and packaging, but in doing so, we can't be certain that it won't get thrown away.

Lucky for us, we don't need to throw away tissue paper or recycle it because there are so many marvelous household and creative uses for the stuff. I'll focus on some creative uses in this post.

Tissue paper is marvelous stuff to use in art because you can manipulate it and layer it in so many ways to create really cool effects. I'll show you some examples from my own work. I created these art cards using tissue paper:
tissue paper art
I made the white flower on this card by layering pieces of white tissue paper for the petals, and bunching together small shreds of tissue paper for the centre.
tissue paper art
I made the flowers on this card with scraps of blue and yellow tissue paper.
Here, I played around with some tissue paper to create texture for a painted background. I painted some gloss medium onto a piece of paper, then laid tissue paper loosely on top, and pressed down lightly to adhere it. Then, I painted over the surface with more gloss medium to set all the interesting textures created by the tissue paper.
tissue paper art
You can also use tissue paper to make something called "crystalline paper". All you need is some gloss medium and some freezer paper to use as a work surface. To learn how to make it, check out this easy tutorial about how to make crystalline paper, or watch this video about how to make crystalline paper. Look how super fun it is:
crystalline paper bookmark
I used red tissue paper that contains little pieces of coloured foil to make the crystalline paper in this bookmark. If you look closely, you can see the book's words through the paper.
crystalline paper
Here's some crystalline paper that I made with green tissue paper and circles of white and teal tissue paper. I took the picture of the paper hanging in a window to show the beautiful translucency of the paper.
This just scratches the surface of all the marvelous creative things you can do with tissue paper. And the great thing is, it's no problem to store because you can smush it into whatever space you have available!

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3/20/2013

My Dumpster DIY Adventure: Turning an Old Futon into Bedside Tables!!

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A year ago, my husband, Dan, and I bought a comfy new couch to replace an old pine futon we had inherited from friends many moons ago. The futon sat in the basement for a while as we avoided figuring out what to do with it, until we finally got tired of maneuvering around it and had to decide its fate. Unfortunately, the mattress went to the dump . . . it's pretty hard these days to find anywhere to donate a used futon mattress, and I was too overwhelmed by the thought of trying to upcycle it. But I knew there were tons of things I could do with all that pine from the futon frame. So Dan obliged my whim and kindly dismantled the frame for me. He's so great.

A couple months ago, an upcycling project dawned on me for the futon frame wood: bedside tables. For our entire married life, our bedside tables have consisted of whatever we have found around the house that can hold a lamp and an alarm clock. I've never done any real carpentry, but I thought I'd use the futon wood to try my hand at building something a little more spiffy for our bedsides. And hey, I'm always stoked about any opportunity to play with power tools.
recycled futon
My first step was to sort out all the pieces of the dismantled futon to see if I would have enough wood for two tables. I did! Then I had to remove the staples that had been used in the construction of the original futon. They came out easily with pliers. Here are my pieces of wood, organized and ready to go.

recycled futon
As a carpentry novice, I needed a simple table plan to follow. I'm definitely not smart enough to figure it out by myself. I searched online and found this simple, excellent plan for a plant stand made from a recycled wood pallet. I adjusted it slightly for my rectangular tables, but the instructions were just what I needed. Here are the beginnings of my tables: the side legs. If you look very closely, boys and girls, you can see the tools I used: compound mitre saw (at the top left of the picture), drill, wood glue, tape measure, right angle thingy, countersink bit and drill bits. Oh, and screws of course.

recycled futon tables
Soon my cutting and measuring started to look like tables, and to my delighted surprise, they didn't even wobble! It was at this stage that I decided I would leave the tables unpainted: I like the rough quality of the pine and the curious dings and holes that show the wood's original purpose.

And here's the finished product: sturdy tables with shelves underneath for books and stuff. I'm thrilled with the results. I love the fact that I have some upcycled furniture that's truly functional, that I made myself. Furniture that has served our home continues to serve us in a new way.
Picture
table top detail - great way to use all those end pieces
upcycled futon table
his side (with ugly lamp)
Picture
her side

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2/25/2013

Orange Crate Organizing: Turn These Wooden Boxes into Handy Storage Pieces

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It's not unusual for citrus fruit - especially the little, easy-to-peel kind - to be packed in small wooden crates. The fruit is delicious and nutritious, but what do you do with the crates when they're empty?

When dismantled, they make great kindling. But that means nothing if you don't have a fireplace, woodstove, backyard bonfire pit or back alley steel drum. Well, with a little dressing up, they also make great storage baskets. But every household only needs so many baskets.

I've always had a stockpile of these little crates, knowing that there must be some other good uses for them. A couple years ago, I made myself some earring displays/jewelry boxes out them. You can see a video about how to make these orange create jewelry displays by visiting my YouTube channel. In recent months, I came up with another use for them: bead organization in my studio. With their compact size, they're great shelves for small things, like beads.

You could easily mount a crate sideways as-is on your wall and use it as a shelf for lightweight items (they usually have holes on the bottom, which make them easy to hang). In my case, I modified a few to suit my purposes. I took some apart, and used the pieces to reinforce the crates I wanted to hang on the wall.
Picture
(I saved the thick wire staples for another project.) I also used the dismantled crate pieces to add extra shelving to some of the crates. Hopefully the photo gives you an idea of some of the things I did. As you can see, my little orange crate shelving system has allowed me to store a lot of beads! And I get a kick out of the fact that my studio has some upcycled storage.

I have used orange crates in other ways for studio organization, but I'll save that for another day. I don't want you to get over-excited!

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2/7/2013

Economical and Eco-Friendly Gift Wrap

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Valentine's Day is next week, and people who are much nicer and more romantic than I am will give gifts to their significant others. So this is as good a time as any to talk gift wrap.

I'm ambivalent about wrapping paper, gift bags and other gift wrapping stuff. It's so nice and spirit-lifting to get a package beautifully and thoughtfully wrapped. The moment ends, however, as soon as you tear apart the wrapping paper or yank the tufts of tissue paper out of the gift bag. All too often, the lovely packaging ends up in the garbage. Some conscientious gift-receivers carefully unwrap their presents, being extra careful to pull the tape off without tearing the paper, and then neatly fold it for another use. But let's face it: lots of people don't.

I have a few gift wrap ideas that are cost-effective and perhaps more eco-friendly.
eco friendly gift wrap
  • The newsprint used by stores and online merchants to protect fragile items can make nice wrapping paper if you give it a little imagination. You can go the old school Sound of Music "paper packages tied up with string" route by wrapping your gift in this rustic paper, and tying some jute, twine, or kitchen string around it. If you're extra industrious, you could stamp some patterns onto the paper. Most of this paper is compostable (though it shouldn't be composted if you've stamped it), and all of it is recyclable.

reusable gift wrap
  • My Mom used to do this when I was a kid: wrap gifts in tea towels, dish cloths, hand towels, wash cloths, pillow cases, cloth napkins or receiving blankets, depending on the occasion and size of the gift. This works great for baby and wedding showers especially. It's pretty and useful!

reusable gift wrap
  • You can also use any sort of container as a gift receptacle: flower pots, baskets, cookie or tea tins, orange crates, vases, mason jars . . . the list is as long as your imagination can take you. Your giftee can enjoy your present and make good use of the container it came in.

If none of the above mentioned ideas strike your fancy, you could try any of these: reusable shopping bags, tote bags, newspaper or comics pages (recyclable), teacups, mugs or photo boxes. There are lots of ways to make your presents look pretty without spending much money or creating much waste.

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1/21/2013

Save Your Scrap!

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    Jane Hogeterp Koopman

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