"Repurposing" - Art Elements Theme Challenge

This month's theme over at Art Elements was "Repurposing". Lesley chose this wonderful theme that was (should have been) perfect for me! I love to use anything I can find simply because I like the shape, the color, the texture... or the weirdness.

This is a picture of my work table... and this is nearly the clean and orderly state since you can see some wood of the table! But in a lot of the small vessels and dishes are found objects and other strange pieces that I love to use for my work. Repurposing is a big part of a lot of my creations.

I had a lot of ideas and plans... nope... didn't manage most of them. But I did finish my tin can book! I showed how I made the book covers in my blog post for this month (here). 

I painted a little bit more on the edges (and will go on with this, my sketch books are ever eveolving things) and chose my favorite red thread for the binding. I love the contrast!

This will be a wonderful sturdy tine wee book.

I went for a selection of different water color papers. I got a lot from different companies to try them out.

Since the pages are often quite thick, even cardboard like, I had to use a single page binding stitch.

It really took some time to find a stitch that worked for me. I watched a lot of tutorial videos, I have some books on bookbinding... in the end I played so long until I had my own way for stitching single pages.

Just for today, I even played a little bit!

 

The first row is still uneven, I was in the "figure it out" phase but I love how the other rows look.

And I made a second new sketch book with single page binding. At first I thought... mh... not fitting the theme... but then I remembered that I always use the leftover cardboard for my book covers. I don't think of it as repurposing although it is. I simply use what is available.

I finally used one of my favorite monoprints ever! I try not be a hoarder... but it is hard!

Again, the first row is a little bit uneven, maybe I have to fix the book better doing the first row.

 

In this bigger one I enforced the ends with washi tape. Since I used three different kinds of paper I also used the washi tape to color code them.

Since I am doing monoprints, most commercial papers lost their appeal.

By the way... the company already color coded the pages! I just didn't see that.

This was of stitching allows the book to lay completely flat when open. But of course it is also more flexible in all directions. If you don't like that in a sketch book, then I would not recommend this kind of stitching.

I need to make more monoprints like this!

 I also had some lose water color papers that I used for testing. I keep them as reference.

Can you see the different thickness?

Aaaaaand a lot of them!

So I went through my paper stash and repurposed some packaging cardboard for the back to make a little cover.

The papers are not fixed, I a not sure whether I want to bind them or not.

The outside... 

As a last point I wanted to show you my latest tools I use for monoprinting. Because in the end monoprinting is the perfect repurposing method! ;) A package piece that creates wonderful lines, two trash plastic pieces that from the lab, and another package piece I cut down to have this wonderful eight figure.

This was a wonderful challenge even though I didn't manage the projects I had planned. But so is life and the project will be done at some time. I know myself.

Thank you for joining us and please have a look what everyone made!

Guests

Tammy

Alysen

Evie & Beth

Karin

Hope

Divya

Anita

Sarajo

Kathy

Rebecca
Martha

AE Team
Niky

Laney

Cathy

 Caroline

Jen

Jenny 

Sue

Claire

Lesley

"Silver rain drops" - Recycled rustic and tribal necklace

In case you are wondering if this looks somehow familiar.... yes... the pendant was shown in one of my "working table" blog post. I finally managed to finish the necklace... took me just over a year in total ;)

But maybe that was just the time needed. Because I was unsure in between but now, I just the necklace!

The metal pendant is made from an old chinese tea tin box. I cut it apart, sanded, hammered, formed and punched it. I love the geometric golden pattern that looks quite worn and rustic. 

The silver czech glass drops add a beautiful contrast to the yellow and golden tin wrapped in copper with a really dark patina. Also all the other beads are czech glass beads, ranging from golden to mustard, from black to clear glass.

The dangles at the pendant move beautifully and add the right amount of weight to the light weighted tea tin box pendant.

I also liste it in my shop here :)

PS: And yes again... I just had to show you sooooo many pictures! Just a try to show you how beautiful it is (but as always difficult to capture on camera).

On my worktable: Tins to pendants... (and maybe some day eben in finished necklaces)

Seing my blog entry with my tin earrings claiming that I used my leftover tin pieces... you may have wondered leftover from what or... just these tiny pieces? (speaking of the tuna can tin only) I also made a pendant and a bracelet bar. The tin in the picture aboce in from a black tea can...

...and the tin with the flowers from an unknown but already rusty tin. 

I also want to use one of the bitter lemonade bottle caps as a pendant insteadt of using them in earrings. Sadly here in germay most tuna cans are not as beautiful as the spanish ones (and also I just want to buy the resposnible and not net caught tuna) and... there are no new tea cans anymore! They now have fany packages, beautiful designed but... but... not made out of metal anymore! When did this happen? Where do I get more beautiful cans/tins now?

Of course they are now all in the box with my ongoing projects. ^^

"El velero" and "Bon" - The rest of the tin for earrings!

It is lat and the last day.... weeks... were really full of work. Sleep would be nice from time to time as well as more play time or rather more energy to start playing with all my beads, findings and just stuff!

These earrings pairs are quite simple but it took me som time until I got the tin parts how I imagined them, a little bit rough and uneven and epecially worn without losing their beauty.

The czech glass bead drops are so fitting for me... the clear sky and water or a rough and stormy sea ;)

Oh... and while not being able to use my beads I managed to get a lot more! Maybe I should start showing them ;)

"Summer heat" - More tin earrings!

Yes, I still make more. At the moment I think I will keep going creating some from time to time. The movement, the bold colours, the re-cycled/up-cycled bottle cap (always some from stuff I really drunk, not just bought for crafts ^^), just the fun... it all draws me in. 

This is now the third version how I connected the bottle cap to the ear wire. I like all versions. I can't decide whether there is a favorite one. 

Strangely I found out that this bottle cap earrings only work for me if they are actually not identically. They have to fit but being identically they somehow lose their appeal for me. So the last versions were bitter lemonade (from spain and italy) and now two lemonade caps from the same brand but different versions (Thomas Henry, made in Berlin).

"Summer memories" - Earrings

A new pair of my "trash" earrings. No, I didn't call them like this but a customer at the christmas fair did. I was sharing the both with other people (a big both and in total we were six persons!) and every day two of us would be at the both selling the things of every one. Since the fair was going over several days, this was the only chance for all of us to participate. I was there only at the weekend (during the week you can find me in the research lab.. or... to be honest... nowadays mostly at the computer *sniff*). 

I had my first pair of this kind of earrings at the fair... and it seems that someone came back in a hurry (at one of the days I was not here) and ask if they still had the "earrings made of.. trash or something like that...!".  ;) As long as they are loved they can be called whatever they like! (and the material was trash... so yes, they are right... but we all had to laugh) :)

"Carnival" - Earrings made out of tin

The long tin parts were in their first life part of a metal tuna box from spain. Yes, we ate the tuna during our stay on formentera... and I washed the tin and brought it back to germany. Strangely enough but instead of tuna box feeling they are giving me a vintage carnival or circus feeling. 

I combined them with tiny wee beautiful lampwork beads made by Sue Reynolds (you can find her etsy shop here but I snapped this beauties in a lampwork auction fb group :) ). They are a deep purple even if they appear more bluish on the picture. But even with daylight my camera went on strike to capture the real beautiful purple colour.... grrrr....

I tried with different background on my balcony... (in case you wonder about the background) but the red even enhances the blue impression.

The same with a blue background...

My winter pale skin colour was also not helpful...

At least you can get an idea about the length. The tin itself is really thin and lightweight but sturdy and even slightly flexible. Yes, it was expensive tuna... but the tin was so beautiful! (also: This tuna is individual line caught not with a dragnet.. this is what makes the prize so high, not the beautiful tin)