Hey Gre do you want these?

That was the question I was asked earlier "Hey Gre do you want these?". When I looked at what I was being offered I said yep and took it out the throw away pile. What I took out was a stack of cream colored strips of  heavy weight paper. Their original purpose unknown to me but they smelled like stored books and now it was time to give them a new life.

My brain began do work as it always does, which I believe to be a form of sabotage to keep me busy and not doing probably more important things like memorizing the drivers manual. Soon enough I was planning my next build. Its a plus in the recycle scale and an awesome in the home decor scale. I got my materials ready : Glue, scissors, paper strips and cardboard box which I made into a cylinder with a base.

 Even though I had come up with the idea to make lamp, I wasn't sure how it was going to look or how big I wanted it to be. I began to glue the strips together and sure enough I knew what to do. This is what happens with most of what I make, its never planned in full since its guaranteed to mess me up. Its a process I have for as long as I can remember. Only in college was I forced to plan but those days are long over. After I glued a couple of strips more like 16 strips to be exact, I started to place them on the cylinder.

This is what I have come up with so far and when I hold it up to the light its amazing. Hope to finish this tomorrow and in the near future will have it hung right over my dining table.

Nothing is measured, its simple by eyeballing and it turns out rather nice.

Enjoy!

Somewhere to keep your earrings

I have an extensive collection of art and non art supplies and since I have moved most of it is in boxes still awaiting the light of day. But once in a while I open a box and find something I haven't seen in a while and soon enough I get an idea. This is what happened a couple of weeks ago when I stumbled upon these diamond shaped knitting pieces. My aunt had sent them to me or maybe I had bought them too long ago to remember. Instantly I thought of earrings and two weeks later after I finished other pending works I began working on earring holders.

I had all these board pieces from when I built the Barbie Mansion that I had to use for something. And sure enough the ideas simply marinated in my head and I began cutting and decorating. I had been watching "Nightmare Before Christmas" non stop and felt inspired by a pattern I saw on a wrapped gift. After seeing the movie so many times I now watch out for all them details missed the first and second and third etc times I've seen it. This is what was born out of my creativity, an awesome and practical earring holder. For those of us like me who have earrings galore, mostly of the stud kind. I should work on the larger earrings holder soon.

 

This one is a  large and measures about 14x12 and stands on its own so it has presence and can keep a good amount of earrings. I have two more that I'm working on and should have them ready soon.

This one is covered with amazing  Japanese origami paper and it is smaller than the previous one. Approximately  half the size of the other and also free standing.

Enjoy!

Rolled Paper Bowls

Experimenting and trying out new things keep me going as an artist and as a recycler. I always wanted to make paper bowls like I would see online. I had tried the decoupage-paper mache way and it was time for something new. Three magazines later and some tacky glue I was on a my way to making my bowls. The fist has been the best as so far since I was just an experimentation to see how the rolled paper worked with the glue. 

Turns out to be a lot of work but the end product is very nice.

Its great for fruits or treats or a place to keep the house keys.

After this bowl I was on a roll and proceeded to work with news paper and try out smaller bowls and coasters.  I also tried another shape and added some color and Taino designs.

Once I had mastered the paper and all that rolling I tried another way of rolling the paper. By making long ropes of the rolled paper which I then coiled and pulled up to create bowls with less symmetry.

 So far I have recycled six magazines and two newspapers
and created some nice Decor in return.

Enjoy!

  

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Barbie hired an Interior Designer

I've been working on a house. My biggest project to date, and the most exciting one. I am working on my daughters barbie house. The house was originally my barbie house from when I was a wee bit. My mother kept it for her future gran-daughter and luckily I gave her one. The houses decor was a bit out of style and dated so I decided to revamp the place and add a couple of modern touches. This is what it used to look like when I played with it. This house is four feet long and tree feet tall, its amazing and I am glad my mother kept it for all these years.

The plan was to work right on the original walls and paint the structure purple which is the child's favorite color. I must say that purple has never been my fave color. I don't even own anything purple beyond paint and nail polish, but the child loves it to death and it has grown on me somewhat. After much objection from the grandma and grand aunt I decided to purchase boards and save the old parts for memories sake. Three  boards later I had the parts cut out and the Interior Design of the place was set in motion.

While packing a couple of months ago I decided to leave my magazine collection behind due to its weight and practicality. Most were Architectural Digest and Interior Design magazines with a couple of fashion on the side. Out of my large magazine collection I made another smaller collection of "pages of interest". These "pages of interest" were those pages with patterns and designs that I would use for future art works. Once I located this collection I began picking out patters and colors and planing out each room for the mansion. Carpet patterns, wall papers, clocks, and windows were the direction I was going.

With each piece cut I began to interior decorate, and this is my progress...

Bedroom and Kitchen

   Den, Living-room, Bathroom (top corner)

The purple of the house supports is leaning more on the blue side but it looks great and works with my choices for the interior. I am almost done with putting it back together with the exception of the foyer and the main doors which needed some repair. Here is what it  look like right now while it waits to be finished.

The exposed parts that have been painted are double coated with paint and clear coat so that when the little bit gets her hands on it she wont scratch the paint off. Tomorrow the finishing touches will be added and this Mansion will be done and wrapped with black bags to hide it till Christmas. I am extremely excited to have done this project, I think I should approach Mattel...

Enjoy!

New Home and Art on the works...

Its been a minute, since May and plenty has happened and not very much at all compared to how I can produce...I have had surges of inspiration solely on desperation which is a new thing for me as an artist...

While packing to move I was left with lots of leftover boards from my college years that I felt guilty about throwing away...With very little to do and lots of energy to spend I began cutting triangles out of the boards and challenged myself to build a mask out of only triangles...I made a base out of semi equilateral triangles and began adding from there...It was daunting at first to figure out the eyes and how to make them sink into them pull a face out of them...It seemed like a week but I spend one Sunday just gluing triangles and listening to music...I hadn't really attempted to build something like this since I worked on my vejigante mask...Which took a while to figure out as it also was a challenge/experiment... 

He now lives on a wall at the offices in El Museo del Barrio in NYC

 Once I finished Monday evening I was very please with what I made...and realized what have I been doing all this time sitting around dillydallying... Roxy as I called it was beautiful and rather well done coming from a simple challenge...There were a couple of pieces that I was just too tired to cut into triangles but I can safely say that 98% of this mask in done in triangular shapes...

There was no rythm to the construction it was all pure feeling...Which I guess can be considered rhythm since it comes from the order or disorder in my head...I wasn't thinking about an animal in specific until I looked at it and saw some sort of  rodent like creature taking shape...The colors were random since those were the first I found when I opened a packed box...The dots well I can do dots forever with out flinching...This mask was very therapeutic and helped me pass the time even thought I just spent two days making it...It did open the door for three other mask that were fashioned with the same principle of triangles...

This one was slightly bigger and twice as fun to make...Once I began working on it I knew how I wanted to paint it... I was thinking tribal vases and pots for some reason and this is the result...

Now this little cat here wasn't supposed to be a cat at all...I was giving the mask thing one last try before I was all out of feeling...I was thinking more bird than cat but once I flipped it around and began adding to it, it was starting to look very feline to me and once the ears were made it was clear I had this very Egyptian cat on my hands...Its significantly smaller than the others and it my most detailed and organized one...

 After I finished this one I realized I had so more in me and quit before I would loose it...Once I put all my tools away I stopped doing art for about two weeks and just stayed quiet...Now that I am at a better place with a clear mind I will continue to create and bring art to the world....

Enjoy!

Breast Cancer Awareness

I make all of this awesome art with a great message and cant seem to find the time and outlet to show the world sell it and then donate the money...This cause hasn't affected me but I feel like I want to do something to help...The last thing I have made is this awesome Bunny...
She used to have a very boring life as a house bunny amongst toys...I had been meaning to do something like this with it for a while but I just never had the time...There is another bunny somewhere around here possibly living in my snake tank...This one will be worked on in the future...

This Bunny will be added to my collection of Awareness items which I hope to send out to one of the centers in New York City to add to a future fund raiser...First I have to make a nice book with all the images and then cross my fingers...

This Furnitur/Art makes me Happy

I found this blog and as of right now I am in love...love love love this work...OMG I dream of doing things like this and hope in the near future to be doing things like this...This kids works are amazing..The ability to put furniture together like this making is seem like originally came this way...Brilliant...Plus the art work added to each piece makes me need this in my home...I really dont have more to say other than I have been inspired...

http://hechonachina.blogspot.com/

Cotorra Patriota- Patriotic Parrot

I am a huge fan of taking ideas I see and making them into new ideas stemming from my mental bin...I bought this magazine a while back called "Belle Armoire Jewelry" and fell in love with all the potential ideas that were inside...There I found the tutorial for this lovely bird necklace and instantly I began the thought process of what could I do with this...As everything in my life right now is leading me back to my home land of Puerto Rico, it only seemed fit that I'd do something relating to it....

What related to Puerto Rico in this instance is the amazon parrot...We have but a few left in the island and I want to highlight their beauty and importance...What I came up with was a generic green parrot but the idea is still there...So I went and got all my materials which surprisingly I had in an easy enough to find place and began to work...Turns out kneading clay to ths shape of a parrot is a bit tough if you haven't touched clay in a while...After a couple of tries the shape was set and the parrot began to take shape...Luckily I had bought some new tools and was able to make it look just as I wanted...Instead of words on the wings I decided to put the flag on both wings so that the parrot can be worn in both sides...And now that I think of it I can also have one with parts of the national anthem on it...That'll be the next one...I baked the bird, colored the wings and assebled the necklace...I didn't just want a plain chain on it so I added some of these red and yellow bead charms...Finishing of the piece lovely...Ready to wear ready for a new home...

 

 

Crayons and more crayons

Reasons why I love the thrift store, All the supplies I get from there...They allow me to full fill many of my ideas and create new ones...This crayon thing is not a new things but I had never tried it...I have the mold thanks to my friend and had no time to bake with it but I sure can use if for something else...And that is what I did...Three bags of crayons sorted and segregated later...The next step was as you can see above to strip the crayons, which took forever and made this awesome mess...I divided the crayons in colors and then began the process of breaking them and getting them ready for the oven... This is what the mold gave me....

 The colors look surreal and alive...I think these are just art on their own and shouldn't be used by any little hands...But I will give them as a gift to someone who has little hands that will use them and help revive these forgotten crayons...

 

Still have more colors to work with and this is what those colors have yielded so far...And still then I have more to go...Too bad I don't have more brown to make the pot part but I do have black and gray and silver left so maybe that will make a modern looking pot....Here are the others....

Need a tissue?

 I bought this tissue cover as a blank...Not a blank per-say but a white tissue cover...I needed to do something to it from an idea I had at work...And this is what happened...Not much more to say...Enjoy

Beans Beans

 After having done the bowl with the red beans I decided to just go crazy and do another...I bought some beans and went to town on a large vase...Compared to the bowl its large...If it weren't for the fumes the hot glue gun emits I'm sure to have made three more of these by now...But I cant complain when I found the gun with the sticks to begin with...So with some ventilation I will make another in the near future...
It is super time consuming and it took me three nights to finish about two hours each night...But the end result is stunning...Looks like something done in Africa...I do have to get some poly to finish the piece because heavens forbid that some water gets on this...Though it would make an interesting plant projects...Omg grass seeds would be amazing...Emjoy

"Miss Piggy wore this" Series

I am constantly looking and trying to salvage and trying to use what ever seems of interest...My turtle Miss Piggy shed her scutes and i just couldn't bear to get rid of them...I added them to my stash of supplies and after some time I had an idea...Once back into my jewelry making mode I decided to use the scutes for necklaces...

                                           

These are from the top of the shell...there is a central line of scutes surrounded by a ring of more scutes...

These are from that outer ring of scutes...I have another set from the other side which will also find new life as a necklace...Each sits on a base of polymer clay with beads embedded...The larger set has a backing of faux leather just for an extra pop...

This is a set I made with a single scute and two opposite ones for the earrings...

Here she is the one and only Miss Piggy...Well at least the only one I know personally...

Experiments with Metal Bowl and Records

Just as its titled Experiments I did with a metal bowl and records to see what would happen when I baked them in the same setting and on top of the same object...This was very interesting since each record though vinyl yielded different results...Telling me that each was of different vinyl and had a life of its own... The one that has an Alvar Aalto look to it was the most problematic...I need as close as I can get to symmetry and this record was just hating on me...When it melted it was lopsided in symmetry then I turned it around to change the direction of the folds and still nothing...Then I placed it inside the bowl and hand worked it to this shape as it cooled...

The other three happened on their own pretty much...The one with the four sharp points looked like this but I molded the points out...I enjoyed this experiment very much and will do another with the same metal bowl but in the opposite position , right side up...These are the beginning of the Records for Plants series...Even though these make great bowls for decoration or for those keys you seem to loose every time...