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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