I May Not Know Art, But I Know I Can Craft
Oct 2nd, 2008 by Ealeal
Hailing from a highly eco-friendly home, I have become quite accustomed to the stages of inner turmoil typical of green craftsters, those planet-loving but fierce souls doomed to want to recycle everything possible into a new kind of everything, and preferably something pretty while we’re at it:
- Denial
- Hoarding
- Re-discovery
- Obsession
- Revival
What am I talking about, you ask? Well, naturally, denial refers to the plethora of stories you try to sell yourself about one day clearing out all that junk from your closet and going for a minimal, Spartan feel. It’s that vague feeling of a mature self-trust that you try to employ when walking past a newly dumped pile of children’s toys on the street, and vow to yourself that you will NOT – I repeat not – pocket anything from that pile in hopes of later placing it in your tiny, crammed apartment.
The next stop is usually hoarding, which involves testing the physical limitations of the space you rent – unique but dangerous storage ideas that include stuffing objets d’art above the air conditioning vent, using old heavy fruit bowls rescued from the flea market as bookends and old gaming consoles as improvised paperweights. While I’ve read that hoarding is usually a personality trait with deep and far-reaching psychological undertones, my feeling is mostly that no matter how you paint it, I just can’t throw stuff away! Can’t bring myself to do it, sorry, no way.
Re-discovery is when you find yourself knee-deep in a pile of clothes, fashion accessories, old bedding and stuffed animals, and you suddenly dig in deep and whip out an old Strawberry Shortcake school notebook, and instead of throwing it away, you begin to silently convince yourself that hey, you could totally re-vamp this notebook into a colossal 80’s memories scrapbook! OF COURSE you’re not going to chuck it in the rubbish bin!
Obsession takes over next, not allowing you to turn your attention or energy to anything other than your current project – you MUST make that scrapbook into a reality, and you MUST find the exact shade of candy-apple red fabric paint to complete your masterpiece! You can’t rest until you have crafted the living heck outta everything in sight.
So what next? Revival, ladies and gentlemen – the resurrection of all those glamorous sepia photos, old prom gowns from decades past, spools of string found in Granny’s sewing basket, old dog tags, ceramic beads, beat-up sofas found on streetcorners, and just about anything you can think of!
And what better way to revive both your old postcard/magazine cut-out/movie poster collection than to set up your own dynamic indie art gallery, right in your living room?! Take a cue from Threadbanger and Decor It Yourself’s DIY princess, Meg Allan, and add some artsy inspiration to your crib!
Recently, in order to spruce up my flat and avoid dumping a stack of newspapers and old fashion magazines as is, I gathered a few gluestick-loving folks in my pad and we spent hours shredding these magazines into a new set of collages – there’s a starter kit for anyone with blank living room walls! Check out some visual bites of what we accomplished, and get inspired! All you’ll need is some old magazines, a decent stick of glue, and sharp scissors to make cutting easier.
For more advanced decorative finishes, use a pair of zig-zag scissors, stencils, fabric scraps, buttons, doilies glitter and anything else you can think of – brownie points for anything you can recycle into trim, such as ribbons, sequins, logos from business cards, and so on.
Too attached to your back issues of ELLE to cut them up into new creations? Here’s a great tip – Xerox or photo-copy pages you wish to preserve but still want to use in your DIY artworks. the photo-copied B&W look is not only cool, but will also serve as a fun coloring book for grown-ups, since you can color over the copied pages with magic markers, colored pencils or crayons for a groovy touch.
I know those feelings well. Thanks for the shout-out!
xo, Meg