More Bottlecap Madness

So, apparently, getting images of an iPhone is really simple. Once you figure out how to do it.

It took me awhile.

Here's a picture of the installation on the floor before I got it over to Keen headquarters for the installation and event last month . . . I was hoping for the tendrils to have some life and energy.


The bottle caps ended up kind of cuddly - here's Cheryl, the founder of Leave No Plastic Behind giving the installation a little hug . . .


And here it is hanging in Keen headquarters before the folks from Algalita Marine Research Foundation gave their presentation.


It ended up being long . . . but I wasn't really crazy about how it came out. It looks too long and stringy . . . all of the bottle caps are connected with wire, and I was hoping that they would have a little more spring, curl, bounce, life.

I'm reworking it now, stringing some of the strands on heavier wire and then looking at other ways of suspending the strands of caps. I'm wanting them to cluster more . . . and I'm thinking that I'll need more to really give it the fullness I want . . . It's like I'm wanting it to almost feel like a jellyfish or an octopus or a Chihuly glass piece.

I'm even imagining an entire room filled with bristling walls of bottle caps, bottle caps dangling from the ceiling, so it becomes an utterly tactile experience . . .

I don't think I'll get that far by the time the next installation goes up at SCRAP at the beginning of June, but I think it's going to be a much more interesting piece by then!

Plastic Bottle Cap Madness, and a Bit About the Ocean

Part of what artists do is to see things from a different perspective, and then to help other people see things differently, too.

This bottle cap thing started out innocently enough. I started saving them because you couldn't recycle them curbside - even though we have a wonderful curbside recycling program here in Portland, Oregon. And they were interesting. It seemed like they had potential. Like they might make interesting jewelry . . . after all, they kind of looked like giant bezels . . . and so I made a couple of little necklaces.

And then, last fall, I started asking people to save bottle caps for me. My boyfriend. His dad. My best friend. And then I started washing them, so that I'd have clean ones to work with. I washed them in the washing machine. In lingerie bags.



I started hoarding them. I had a milk crate overflowing with plastic bottle caps when I finally hooked up with Leave No Plastic Behind , a local non-profit who was looking for artists. I told them about my hoard of plastics that couldn't be curbside recycled, and said that I was wanting to do some kind of art project with them.


This was a few weeks ago. And they said, "Sure! We need a big installation for an event coming up April 21st! Wanna do something for it?" And I said, "Sure!"



So, that's why, if you follow me on Twitter, my posts have been full of my tales of plastic bottle cap hunting and gathering, washing, and drilling. This weekend, I finally figured out a good way of connecting them - which, sadly, did not end up involving either dental floss or chicken wire.


Then I re-drilled a bunch of the bottle caps. And began connecting them. Tonight, I made it over to Keen headquarters and installed the piece - which felt sort of like a big "test run."

It was for an event co-sponsored by the Surfrider Organization, and featuring speakers from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation - those are the folks who made a raft out of plastic bottles and drifted from California to Hawaii, all the while studying the plastic debris that's building up in the ocean. Now, they're biking from Canada to Mexico spreading the news. Here's a great article that talks about Algalita's work. For example, I had no idea that fish at the bottom of the marine food chain were eating plastic.



And I had no idea that plastic bottle caps are one of the top ten items found during beach cleanups, and are second only to cigarette butts in terms of general litter. Which, frankly, just makes them all the more appealing as an art material. So, now I'm looking to make the piece even bigger for another exhibit in June - got any plastic bottle caps?

(yes, yes, I'll have pictures of the installation for you tomorrow).

ArtFest Trade-O-Rama

A few of you may remember that I made ATC's for a pre-organized trade at ArtFest . . . I posted about that here. Well, here's the cool set of ATC's from other ArtFest attendees that I got in return! Check out the cool box that Bee Shay, the organizer, pulled together to display them - complete with encrusted octopus - the theme was sea life. I pulled out a few of my favorites . . .

I also had some little trades that I made up for spur-of-the-moment trading at ArtFest - all of them had buttons like the ones from my EyesAflame Etsy shop, and some had ATC's and some had Moo Cards. And here is some of the cool stuff I got in return!

A few ATC's, a bamboo pendant with an octopus on it, some random fibers, some Moo cards, a little booklet made from a recycled postcard, and a very cool little hanging.


It's made from driftwood, and it says "listen." Can you imagine makng 20+ of these for trade? Marvelous! I wish the artist had a blog I could link to!

Now, one trade I wanted but didn't get was a wonderful little booklet of octopus facts and matching octopus button . . . created by the marvelous Beenebag of betweenassignments.blogspot.com . . . so I sent her off an e-mail and a promise of a trade, and my octopi goodness should be in the mail!

Saturday at ArtFest: Captured Memory Boxes with Bee Shay

Saturday, I took a class from one of my favorite teachers, Bee Shay. We brought photos from home to incorporate into the piece. I brought several pictures with me, but ended up using this picture that I took in the Cinque Terre in Italy when the Sweetie and I were there in 2007. The trip has fond memories for me, and I love the colors and abstract shapes in the image - I've been wanting to do something with it for a long time!



We mounted the image on a wooden painting support that had a deep 2" cradle - like the one Bee Shay is painting in the picture below. The idea was to mount the photo on the front of the painting board and fill the back with tokens or objects that relate to the image . . . except all the tokens I brought with me related to the beaches of Oregon and Washington.


So I ended up focusing on the image and the quote inscribed around the edge - we did a marvelous series of things to distress the image, applying gesso, acrylic paint, colored pencil and even attacking the surface with sand paper.


I'm still interested in continuing to work the image - bringing more of the color out. I also want to incorporate some of the ephemera from my trip. My quote came out of some free-association writing I did around the image . . . "What we build and the places we call home travel with us, creating a map in our memory."

Here's another shot of the front of the piece and the back as they look now . . .




And here's a link to some images of Bee Shay's sample for the class - just so you can see the potential.

Friday at ArtFest: Abstraction

Friday, I took a class from Mary Beth Shaw in creating abstract images on Claybord. She's the one wearing the green apron in the photo above. She had cowboy boots, a great sense of humor, and a marvelous musical soundtrack for the class!

It's been a while since I've worked in pure color and form, and it was glorious and liberating. Usually, I'm really focused on representational images, though abstract color and form is always a part of the underlying structure.

Here's the start of the boards . . . dividing the space, collaging the surface,
scratching into it, coloring.

And here they are after layers and layers of color . . .

And here's another series of three that I started working on during the class. I don't know where it's going, but it's an interesting journey.