Recycled mediums – Page 2

26 November 20214 July 2023

The Recycled Paper Boutique

This ‘boutique’ shop window was inspired by memories of dressing paper dolls as a child, together with my love of op-shops and sewing, although creating paper clothing is much more challenging than fabric!

The mannequins are shaped with a scroll saw from offcuts of mdf (medium density fibreboard). While mannequins don’t usually have hair, I’ve used wood shavings as hair made their hats look and fit so much better.

Paper scraps from office stationery, wrapping paper, craft offcuts etc, are shredded and mulched into paper pulp. The clothing is then constructed by experimenting with a variety of paper sculpture techniques; cast paper formed in plaster moulds (to give shape to the bodices and accessories), fluting and shaping the skirts by gently pulling wet pulp sheets onto fabric pieces and leaving them to dry, and by layering sheets of different coloured pulps together.

I’ve used mirror paper in the background to give the impression of a shop window, and also to show off the back of the models.

This piece was created for a Fringe exhibition in 2022 at Gallery 1855 called “Fashion – Make a Statement”.

26 September 202126 September 2021

ReCreating what falls from trees (2)

Two new creations have emerged since my last post, and while I don’t always have my eyes glued to ground when I’m out walking, I see so much potential in the shape and form of natural debris!
I keep the twigs, bark and chips in their natural form as much as possible. I gently scrub them, lightly sand them (where possible) and finish with a light sealer, particularly on the more fragile pieces after constructing the bird shapes with wood glue.

(Click on the top half of the pictures to enlarge)

24 August 202124 August 2021

ReCreating what falls from trees

When I’m out walking I often find things on the ground that give me ideas. I’ve been experimenting with leaves and twigs. Although they are strictly ‘found’ objects, they are also ‘recycled’, once their life on the tree is over, and are just begging to be ReCreated!

Click the top half of the images to see them in detail.

Camouflage
This first piece uses leaves from an ash tree which have a remarkable resemblance to bird and wing shapes. I’ve arranged them on a twig ‘tree’, using fibres from a fallen palm branch to create a tiny nest. The leaves are press-dried and coated with a thin sealer which I’m hoping will retain their natural autumn colours. This piece is made in two layers to give an added dimension, which I can never resist. The birds are perfectly camouflaged among the leaves!

2. Leaf Litter
This second piece also uses leaves and twigs, but this time I’ve bent and twisted the twigs to shape them into birds. This has been a fun project as little personalities seem to emerge as I experiment in constructing the birds. Tiny leaves are used in the nest ‘litter’.

27 June 202128 June 2021

Autumn Glory

Winter is a perfect season for hours of experiments with art. The days grow cold and dim, but not before the glorious splash of autumn that is such an inspiration! Watching the sun illuminate the leaves of maple trees, I wanted to capture their colour, glow and delicacy, and to contrast it with the dark, solid trunks.

It’s been fun to further develop my love of layering and 3D art, as well as using mainly recycled elements. I’ve cut to size glass and clear acrylic from old picture frames found in op-shops and used recycled paper for the sculptured trunks and branches.

The picture is created in five transparent layers (see diagram below). The trunks are made from moulded paper pulp, supported on cardboard armatures and painted with sealer and acrylic paints. The leaves are painted with alcohol inks onto the glass and acrylic layers. The effect is finished with tiny cut and embossed paper vellum maple leaves on the lower branches and falling to the ground.

Inks used to paint the glass and acrylic layers

The biggest challenge was the transparency, especially the glass backing. The picture had to look (almost) as neat from the back as the front! The transparency also created problems in gluing on the tiny leaves as even after trialing 5 types of glue, it can still be detected in certain light, so I had to work very carefully. The deep solid wooden frame, together with 2 layers of glass also make the picture heavier than average. It’s also very difficult to photograph art that is behind glass!

The picture looks particularly nice with some light behind it, but still quite effective on a white or light coloured wall. [Click the images below to see close up details]

12 October 202025 November 2020

ReCreating for Christmas – A white Christmas

Recycled Plastic milk cartons are the basis of these white Christmas designs.

After completing my Angels scrollsaw projects, I made a variation to the designs by adding wings, halos and hymn sheet cut from the plastic. It gives a delicate and slightly transparent effect.

A heat gun is used to shape the cut out pieces, either by hand (with thick gloves!) or by bending the warmed plastic around a piece of dowel.

One of the biggest challenges of working with plastic milk cartons is that food grade 2 plastic is virtually impervious to gluing. After many experiments with different glues, a hot glue gun was the most successful, however, the slight transparency of the plastic means that any glue used can be seen.

With this in mind I created two designs that slot together, rather than glue.
1. An entire “heavenly host” of small angels for table decoration. The heads are cut from pine. These require just one dob of glue to join the head / body / wings.
2. A slice-form Christmas tree, no glue at all!
Both of these decorations ‘glow’ as they stand above flameless tea lights.

10 October 20202 November 2020

Plastic milk carton flowers

While rinsing out milk cartons for recycling one day, I wondered how they might be ReCreated into something decorative.

I started by experimenting with the plastic to find it’s characteristics. As it’s food grade 2 plastic, it is virtually impervious to absorbing anything – that includes glue and paint! A hot-glue gun is the only glue I had any success with, but it is brittle and care has to be taken that petals don’t snap off when working with it.

I began by cutting petal and leaf shapes and, using a heat gun, molded them around a piece of wooden dowel to curve them.

I managed to add pastel shading with a “staining” method, using a rag and alcohol inks to rub colour onto the petals. The next step was gluing the petals to the stem with a hot-glue gun . The flower stems are plastic balloon sticks, which is the same grade plastic as the milk cartons. I also stained these with colour. I found that I had to reinforce the stems by inserting wire inside, as the first ones I made snapped! The wire also enables the stem to curve slightly, making it look more natural than a straight stick.

The sepals and leaves are then secured with florist tape to the stem. I chose white tape which I also stained so the colours matched as closely as possible.

9 October 202020 September 2023

Kitchen shelving into Bud Vases

A kitchen renovation left a pile of old melamine shelving which inspired this collection of bud vases. The shelving is 16mm laminated mdf (medium density fibreboard). It was a design challenge to create traditionally 3D objects from flat shelves! Test tubes are used to hold the flowers and these are removable for cleaning.
The designs are cut with a scroll saw and the cut edges painted. I was curious to see if alcohol inks would take on the laminated surfaces. I experimented with various techniques to obtain the different finishing effects.