Select Page

Pretty, and pretty toxic denim inspires new work

by | Jul 6, 2018 | Construction, Creative Process, Exploration, Fabric, Fabricating, Fashion, Fiber, Fibre Arts, Found Materials, Found Objects, Jeans, Knots, Macrame, Quilting, Resurge, Use Objects, Wall Hanging

There ought to be an international law against the dirty business of jeans manufacturing.It poisons waterways, mainly in China, prompting environmental groups to raise the alarm against the devastation to communities and local ecosystems, yet consumers around the...

Materials matter, and Those of loved ones gone can live on

by | May 26, 2018 | Art, Challenge, Composition, Craft, Creative Process, Design, Domestic, Fabric, Failure, Fiber, Fibre, Fibre Arts, Film, Found Materials, Found Objects, Garment, Innovation, Inspiration, Making, Quilt, Quilting, Recycle, Sewing, Upcycling, Use Object, Use Objects, Wool

Clockwise from top left: Great-Grandfather Quilt; Dad’s Throw; Tie Cushion. (Carlyn Yandle photos) Materialistic. People say it like it’s a bad thing.But there’s not necessarily anything selfish or hoardy or wasteful about feeling deeply connected to...

QR button blanket: Epic fail or a larger reading?

by | Mar 21, 2014 | Additive, Beauty, Buttons, Color, Colour, Composition, Craft, Craftsmanship, Creative Process, Critique, Design, Distraction, Fabric, Fabricating, Failure, Fiber, Fibre, Found Objects, Handwork, Ideas, Innovation, Motivation, Pattern, Perception, Performance Art, Polly-apfelbaum, Process, Production, Project, Qr Code, Quilt, Textile, Upcycling, Use Object, Use Objects, Visual Field

After three months of sewing one donated button after another into a giant QR code, the big moment arrived this week: time to stand back and scan that baby with a reader app, translating this quilt-thing to read, “The devil is in the details.”Except it...

That’s one mother of another need met

by | Jun 7, 2013 | Creative Process, Design, Found Objects, Industrial Design, Innovation, Inspiration, Invention, Process, Production, Upcycling, Use Object, Use Objects, Vancouver

In case you want to know, this is a picture of what is called beaching gear  — at least in Prince Rupert, B.C.It’s the kind of passing sight that makes a city girl demand  that the car we’re in be stopped and reversed. Now. Because even though I had no...

Waiting to be inspired by hoardy pile of plastic

by | Mar 1, 2013 | Art, Assemblage, Color, Conceptual Art, Creative Process, Culture, Fabricating, Found Objects, Innovation, Inspiration, Installation, Process, Upcycling, Use Object, Use Objects

My not-quite-resolved plastic quilty test. I’ve been left high and dry, marooned by a foul waste stream — a particular category of non-recycled stuff that ends up in Vancouver’s landfill. This category consists of many boxes of rigid-plastic toy bits that my nephews...