In honor of Earth Day this year, Anthropologie collected corks for use in their store window displays.  As someone who has been saving corks from my wine bottles for years now, my interest was piqued. I haven’t yet decided what to do with my collection, but now I’ve collected some great inspiration! Of course, it takes time to collect enough corks to make much of anything, and now my collection of dozens (maybe a couple hundred?) looks tiny compared to some of these large scale cork projects. So, I doubt I’ll be making a Corkxedo (yes, really, a tuxedo made of corks) anytime soon!

After Anthropologie breaks down their cork window displays, the corks will go to Cork ReHarvest where they will go on to become fishing bobs, brand-new flooring, paper pulp and more.

Cork is a green resource and is 100% natural, renewable, recyclable and biodegradable.  “Trees are not cut down to harvest cork, rather, the bark is harvested by hand every 9 years. Cork oak trees can live up to 300 years, so they are very sustainable resource! Approximately 6.6 million acres of Mediterranean cork forest extend across Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Italy, Tunisia and France. These oak forests support one of the world’s highest levels of forest biodiversity, second only to the Amazonian Rainforest.”  -Cork ReHarvest Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve long been intrigued by the visual geometry of mechanical components and have gravitated towards Neo-Victorian style and yesteryear’s machinery as well as the contrast of modern industrialization for as long as I can remember.  I was into Steampunk style long before I heard the term (and posted about it) three years ago. During my college years in Charleston, SC. I was surrounded by historic architecture and objects dating from Victorian times to the Colonial Era; these days I am surrounded by Victorian mining history in the CO mountains.

Gears are a common motif in the world of Steampunk; people are using gears and cogs that are usually salvaged from clocks, watches, bikes, and machines as well as representations of gears in a variety of projects. The following examples just begin to scratch a little rust off the surface.

Being a bit of a music nut, I love these – four of the many funky steampunk guitars as well as some crazy guns as featured on WebUrbanist.

Make your own gear switchplate covers by following a tutorial at the Steampunk Workshop.

This flash drive is a stunning assemblage of tiny watch parts.

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I am opposed to the modern practice of genetic modification, especially when it comes to our food supply, but the concept of selective breeding is thousands of years old and the idea has merit when used appropriately. David Benque‘s conceptual sound garden project proposes a selection of plants that are manipulated to create harmoniously orchestrated sounds, an intriguing combination of science and art. “Desired traits such as volume, timbre and harmony are acquired through selective breeding techniques,” the artist explains.

There are thus “singing flowers,” “modified agrobacteria” that ingeniously take “sugars and nutrients from the host plant to encourage the growth of parasitic galls and fill them with gas to produce sound,” and “string-nut bugs” that have been “engineered to chew in rhythm” inside hollow gourds. (via BLDGBLOG)

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I just stumbled upon this French electronica musical artist while listening to Bjork radio on Last.fm. I’ve only recently begun listening to this particular free and customizable internet radio, and whenever I happen to get a glimpse of the screen (I’m usually away from the computer, listening while sewing), I enjoy the variety in the slideshow feature that rotates through artist images that members have uploaded.

I was intrigued by the eclectic and costumey aspects of a number of Emilie Simon’s photoshoots, and after researching her a little bit, she has become even more intriguing. French native, now living in NYC, Emilie Simon has put out several albums, with her 2 latest albums mostly in English.

Yes, she totally uses that steampunk-looking contraption on her arm in her music!! Read the rest of this entry »

Black Eagle Mine in Idaho Springs, CO

Sunday was a beautiful day here in the mountains, and I got to spend most of it OUTSIDE!! I’ve been itching to get out and work in the yard, but I have been so busy with my sewing business transition that I haven’t had many free moments in recent weeks.  It was Memorial Day weekend, and I was thrilled to have a free day to spend outside.  I’ve been sewing every Sunday for months now, with Shabbat being my only day off each week.  Now that June is here, I am now working from home all but one day a week, which I’ll be spending at Bits and Pieces.  This is my first week of the new expanded sewing schedule, and I’m finally getting caught up on some things (including blogging!!)  The windows have been open, I’m eating lunch in the sun, and sewing for hours and hours at a time.

Which brings me back to the outside air….we made some good progress on “reclaiming” our yard and the beautiful stone landscaping.  I spent alot of time weeding and uprooting grass so that I could plant some new perennial flowers.  Everything just started budding and blooming here in the Rocky Mountains a few weeks ago, and now there are fresh green leaves and beautiful blossoms everywhere!  I’ll have to take pictures of the yard in a few weeks when it fills out with new growth.

Old power lines…they don’t make them quite like this any more!

After spending all day in the yard, with occasional thoughts ruminating regarding the possible hikes we could take straight from our house, I suggested that we just take a walk up the road behind our house.  It was already 5, but the sun would still be up for hours (it happened to stay up just long enough, until we got back about 9!).  I had only been up Black Eagle Road once since we bought the house two Septembers ago; I was alone and had turned around after encountering private driveways and a steep, rocky road up the mountain (in bear and mountain lion country!).  Now I was curious to see more of what’s up there.  So, Mark and I set off up the road that cuts into the hillside directly above the back of our house, and that serves the 5 or 6 neighboring houses above us.

Black Eagle Mill

Here’s some background: Read the rest of this entry »

The word “Assemblage“ has caught my creative focus this evening.  Assemblage is an artistic process in which a three-dimensional artistic composition is made from putting together found objects. -Wikipedia

I’ve always loved to make collages, and I collect small odds and ends with the intention of one day using them in some sort of assemblage. Trouble is, I haven’t spent enough time creating.  The good news is that I’ve got some pretty great collections started, so I have some inspiring materials to draw from!  Both my fabric clothing label collection and my selvedge edge collection will no doubt be appearing once I have some free time to create…right now I’m so busy sewing in many moments of what used to be spare time that this blog post is the closest I’ve made it to creating something new. (unless you count that I’ve made a suit jacket and vest already this week…but that’s still in the work category.)

This is WAY cool: This Sewing Queen Marionette Assemblage by Jeanne Rhea was made from old sewing machine parts, old spools, mirror, silk, box, notions, bobbins and other found objects.

I can see a doing a regular feature on assemblage artists…these are just a few with the sewing bird theme for starters…

Check out the details in this “Hen” by whileshenaps on Etsy….I love the fabric measuring tape trim and the intricately wrapped wire and fabric legs.  What a great use for fabric scraps!

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The stunning Quetzal bird resides in Costa Rica and other tropical, mountainous forests in Central America and is considered one of the most beautiful birds in the Western Hemisphere.  The males have extraordinarily long tail feathers and resplendent coloring unlike any other bird.

Image via spiderhunters

I’ve been thinking about these magnificent birds ever since having a conversation on Tuesday with some dear friends and Bits & Pieces customers Pam and Don Berns.  They recently took a trip to Costa Rica with their daughter Chelsea (who studies birds in great detail while working on her Ph.D. at Iowa State) and they came across a rare sighting of a male Quetzal who was in the middle of feeding his babies fresh raspberries!! Their bird guide told them that the likelihood of seeing a Quetzal was slim; seeing one feeding babies is even more rare so I can only imagine how momentous this sighting was. Evidently the mother feeds the babies for a few weeks before flying away and leaving the father to feed for the last few days before the young Quetzals are on their own and ready to fly away.  The young birds blend into the tree bark for safety and will develop their bright colorings as they grow older.

image via ppoggio2

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Guerilla knitters have been on my radar for several months now, so when I saw an article on CNN a few days ago, my interest was revived in this relatively new form of street art. I developed an awareness/appreciation of street art and graffiti during my college days in Charleston, SC. The well known street artist Shepard Fairey used to make Charleston home, and his influence is still seen all over town in the form of “Andre the Giant” and “Obey” stickers and stencils. It became an awareness exercise for me to spot these small stickers on lamp posts, stairwells, alleys, mailboxes, and other public places. I was intrigued to learn about the grassroots movement that has spread such stickers across the country, and have since noticed the same emblems in other major cities across the US.

But, back to KNITTING…I have to say that I appreciate the creativity and non-damaging nature of this variety of graffiti. It is colorful, unexpected, and would make me stop in my tracks if I walked by any such installation. At the present, I have not seen any rogue knitting in person, but some of the images I have found online are quite impressive. One of my favorites is the fully knitted exterior of a bus in Mexico City, a project spearheaded by Magda Sayeg. The CNN article states, “Texas artist Magda Sayeg says the beauty of knitting is it’s friendly, welcoming and doesn’t destroy property. Sayeg, considered the mother of urban knitting and founder of the Knitta Please group, says ruining others’ things is “probably the wimpiest thing a graffiti artist can do.”

Have you seen any of this knitted graffiti in your town? It seems to be catching on across the globe…I’m just waiting to see what they will knit up next! (I’m also wondering if I should learn how to knit just so I can contribute!)

KnittaPlease, installation at National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (above and below)

KnittaPlease parking meters in NYC

Magda Sayeg on her knitted scooter