finished keyrings!

After sewing non stop over the bank holiday I finally finished the keyrings - all made from old materials. 

a finished keyring

And the final product. Quite pleased with it, just got four more different shaped ones to make.

a little practice

I made this quickly from old tshirt material and stuffed it with Kapok. I then blanket stitched around the outside and turned it into a pin cushion. I took picture as I went along to show what materials and techniques I used. I would have to use different material as this type of cotton frayed a lot.

felt brooches

After looking at Hanoch Piven I started to research into 3D things which were handcrafted and came across felt brooches. Although some of them I felt were really tacky especially those which were of owls and a few of the birds. However, I really liked some of the more decorative brooches like below and I particularly liked how the stitching over the felt shapes were intricately sewn decorating the piece.

 














And my particular favourite:

Instead I came across a lot which used buttons. I found these really intricate and interesting. Here are a few of my favourites.

hanoch piven

When looking at collage artists I came across Hanoch Piven who creates portraits from objects which relate to the subject. I feel they are strangely fascinating that he has sculpted them purely from a variety of objects. I would like to play on this idea as it has given me inspiration for my project.



development work

After looking at collage artists I decided on my brief which is to create something which was made from recycling old things to encourage recycling - whether it'd be using the material from old t-shirts or using the decoration from packaging.
Seeing as Summer is on the way and I have been spending alot of time outside, I started looking at leaves which I found in the garden and noticed that although stereotypically all leaves are green, they actually come in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes.