What Is Old Can Be New Again

When I was in high school, a summer vacation trip to see family in Mississippi usually also meant a shopping trip for school clothes. One year I got a tie-dyed t-shirt and matching leggings. The leggings were ok, but the t-shirt... oversized with really bright, rich colors, a saturated rainbow with black on white cotton. In spite of many washings, the colors have stayed bright, though the black isn't as dense as it once was. That t-shirt went to college with me, it moved to Chicago with me when I got married, it moved to the 'burbs when my baby was born, and moved again when we needed to find bigger digs. That t-shirt is older than my daughter, older than my marriage! The collar was stretched and fraying, there was a small hole in the front that my previous dog put in it with a toenail, and the seams in the underarms were giving way. Its condition wasn't good enough for donation to charity, but I had seen a way to recycle t-shirts that I wanted to try. Today, I cut up my beloved t-shirt, using a tutorial I found at Polka Dot Pineapple.

Top left, cut and stretched "yarn;" top right, cut but unstretched t-shirt;
bottom, the rolled up skein.

I also saved the sleeves and the shoulders. The pieces are too small to make yarn from, but too big to toss. I have an idea for some of it, but that will only use a small rectangle. It won't be wasted.

My plan is to make a necklace with it, something along these lines but in reverse (multicolored necklace with white embellishments), and not as full; more like this:

I think I want plastic or wood for the beads. It needs to be lightweight, and glass beads would be too heavy. Too, the holes are going to need to be sizable, and I'm more likely to find what I need in wood or plastic. I'll need to browse to see, and if I can't find what I want, I'll just make my own! I might make a bracelet to match, and earrings? Hmm..

June

It's almost June, which means it's almost time again for 30 Days of Creativity. I'm not sure I want to commit to it this year. On the one hand, it may be exactly what I need. I've been feeling a little stagnant and stale, and by forcing myself to create every single day, it could force me out of that rut. On the other, meh.

It was very discouraging when the shop where I had my art closed after 14 months in business, and a little depressing for me that my work didn't sell any better than it did. I told myself I'd take a month or so at the beginning of the year to refocus. A month or two has become five. I have a new computer, updated software, and no excuse not to get my website updated. Except now I'm fighting inertia, too.

...I think what I really need is for a friend of mine to kick my @$$... *sigh*

This Old Lamp

Went to Goodwill today, looking for stuff to make more garden art for a sculpture garden I'm putting together, and for the things I needed to build a birdbath. I wasn't able to find a base that was substantial enough in the vases or housewares, so I cruised back to the lamps and found this one.

Already removed the hardware and electrical stuff, but trust me, it's a lamp.

Now this thing is completely not my style, but as the base of a birdbath in a flowerbed, I think it will work just fine. (If I hate it, I can always face the painted side toward the street.) I also bought a vase that I'd intended to fit on the top, opening down to fit around the part that's sticking up on top of the lamp, but it's not wide enough in diameter to fit well. Too small by about a half-inch. *sigh* Will have to look some more for the right piece.

Anyway, as I'm looking at this thing with the hole in the center for the electrical stuff, I'm thinking -- Hey, this could make a fountain, one of the bubbler kinds that just spills over the top. It would still need to sit in water, of course, and the small hole that the cord went through is probably insufficient for a good intake, so the bottom would need to be raised up, maybe on some of those little flat glass "stones," but it could work. However, this does not change the issue of "not my style." I could paint it, of course, but it would need to be sanded first, and then I'd have no base for my birdbath.

However... I have to go find a wide-mouthed vase anyway... and I might as well look at the lamps while I'm there. Right??