3D with bread tags

I have been playing with the last of my bread tag beads, and made this DNA double helix - simplified of course from the real thing.  I used some wires to thread the bread tag beads, and dug it into a sponge before twisting the two strands - not exactly as the diagram I found on the internet, partly because I couldn't make it go that way, and anyway this is art not science.  I used kebab sticks for support, and added bits of curly copper wire and broken jewelry, a piece of plastic peg - DNA can get contaminated.  An enjoyable experiment.  I have put on the video I took to try and show the effect.  Whether it works or not on the blog I will see.  It makes my eyes go a bit funny if I look at it for too long.

Bread Tag DNA 

©Christine Linton

detail showing bits of copper wire curled, bits of broken jewelry, piece of plastic peg 

©Christine Linton

Upcycling to a wedding dress

Listening to the radio this afternoon, while having a break from pinning net (a whole different story), I was actually reading but my ears pricked up when I heard the words "bread tags" - regular readers will know I collect them to upcycle them into art.  Apparently this lady, Stephanie Watson, from Victoria here in Australia, made her wedding dress from 10,000 bread tags - cool!  Look at this link bread tags to see the story.  Apparently she has been collecting them for 10 years, though she did use some unused ones according to the story on radio.  I think it shows real flair to use them for a wedding dress and I was surprised that the machine needle went through them.  Well done Stephanie!

I prefer to use mine curled up with a heat gun so they become beads, like this:

Bread tag beads 

©Christine Linton

Safety first: Wear a mask against the fumes and heatproof gloves against the heat.

Experimental weaving - a string page

One of the experiments I did recently was weaving with plain string.  I made a page for a book by using some old wire as an outline approx A4 size; then I did irregular weaving with string, making sure not to have a neat grid.  I left all the tied off ends loose.  Then I melted some encaustic wax paints, and brushed them over the weaving.  You can see it is sitting on foil I recycled from microwaving potatoes, this foil just becomes discoloured but is usually quite clean and peels off from the wax easily.  Once the wax was dry I sewed on some bread tag beads.

Woven string page, painted with encaustic, bread tag beads - irregular weaving

Now, I have spent ages searching for a link to extend this post for you, trying to find some experimental weaving or weaving with string that wasn't regular and wasn't on a loom.  Spirit Cloth has some very interesting weaving posts, this is one of them.  Apart from Spirit Cloth and Windthread , who also have fascinating philosophical slants to their artwork, I can't find blogs or websites with what I'm interested in which is something different, not weaving on a loom, not nice neat stuff.

Bread tag art

I'm not the only fan of recycling bread tags as you will see shortly.  First a pic of my bread tag emu -

I used only white bread tags on a background, with black tissue paper on a piece of card; from that I cut out my emu running shape and placed over the tags.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/about-town/artist-finds-beauty-in-the-plastic-bread-tag-20110701-1gtxt.html This link goes to a page that is fascinating - have a look.

Sustainability

One of my most important concepts in my work and my life is the issue of recycling/upcycling.  Apparently someone called   Reiner Pilz of Pilz first used the term upcycling as opposed to recycling, because recycling often means smashing up items to remake them into something of less value.  Upcycling as a term means giving an item more value by reusing it in a different way.
With recycling/upcycling comes sustainability - for our own personal resources and cash, for the beautiful planet we live on.  There is much in our daily art and craft practice that we can reuse.  When we experiment with a technique and hate the result, we can use that as the backing layer for something else.  If we print an article that we decide is irrelevant after all, we can upcycle those pages into a trial run for a folded book.  You get the idea.  My own favourite is using bread tags as beads - yes those little plastic things around the top of the plastic bread bag.  More and more plastic, but this is something I collect and use to hang from the spine of my journal.  Use heat-protective gloves when heat-gunning; they curl up beautifully, singly or in groups.  Or use them as they are because even a small heat gun uses up electricity.

Bread Tag Beads, heat-gunned

I have been inspired often by re-reading the following post on "Slow Cloth".
http://www.handeyemagazine.com/content/slow-cloth
Jude Hill (Spirit Cloth) and Elaine Lipson (Red Thread Studio) are two artists who use and promote Slow Cloth principles, which you can read in HandEye above.