Find of the Week #5

A huge plastic bag with a ball of zipper tape was 

my find of the week! It is a great burnt orange 

color. See my "This into That" post for what I did with the ball

of zipper! A find at SCRAP.

"This into That"

This is a new feature to this blog called "This into That".

It also happens to be made with my find of the week. The "this"

is a big ball of zipper and the "that" is the zipper brooch 

I cut 13 pieces of zipper and used a high temperature glue 

gun and made the "petals". I trimmed the zipper tape and 

made a swirl for the center of the brooch.

Big ball of zipper tape =  zipper brooch

This into that

This brooch is quite large measuring in at 5 inches in diameter. I love it this big even if it is a 

bit floppy. The zipper was not stiff but nice and soft. I plan to make a lot more brooches! 

Bird house and Bottle cap necklace workshop

This Saturday on February 25th I am giving a Birdhouse necklace, glass 

tile pendants and bottle cap necklace workshop at Ruth's Table.

My friend Dorothy Yuki asked her wood working brother Michael to cut 

bird houses for the workshop. They came out great! I have 

been collecting bottle caps from restaurants we frequent. People look at 

you a little funny when you ask but if you hurry up and say that 

the bottle caps are for art everyone is happy to help out.

Here at the tiny bird house necklaces decorated with a vintage air mali envelope. Also included

is a bottle cap necklace with a vintage dictionary page and a glass tile with a topographic map.

Join us this Saturday if you want to make some fun necklaces. We will

use postage stamps, old book pages and other paper to decorate the birdhouse and the bottlecaps. Join us and sign up on Ruth's Table web page. Adults and children welcome. 

It will be a lot of fun! 

Valentine and Birthday celebration

Last Wed a group of my girl friends came and helped me celebrate my birthday by coming to my Valentine Craft class at Ruth's Table. We had a full house of residents of the Bethany House and a lot from the community. It was so much fun. The two hour workshop went by quickly that we dubbed the class-- Speed Crafting! Everyone had a great time. 

Craft workshop sign 

Everyone busy recreating and speed crafting.

Olivia's cards.

Lucinda's card

I made special clothes pins for Ruth's Table to hang

 the sample cards.

I heart SCRAP fundraiser

This past weekend I volunteered  and put on a Valentine event along side Dorothy Yuki at our favorite art supply store in San Francisco- SCRAP. We were happy to help host a room full of Valentine crafts. We had a steady stream of crafters young and older coming through the workshop room re-creating and 

and repurposing. There was music, food and a lot of people supporting the

wonderful SCRAP.

Certificate of Honor from the Mayor's office!

music to craft by.....

Our friends Hannah and Jonathan from FabMo came to support Scrap.
(pictured left to right: Jonathan and Hannah, myself, Shaui Chen the director 
and Dorothy Yuki.

The crowds were steady with crafters for four hours in the workshop space.

We made pins using  scalloped punches, a stapler and pin back.

I set up  the Typewriter Station at this fundraiser and again it was a big hit. A lot of people used the typewriters to peck out messages to include in their Valentines.

                                                                              


                                                                

TV SHOW

My friend Megumi Inouye is a host on a televison program called the Japanese American Journal on KTSF in the San Francisico Bay Area. She invited some of the staff of Ruth's Table where I am the Artist in Residence to be on her program and discuss how Ruth's Table was founded  and the programs it offers to the public.

Megumi made it easy to appear on the TV show by asking great questions and keeping the conversation flowing. I am hoping that the program will make more people aware of what a great place Ruth's Table is for the community and to honor the artist Ruth Asawa.

The set for the Japanese American Journal program.

Dorothy Yuki and myself in front of the table with our art projects from Ruth's Table. Our segment
was last and the table was wheeled onto the set where we did a show and tell for the audience.

Aiko Cuneo, arts educator and Ruth Asawa's daughter, Dorothy Yuki, Lola Fraknoi director of Ruth's Table, 
host Megumi Inouye and  Monica Lee. We just finished the taping of the segment 
that aired on Saturday the 11th of February.

Find of the week #4 Found Hearts

Wishing you all a Happy Valentines Day with your loved ones.

Here is a collection of heart rocks, shells and beach 

glass I have collected.  My found hearts  were collected on Baker
Beach and Fort Funston while walking our dog Herby.

 I dedicate this to my oldest sister Lindsay who left 

  us 11 years ago today.  Sometimes it seems like it was yesterday
only our children are not two and five heading to daycare and
kindergarten clutching Valentines in their tiny hands. They are now
thirteen and sixteen years  old. I still go to the mail box and
think of the packages she would send on my birthday and
Valentines Day....I miss her...

Lindsay forever in our hearts.....   photos of her at 18 months and 
 her kindergarten school  photo, age 5

Third Annual Sunnyside Conservatory Card Party

Last Saturday I helped set up a card party at the  Sunnyside Conservatory in San Francisco. Dorothy Yuki, Stacy Garfinkel and I set up in the beautifully restored conservatory. Over one hundred children and adults  came and made valentines cards and envelopes using found, recycled, and repurposed materials. It was the third annual event and it was a big success.

The Sunnyside Conservatory

The beginning of the crowd of Valentine card making. We made the banner 

out of old maps and dictionary pages.

 We set up a typewriter station with vintage typewriters. The kids loved typing

messages for their valentines. SO many of them had never seen or used a typewriter!

I used an empty frame to display card samples. 

This is where I made use of the clothes pins I posted about below.

One of many fun cards made that afternoon.

A little girl made this card cutting petals out of remnant material.

                                                                                 

                                                                                  

Valentine Zipper Pins

I always have a lot of zippers in my studio for various projects. I went through them and pulled out the red, pink and white ones for a valentine craft. I used a glue gun and shaped them into hearts. All the lengths of the zippers were different so I was able to come up with a lot of different designs. It was a lot of fun. You only need a glue gun, different lengths of red, pink and white zippers and some pin backs. SCRAP, my favorite art supply store is where I got a lot of my zippers. I also keep my eye out for zippers on sale at the thrift stores where you can get some vintage zippers with brass teeth. And of course the fabric stores also have them in a variety of colors. Yard sales are also a place to look for zippers as well.

Here is just part of my stash of zippers ready to be repurposed into Heart pins.

The simple heart pin. Turn, fold and tuck, glue...add pin back and wear it!

Here are more  of the Valentine Heart pins from various size and colors of zippers.

Valentines, Valentines, Valentines.....

This has been a very busy week with four Valentine workshops..

Here is a simple and fun idea for Valentines day or other celebrations. I bought a package of clothes pins from the local $ store and got out the tiny set of alphabets stamps I purchased some time ago at Michael's. They were very inexpensive at $1.50 but up to this point I hadn't used them. Well they were the perfect size for the clothes pins!  I stamped messages with red ink and I think they came out really cute. I also used half of the stamps of some of my bigger rubber stamps and it worked out alright. 

Start out with dollar store clothes pins

Get out your rubber stamps and  stamp pads. I tried the darkest red ink I had.

Here are some of the results using the tiny alphabets stamps and parts of the larger stamps. 
You will see in the next few post how I used the clothes pins to hang up cards.

                                                                              

Lunar New Year

Happy Year of the Dragon!

Today at Ruth's Table where I am the Artist in Residence we used the Chinese New Year money envelopes to make fans and lanterns at our craft workshop today. My friend Janet picked up a lot of different sets for me on Clement Street in San Francisco for 69 cents a pack.

I grew up getting these envelopes with crisp one dollar bills in it on Chinese New Years. Now my mom and dad  give them to my children and their six other grandchildren.

Announcing todays workshop.

We started making the lanterns and fans by choosing from among

all the different patterns on the envelopes.

We folded ten envelopes for the lantern and used fifteen for the fan.

We had a nice crowd of people at todays workshop.

Here are the first to finish their beautiful fans!

The finished fans and lanterns for our afternoon of crafting at Ruth's Table.

 Next week Valentines crafts.

Here are the results from last weekends Fabmo Zipper brooch workshop that I gave with Dorothy Yuki. It was another fun group of participants and they all made some great pins.

Everyone hard at work repurposing the zippers.

Our 9 year old participant Skyler put her zipper creation onto

 her headband. Isn't that cute?

A group photo of some of the repurposed zippers!