Upcycled Creations
One of my greatest inspirations as an artist is sustainability. I think the act of upcycling an item that’s broken, can no longer serve it’s intended purpose, or that is just plain unwanted, into something else entirely is a beautiful form of modern day alchemy; “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” as the saying goes afterall! Due to my background in secondhand clothing, it only felt natural that I started there. T-shirts, surprisingly enough, I have found to be a very multi-purposeful & forgiving medium to work with. Here’s what I’ve created thus far out of old thrifted tee’s.
The lamps have been in my family since I was a little kid and were passed down to me by my parents when I moved out. Their shades were old and broken (thanks solely to my childhood cat for knocking them over with his cute, but bulbous body lol) so I decided to refurbish them out of t-shirt yarn.
Right before the holiday season 2022 I learned how to make these adorable, little heart knots. After trying it with t-shirt yarn and realizing it works, I’ve since made well over 50. Obviously. Needless to say many a soul received these “tokens of my love” that holiday season. Some even came with these gorgeous carabiner clips from Ahiller.
Bolo Ties (or “Bow”- lo Ties as I call them lol) have been one of my most satisfying creations to date in my opinion. I live for the whimsy.
I’ve been making color coordinated sets of Friendship Bracelets lately too! I like making them in sets so that way, there’s always one to give to a friend, whether they be old or new :)
I have a small loom that I really enjoy using to create all sorts of things! I’ve made many coaster sets, as well as most recently, a small decorative pillow. The pillow is entirely comprised of t-shirts; from the pillow-case, insert pillow, and even down to the insert pillow’s stuffing— all upcycled thrifted tee’s!
I thrifted that teal top summer of 2024 but once I got home I noticed it had some massive runs on the chest. To cover the runs I decided to use a mix of t-shirt yarn and ombre embroidery floss. Similarly, the black dual snake top was also mended this way. It had a hole on both the front and backside of the shirt, so I chose “hiss” and and eye as my respective cover-ups.
All the flowers in the bouquet were created out of t-shirt yarn, wire, and a little modpodge. I used a vintage wine decanter that I had laying around my house for the vase.