Update on Upcycled

Upcycled recently underwent some remodeling, and in the process requested a new artist statement/bio/ and photo  from each seller. The requirements were to describe who you are, what you're doing, and why you're doing it in 100-150 words. I just finally finished putting mine together and thought I'd share.

I’m a native New Yorker with the classic story of coming to Missoula and falling in love with the mountains, people, and place. Aside from making these Steampunk accessories, I sell vintage clothing, décor, and knick knacks on Etsy, and spend my days blogging, sipping coffee, and thrifting. I’m inspired through and through by the environment, nature, and the Montana mountains which is evident in the things I make and surround myself with.

I love the challenge of reusing before buying first hand products or materials. Upcycling is not only ethical, but pushes you to be creative in new and different ways, and brings a meaning and story into your creations. This jewelry you see is made with as much recycled material as possible; with wire from Home Resource, and beautiful rustic and distressed bike parts found in the bins of Free Cycles.

With each purchase you are making a statement of support for sustainable transportation, Upcycling, local artists, and your community bike shop, not to mention a statement of  Missoula swag! 

Oh and did I mention I'm now selling in Rockin Rudy's?

also, I now have a pinterest so follow me!

AND new goal; New posts come out every sunday

As I mentioned before, I have been extremely busy with my new etsy store. You’ll see I have about 22 things listed now, but I have hundreds of photos on my computer waiting to be whittled down, and numerous items to list, and even more to photograph, measure, weigh, and research.

I had Janyssa over last week to do a photo shoot. I had some things I really needed to put on a body as opposed to a mannequin, and I can hardly model my stuff since I'm way smaller than the average person, plus I like to be in control of the camera. So she came over and we had a ton of fun playing dress up. I loaded her with beads and feathers(basically I dressed her up the way I look on a daily basis) retro glasses, headbands, make up. It was a blast. Here’s some of my favorite photos from the whole day:

 

Above is a bohemian dress, a tribal print, which looks like it was sewn from a tapestry. it has these awesome bell sleeves, and drapes beautifully

Janyssa's face was made for modeling 40's hats. On the left is a vintage 40's leather turban hat, and on the right is a beehive fur hat.

I also made my first sale this week which was really exciting. Hopefully that continues to happen! On a side note I sold a bunch of earrings in november at Upcycled. I only wish I could have had a booth at the made fair last weekend, I hear local artists did extremely well. It’s definitely on my venue for next year.

I was commissioned to whip some jewelry up for my roommate Emerald to give as Christmas presents. She wanted me to make some pendants, which I haven’t done before. I was excited with what I came up with

I will definitely continue to make these, I made another one of the last you see pictured above, and I wear it often.

Bicycle Bit Earrings

Exciting news! I finally and officially have my bike jewelry in Upcycled! I just dropped them off at the shop where they'll be consigned and for sale asap. It's been tons of work getting everything organized, in fact I'm pretty sure it took longer to make labels, a sign, and figure out a display than it did to make the jewelry. I struggle with making big decisions about business cards, deciding on my brand name, and what paper best reflects me in my artist statement. 

To give a bit of background into what I'm making, these earrings are made of scraps from Free Cycles; the community bike shop that my uncle Bob owns/ started. They take in bikes and parts from people, sort them, and then let people come for free and build or fix up their bike. Bob lets me come in and have full access to the shop which turns me into a kid in a candy store. Also I haven’t just used my access to make jewelry, last year for sculpture classes I was constantly utilizing bike parts. Once I took an exercise bike that I found there, and converted it into a yarn spinning loom propelled by the pedals. SUPER empowering. below is a video of it, hard to see but better than a picture. It’s ironic that I’ve used all kinds of bike parts to create stuff, but still haven’t built an actual bike out of them.

But back to the jewelry. I mostly use washers because I love circles, but I take anything that inspires me. I load up my pockets, go home, sprawl EVERYTHING on the floor and start putting pieces together and arranging them to make earrings.

In the last few months I’ve been in contact with Upcycled, talking to the owners every once in a while when I'm downtown. They’re a new little sliver of a shop, and center their values on hand made products made with re-used or recycled materials. They’re a hub for all kinds of local craftspeople, it’s kind of like a mini Etsy store, with the rule that everything has to be upcycled, which I totally, 100% stand for. I'm a believer in getting creative with whatever you have lying around before going out to buy new materials.

So I’ve been working hard the last few weeks on getting everything ready to put in the store bythe 7th because they'll have a crowd coming in for their big 1st friday event showing  “Recreate Designs”.

My list of things to get done in time was basically;

1. get price tags
2. make a sign with an artist statement

pretty simple sounding right? wrong!

here's my step by step creative process of accomplishing the above:

first, I tried to make my own price tags. Using masking tape. this is how they turned out. Not bad, but I felt they looked a little sloppy/ unprofessional, and would be annoying for customers to remove.

I ended up buying 100 of these white tags for only a few dollars.

and then hated the white so I dipped them in coffee

then I played around with stamps and ended up with the finished product here.

For the sign, I took quite a bit of time to type it up. I messed around with fonts, sizes, backgrounds, paper types, and display. My paper choice was disappointing because it was cloth/linen textured, and then when it went through the printer, the texture just melted out. 

This is my end product. I'm not 100% satisfied with my statement display. I went a little crazy on stamps and it's slightly off center in some places but it will do for now. 

Nothing ever stops being a work in progress!!!

First ever BLOG POST!

Since I’ve dropped out of college, with only a part time job, people keep asking me; “what are you DOING with all your free time?” I often times have to take a minute to recall what I’ve been filling my days with; although they’re packed, it’s challenging to describe how I’m spending them. Usually it’s a combination of drinking lots of coffee, being inspired, fabricating earrings, collecting antiques, photographing said antiques, researching said antiques, and studying blogs and Etsy forums until I’m dizzy.

So instead of boring people with that awful lengthy list which barely scratches the surface of my day to day life, I figured a I’d start a blog. Hopefully this will show the world what I do, as well as document it for myself. I plan to center it on my “studio” which doubles as my living space. It's covered with my projects, inspiration, motivational quotes, and notes; and happens to overlook the Missoula mountains you see in my banner.

I’ll try being more visual than wordy here. I’m an artist and therefore a visual thinker, and believe that ideas can often be expressed better through pictures, sketches, or videos.

Also I'd love feedback in any form from those who take time to check up on me through this site, so please comment and discuss what I post.

A brief synopsis of my latest Finds and Creations:

 

A Foraged vintage World Classic Replogle Globe

                Hand Made Vintage Button Earrings 

Retro books copyright of 1962 

        Part of my Bicycle Bit collection. They're made with used bike parts, and I sell them at Upcycled

A bracelet I made out of vintage buttons