Posts Tagged ‘reusing junk’

Collecting. What do you like to Collect?

Thursday, May 28th, 2015

COLLECTING
Collecting. What do you like to Collect? Collecting can become so addictive, especially for an artist. My found objects and things are the inspiration and starting point for most of my artwork and ideas. When I see something, it can trigger off an instant idea and give me a vision to work with. I think this is why I love museums, as display and arranging objects are an important part of my sculptural and photographic work.

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I have been collecting since I was born. I used to hide stuff under my bed in boxes as a child. As an adult, I’m still putting stuff into boxes, plastic bags and other strange things. I view my collections as arrangements. They are all art installations scattered around my place, as well as, material for use in my arts projects

 

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Walking through the streets to the local shop I always come home with something foot trodden. A piece of paper, packaging, a bright piece of plastic, glass all, will be used in my art, eventually.

 

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When I travel overseas (much to the sometimes embarrassment to friends and family) I pick up off the ground, bottle tops, lolly papers, wires bright bits of plastic, even if an item might disturb me, I’ll bring it home. On a tour once, in Europe the whole busload of passengers collected bottle tops for me.

 

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My stuff may brood for years in a dark space or cupboard, till I come across it again, sending me off on another project.

 

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On my last trip to France, I came home with 15 kilo of junk. I collected baguette bags, string, stones, free ad cards, labels from food items, torn posters, books and papers from a bin.

 

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I also, collect vintage photographs. They tell stories of people and places, I’ll never know about, so, I make my own narrative.

 

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Scientific stuff, equations, wire, tin, bones, animal skeletons, fur, hair, watches, old mobile covers, old shuttlecocks, vintage buttons, eye glasses, shriveled things, found numbers and fonts from keyboards.

 

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Magazines and advertising, boxes, packaging, all sorts paper, vintage clothes, fabrics, wall papers, shells, vintage items and china, driftwood, snow-globes, toys, children’s books and so much more

 

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I go to op shops, city streets, airports, underground spaces, beaches, garage sales, friends houses and sometimes, find stuff on EBay. Part of the fun and attraction for me is, the actual finding of discarded material that has been thrown away. I will recycle it into something else or, just show it’s beauty, as it is.

 

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Collections of things are extremely important, for future generations too. 100’s of years from now, someone may come across my piece of fabric, wallpaper ,lolly paper, box ,bone etc. that will give them information on how we lived in our time, in our place.

Collections are also portraits of those who love to glean…..

Check out Andy Warhol’s boxes of stuff he collected over his life time
“Warhol Time Capsules”

Handmade Books. Recycling.

Monday, April 14th, 2014

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

I love to recycle packaging, junk mail and advertising materials into books

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

I like the freedom of designing my books as I make them, discovering ideas along the the way

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

Its amazing how much packaging can be saved over time

 

 

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For this book I used cereal packaging with a peephole and pasta boxes with acetate windows for the interior pages

 

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and sealed the pages with white Gesso

 

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only on one side because I liked the dark look of the cardboard ( later I painted them with Parisian essence to age )

 

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On the cover I used double sided tape to stick down the tabs

 

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to make it more sturdy

 

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The little window will have something inside

 

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Taking a load of baguette bags I bought back from France

 

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I scrunched them up into balls and wrinkled them

 

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opened them up and stuck them to the cover packaging with pva glue

 

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This gave the cover an oldish feel with a lovely rough texture.French text shows through the window

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

I covered the inside with some French text from a 1900’s magazine, stamping and my hand drawn doodle drawings.

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

I didn’t like the brightness of the gessoed pages so aged them with washes of Parisian essence

 

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When dry I cut off some of side flaps from the inside pages saving them for tags and pockets later

 

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I didn’t have an awl to make the holes for binding the book, instead I used a hammer and nail. It worked fine

 

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I punched 3 rows of holes weaving in and out with cotton mop thread

 

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leaving a tail inside I then plaited the threads and added a piece cardboard for a bead thing

 

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The extra holes seen were a mistake and can be covered up with more baguette paper and glue later

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

Side flaps on some of the pages hold piles of water colour papers for collage and drawing

 

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They are tied with cotton mop thread

 

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The loose water colour papers are white and hand dyed with Parisian essence

 

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See through windows add more interest

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

Pockets and string hold found papers and tags. The book is still not finished and I will probably add more tags and pockets

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

Toggles were sewn on the front with a string to close

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

This book has a Japanese feel to it and measures 24 x19cm. 5 pockets hold 40 pieces of water colour paper with another 12 pages. Some have windows.

I try to keep on top of my collecting by making something with the packaging every few weeks.

What do you make from your junk?