I was Never One to Waste...

Ancestral Home
18"x18"
$500

In my childhood home, "waste" was a dirty word.  We didn't throw out anything.  I mean anything.  Yogurt containers were used until they cracked.  Brown paper bags multiplied in their own kitchen cupboard until they spilled out when the door was opened.  Kitchen scraps were all composted.  New towels were given to my parents for their 25th wedding anniversary, replacing (you guessed it) the towels they had received 25 years earlier...  then the old towels were used for rags.  Waste not, want not!

So you can imagine, when I have scraps in my studio, I usually don't throw them out.  They are sorted by color and stored in separate bins, waiting to find their way into the next project.  But what about the scraps that are just too small?  Too narrow?  Slivers of colored fabric, paper or thread?

Those are used too.

Here's my newest piece, Ancestral Home, using reclaimed studio scraps.  The handmade blue paper is left over from a project I'll feature next year (hush-hush).  The island shape is cut from two antique maps of the state of Ohio.  I had purchased two 100+ year old maps for a commission, and salvaged the edges.  From the leftover pieces, I cut around the Ohio River using that as a border, and glued the pieces together into the resulting shape.  The mid layer of paper is from old sheet music (back page) and was inked, then cut into squares and rectangles.  I sewed around each piece to add to the texture and outline them in color.

All of the fibers in the nest are scraps from different projects, and the velvet flowers were gleaned from a vintage hat.  Lastly, the "eggs" were picked up from a beach in Maine, my ancestral home, then inked and glued in place.

I really went out of my comfort zone and had the piece professionally framed in a shadow box (after taking the picture to the right) which made a huge difference in the presentation.  I'll get a better photo soon.