emiko-o reware

For all you wanting to get your crafting fix on, join our Accessorize with Toys! Workshop at the CA Academy of Sciences March 18, 6-10pm. Part of the Academy’s weekly NightLife Thursdays (a club-like atmosphere with DJs), this one highlights SCRAP who is sponsoring us to do our Charmed! bracelet project. Shana and I are bringing primo game and toy parts, so come on out and make a super fabulous charm bracelet! Other SCRAP projects will be masks and cards from recyclable materials.

DJs on deck are shOOey, playing house and breaks, and shissla of SpaceCowboys. Sounds like a booty-shaking time to be had.

Take note that this is a 21+up event, and tix are $12 general admin, $10 for museum members. Best to get tix in advance, I hear that these Thurs. night events can sell out. Get tix here.

charm bracelet by Shana Astrachan

Last week I took down the Cher the Love tribute ensemble installation that was showcased at SCRAP’s 3rd Annual Art Exhibition. This was only the 2nd time that the entire ensemble has been shown (off the body anyway), and the lovely Exhibition Director, Jenny Morningstar gave me the honors of having it show in the gallery window at the Green Zebra/reMake Lounge venue (SCRAP also had a concurrent show at the Eco Center, where my Snow White collar was shown).

The boa is made from found soda can holders (mostly picked off my street) sewn together with monofilament and capped off with sequins and sterling silver crimp beads. The halter is made from found foam (from SCRAP),  sushi trays which Harriete had saved over the years and kindly donated to my cause, and fine and sterling silver scraps.

Cher the Love Strong Enough Thong was the first piece of the set, made back in 2005 from recycled Plexiglas and fine and sterling silver. My intent was to get into the SNAG exhibition at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but instead I got the fine opportunity to model the entire ensemble in a fashion show at the museum and to Cher’s “Strong Enough” song at that!

Admittedly, these aren’t my best photos, but the best I could do onsite dealing with window glare and a busy background. Essentially I made a plexiglas, half-round rod neck hanger from which the halter and boa were attached and hung from the ceiling. Could have definitely used an accent light to really show it off, but  the venue is not really an art gallery, so oh well.

Can’t complain, cause after all, to my delight, I was selected for a Juror’s Choice Award by juror JD Beltran, conceptual artist and professor at the San Francisco Art Institute! A little birdy told me that my Cher ensemble was one of the few pieces that scored 10s by all 3 jurors!  SWEET!

Here’s a little early V-day love to y’all!

photo by Raymond King

Can I tell you again how much I LOVE S.C.R.A.P.! Not only are they doing another annual recycled art exhibition but TWO Exhibitions at the same time! Crazy people but spreads the love out I suppose. Titled Revisions: New Creations from scrap both shows run Dec 11, 2009 – Jan 29, 2010 at reMake Lounge and The SF Eco-Center. Each  show has its own opening reception, the first is THIS Friday, December 11 from 6-8pm at the reMake Lounge/Green Zebra space at the Crocker Galleria 50 Post St. Located in downtown SF  the Galleria is right outside of the Montgomery Station, and walk on the bottom level towards Sutter St.  The Eco-Center’s opening is Jan 14, 5:30-7:30pm at 11 Grove St (across from the SF Main Library).

At the reMake Lounge show you’ll see Cher the Love: Strong Enough Thong in her full ensemble of Soda holder & Sequin Boa and Silver/Sushi tray Halter. She’s proudly displayed in the window against a lovely recycled red cup ceiling sculpture installation. Can’t wait to take a photo and share with  you all, it’s super cool and works so well together. A closeup shot of the thong is also on the postcard! SCRAP uses my images every year, bless em!

SCRAP exhibition postcard

workshop at Renegade. photo by Jeanne LeDoux.

Just a last-minute reminder that Shana & I will be bringing Accessorize with Toys recycling workshop to our beloved S.C.R.A.P. (Scroungers Center for Reusable Art Parts) tomorrow, Saturday, August 8, from 1-4pm. We’re super excited to be there and see what people create from the mecca of craftiness that is S.C.R.A.P.! It’s a Drop-in Family event, so stop by for a little bit or stay all afternoon and create some jewelry with us. We’ll have our usual stockpile of repurposed game/toy parts and findings, plus we just got a ton of new flat nose jewelry pliers for everyone to have an easier time of opening those pesky jump rings. Best of all, you get to pick stuff from the SCRAP warehouse-what a treat!

There is a fee to participate, the proceeds go to keep SCRAP running. For more info, please contact SCRAP directly by calling 415-647-1746.

happy camper at Accessorize with Toys

The second day of Maker Faire was definitely less crazy than Saturday; much more laid back, giving us a chance to talk more with people. Our supplies were pretty wiped out by the end of the day, but amazingly our energy wasn’t. Hopefully next year we’ll be easier to find (apologies to those of you who couldn’t find us!).

We’re looking forward to bringing Accessorize with Toys to the Renegade Craft Fair, July 18-19 at SF’s Fort Mason’s Festival Pavilion. If you join us at Renegade, make sure to bring $5; as much as we want to offer it for free, we’ve got to cover our expenses so we can keep it going!

If you can’t make it in July, mark your calendar for August 8 at S.C.R.A.P. SCRAP is launching their Family Day workshops and we’re glad to be a part of it. RSVP by emailing worshop@scrap-sf.org or call 415-647-1746 for this drop-in event.
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This weekend’s MakeArt: Accessorize with Toys workshop @ SF Museum of Craft + Design was a hit was kids and adults alike! The museum’s biggest turnout yet for their MakeArt workshops, not to mention there was a surprise visit from Cabrillo College. Fellow Metal Arts Guild member, Dawn Nakanishi, brought her Metals students from Cabrillo for a field trip to SFMCD. The students got a treat to have a special artist tour (by me), plus they got to play at the MakeArt table with all those irresistable toy parts donated by SCRAP. It was definitely a fun afternoon.
There were 8 kids (7 boys and 1 girl, go figure!) in tow with moms, who worked right alongside their busy bees.

Shana & I, along with Margaret, the Education Coordinator, oversaw the makers, making sure no one hammered or hot glued a finger. The wondrous UGlu saved many a project as well, stealing Elmer’s thunder yet again. The time just flew by as everyone was deeply engrossed in their projects.

See more photos of the workshop on the museum’s flickr set, and see more images from the MakeArt table on my flickr set. More images will be uploaded in the days to come.

Mark your calendars for this Sunday, Nov 9 from 1-3pm when I and fellow Critique Collective members are hosting a Meet the Artists Open House at the San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design. Artist walkthrough/tour begins at 1:30. I’ll be giving a tour of My First Royal Jewels Jewellery Collection LEGO necklaces, and the Collective will be talking about the Jewelry_cycle exhibition.

Jewelry_cycle:Artists Discover Hidden Sparkle in the Discarded is an educational showcase of wearable treasures made from re-purposed and re-cycled materials. With the idea of an exhibition in mind, co-curators Christine Dhein and Christoph Koch asked the Critique Collective to create wearable art from a variety of small, discarded circuit boards. Circuit boards are commonly made from fiberglass, epoxy resin, and a variety of metals, which is likely to be one third of the material. These metals include copper, silver and gold, which add a precious element to what would otherwise be considered e-waste. These artists discovered the hidden potential, and transformed these materials to create brilliant, sparkling jewels.

Participating artists are: Shana Astrachan, David Casella, Christine Dhein, Reed Easely, Aimee Golant, Christoph Koch, Kelly Nedderman, and myself. Shout out to Christine for working extra hard to have the exhibit be super clean and pro looking! Check out Julian on the job!

Come join us and learn some facts about environmental waste and how you can do your part to lesson your carbon footprint while being creative!  Plus sit down and make your own jewelry from recycled toy parts at the MakeArt:Jewelry + Objects self-serve table that I developed.

Shout out to SCRAP and UGlu for being awesome sponsors of my MakeArt table and workshop!

Getting some of my exhibition pieces ready for the upcoming SCRAP show, which opens Monday, Nov 3 here in SF, called Recollections: Celebrating 30 Years of SCRAP. I can’t tell ya how much I love SCRAP (Scroungers Center for Recycled Art Parts)–I don’t know where I’d be today as an artist without such an inspirational source of materials. Even more fitting is that my Lionize II collar is on the postcard and PR, being that it is the reincarnation of the original Lionize collar which was the first serious exhibition piece i created 10 years ago from materials I salvaged at SCRAP.

The Market Street Gallery (1554 Market St, SF) is again hosting this SCRAP show, this time featuring 18 artists, which appears to be mostly female, including moi and my fellow recycling cohort, Christine Dhein.

I heard that the Bay Guardian had selected this show as its Monday Pick of week, very cool, and it didn’t occur to me until tonite as I was flipping through this politically laden issue (what to make of Prop H?), that hey, the show must be featured in THIS WEEK’s issue, since the opening of the show is Monday. Lo and Behold, almighty, can you believe what I saw:

Here’s a closeup–even has artist and photo credits–yeay!

What an amazing month it has been for PR!  For those who want to see the show, it runs Nov 3-25th, with an Artist Reception on Saturday, Nov 15 from 6-8. On Saturday, Nov 22 there will be a silent auction for which I’m donating the Mondrian Limited Edition bracelet (see right).

To attend the auction event, there is a $30 entry fee, the proceeds going to SCRAP; word on the street is that Ruth Asawa is donating a piece! Could be worth it to check out the auction….

For more info on the show and events, go to The Squid List.

Tomorrow: I hunt down the address of the SF Examiner’s Circulation Desk and get me that Oct 13 issue that apparently my LEGO necklace is featured in!

‘Twas the night before Maker Faire and all through the kitchen,
Every creature was crafting–and boy was it b_tchin’!
Shana and I getting ready for the Big Weekend of Recycled Jewelry Madness; going to Maker Day was just the medicine we needed to charge ourselves up for the crowds of eager burgeoning jewelers. Spent the afternoon taking inventory of the treasure tub of random collected pieces parts of toys, games, as well as investigating what each other has picked up in the last few weeks from Mission Thrift (5 Monoply games in one visit–pure gold!) and our favorite, inspirational supplier of recycled whatnot, SCRAP. Our goal: to make some new samples, namely, necklaces with the latest additions in jewelry findings from Rio Grande.

I am MOST EXCITED about this generous shipment of UGlu samples from my fellow Clevelander, Justin, over at MACtac, an adhesives company. This stuff is the greatest, non-toxic, STRONG (but not take-off-the-paint-on-your-walls strong), semi-permanent adhesive I’ve ever worked with (no small beans, as there are two tubs full of adhesives drying out in the back workroom as we speak). Shana and I met Justin a few months back at her friend Susan’s house for a focus group, where he had us brainstorm about tapes and glues. Most memorable was he stuck a full bottle of beer to the wall with this stuff and it stayed there all night. It was That Strong.

Anyhow, I really wanted to use it for our workshop at Maker, so now we have enough to hand out a package to each person–no more toxic goopy glues. Should be perfect for the kids!

Look at all the goodies (good thing you can’t see the rest of the room, it’s like a small monsoon hit)–here we are making samples, me taking way to long to make one necklace while Shana makes the cutest cat hairclip ever!

Cute in that Amy Sedaris kind of way, as Shana pointed out. Too bad we don’t have an entire bag of cat figurines….

You must see the whole picture to really appreciate its charm:

12 hours later, the suitcases are packed by the front door with care, knowing that Maker Faire day soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
Dang, I should be too, but I’m blogging instead….

Hope to see you fellow Makers in San Mateo!