Another Example Of Compost And Creativity

This post on emergency toilet sanitation came into my reader today. Who can anticipate when a tornado/wind storm/ice storm/blizzard or other natural phenomenon will cut off power to a community for days/weeks/more? Don't miss the comments below the post -- good stuff.

She Shoots, She Scores

A week ago, my garden was covered with snow. Today it was 60 degrees. Bill saw a robin and a red-winged blackbird. Yesterday I heard a killdeer. We almost always get snow again in late March (and sometimes April, and occasionally in May). And I can't put tender things out without frost protection until at least after Memorial Day (last year it frosted on June 3). But in my head, I've moved into spring mode. I'm not wearing long underwear today. Not all March Madness is about basketball.

But before I move on to the willow harvest and other rites of spring, I wanted to share one last blast from winter. If you read my other blog, Two Red Threads, you're probably familiar with my affection for Silly String. This winter, I used it as a resist element in snow dyeing and on a spray-painted T-shirt. My final cabin-fever-induced application of Silly String went like this:

• Collage. Working quickly, I made a big collage with paper torn from recycled magazine pages and a glue stick. It's one of my standard creativity exercises.
• Shoot String. Then I shot the collage with Silly String. Silly String Max, to be precise. That's the gray line element. If you need a soundtrack for this, go for Bob Marley.
• Shoot Photo. I took several photographs of the collage (overall and detail shots) with my digital camera and uploaded them to my computer. Then I pasted images into a document.
• Print. I printed the image to translucent inkjet heat transfer paper.
• Transfer. Using a hot, dry iron (no steam), I transferred the image to fabric recycled from a no-longer-white T-shirt that Bill will never again be seen wearing in public.
• Layer. I layered the transfer with fabric reclaimed from other T-shirts that have seen better days.
• Stitch. During American Idol one night, I stitched the layers together and sewed on a couple of snaps to make an abstract cuff-style bracelet.

I shoot, I stitch, I score a fun piece of wearable art: That's my way of dealing with March Madness: What's yours?

Building The Pile

Welcome to Compost & Creativity. I’m Donna Kallner, a fiber artist from rural northern Wisconsin. For most of our lives, my husband and I have been self-employed. We’ve had lots of practice at coming up with creative solutions to challenges faced while trying to make art and make do. And in trying to make a difference in the world, we’ve learned that even small things can yield big results.

Everywhere we turn, we meet wonderful people who are also trying to make do and make a difference. This blog is a place to share ideas. Thanks for coming by and joining in.

I’ll be posting once or twice a week about topics related to living well but simply – things like vegetable gardening, composting, food preservation, bread making, growing and gathering craft materials, homebrew, winemaking, low-cost low-impact recreation, pets, housekeeping, clothing, craftivism, community, volunteering, vehicles, books and blogs. I’ll post occasional creativity exercises, DIY gift making tutorials, and PDF resources that make it easier to get volunteer jobs done in your local community.

To stay up-to-date with what’s happening at Compost And Creativity, subscribe to this blog, using the button in the sidebar.

Building a blog is a lot like building a compost pile: It can be done with little thought to the ingredients and left on its own, and still produce results – eventually. But the results will be better and we’ll have something rich and fertile sooner with a healthy mix of elements added to the pile.

Here, the key to the mix is you. I hope you’ll share your ideas and experiences. Join the conversation related to a post by clicking the Comments button at the bottom of it.

Want to write a guest post for Compost and Creativity? Send me your ideas at donnastitches[at]gmail.com.