Recycling - Paper purse

As part of our CSR's initiative on behalf of my company, we decided to do an activity - "Art out of waste", creating recycled and useful items from almost anything that is considered waste. I wanted to prepare as many items as possible to show the employees the many wonderful ways in which a waste paper can be re-used. I started preparing this purse from our old company magazine. The magazine interestingly had the header and footer section in green, blue and white colors. I cut just that portion and used the strips for the purse preparation. Various tutorials are available online on 'how-to-prepare' Candy-wrapper purses and many varieties of purses/bags/clutches/wallets made from old plastic bags/candy wrappers etc.,

Here's my version :

Here's my model/reference :

Plastic Canvas

Plastic-canvas is a fun, popular form of needle crafting. Plastic-canvas crafts are easy to make and are great for beginner crafters. This is on my To-do list and I already collected some patterns from various craft sites which give me enough inspiration to kick start. Only question is where to procure that. I played well with plastic-canvas, in my childhood days, when I created purses and some sceneries done on them. The work is similar to matti work, which I posted earlier. But only the medium differs and we can make 3D structures out of the plastic-canvas due to its plasticity and it allows one to mould it to an extent. Sharing some pictures here. Would definitely share my work some time.

My 3D clay paintings - still under progress

The painting in its infant stage : Base is done with paper mache

After a few days of work: Paper mache covered with POP adding more details

                                     

Another painting that caught my attention exhibited at the institute where I am learning Clay painting:

Rangoli

Happened to visit my hometown during last Pongal. Rangoli competetions were being held all over and I kept reading about them all on the news papers. It reminded me of my childhood days where we used to enjoy creating nice, colorful and big Rangolis, staying up late in nights. It has been nearly 8 yrs that I shifted to city and completely got out of the habit of painting Rangolis.  I felt tempted to participate in the competetion, not for the sake of winning, but just for the fun of painting Rangoli. The Rangoli theme was regarding some message communication to the community. What else can I think of being a CSR member? Green, Eco balance and my immediate reflection went on saving trees..

I was so overwhelmed by the outcome, though I had body pains for the next two days. That doesnt stop me from participating in another competetion:

Kusudama Fun

I was baby sitting one fine day .The li'l ones enjoyed crafting and wanted to learn flower making from me. Kusudama flower making is very simple that the kids can learn easily. I was impressed by their interest and patience to learn such things at that tender age.
Here's the outcome :

Seasons of Life

Happened to read an article and wanted to share it here:


There was a man who had four sons.
He wanted his sons to learn not to Judge Things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.
The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall. When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen the first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise. The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen. The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe anddrooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.
The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree’s life. He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.
If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the  beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your Autumn Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest. Don’t judge life by one difficult season. Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come sometime.
Aspire to Inspire Before You Expire Live Simply, Love Generously. Care Deeply. Speak Kindly.
The Rest Will Fall Into Place Happiness keeps You Sweet, Trials keep You StrongSorrows keep You Human.


Failures keep You Humble Success keeps You Glowing, But Your Dreams Keep You Going

Kusudama flowers made from old bus schedule/route map

And this small gift goes to a special, Eco- conscious person whom I wanted to give something made on the concept of Recycling. 


I had a bus route map booklet which I saved from California as a remembrance. At a later point, I thought its of no use and wanted to re-use it. Also a parallel thought was to gift a person whom I admire with something precious which can show my admiration for her. She is an eco-conscious person and was the CSR core member in our team. 


Though Kusudama flowers are easy to make, it really took a great amount of time to prepare this bouquet since the size of the flower I chose to make is very small and it requires preparation of 5 petals separately to make a single flower and it needed 15+ flowers. The project took many more days than I initially estimated. 
Finally, the day had come when I gifted it to her and I was delighted to know that she liked it very much and was overjoyed. All my efforts were paid off. She placed it at her office cabin where everyone on the floor happened to notice that and liked it. Though I cant witness all this by myself, I felt glad that they liked it.


Tutorial for these Kusudama flowers is available at:
http://foldingtrees.com/2008/11/kusudama-tutorial-part-1/

When it rains, it pours

Its been a while I updated this blog. Apologies!
As I went on my business trip, I was out of my routine. An event that happened recently at my workplace brought me back to the crafting world. We conducted a workshop on "Recycling" theme which involves making useful things out of scrap. I was excited to show the ways that junk can be recycled. Origami boxes was a big success, overwhelming and I see everyone at work area preparing their own version of these boxes. The workshop served its purpose very well. Posting here few of the boxes I prepared.