Artists Passion

On Tuesday, I received two giant boxes of yarn from a friend who is moving to San Francisco.

I was going to pile skeins of yarn on my bed and take tons of glamorous photos, but that idea was shelved. There’s a yellow jacket in my car.

I usually don’t mind bugs, but yellow jackets sting. Yellow jacket stings make me woozy. It’s a no-brainer. Plus, I don’t know how long they live, so my yarn might stay in my car until I absolutely have to leave to go to my mom’s house tomorrow. Then, I’ll probably drive the entire way looking over my shoulder for an angry yellow jacket, starved and ready to eat my flesh. (Yes, yellow jackets bite. I’ve had gaping holes in my arms from the phenomenon in the past, because I was too afraid of their sting to stop them from chomping on me.)

Instead of glorying in full frontals of a bunch of fuzzy yarn in different textures, weights, and amounts, I’ll say “Thank you” to Marti for providing me with enough yarn to get me through the next year (or at least a few months).

As for turning trash into treasure, I’m a big fan of reusing trash over recycling. Recycling takes up a lot of energy and resources; men and women in the generations before ours didn’t have problems reusing old containers, fabrics, paints, pretty much anything you can think of. Even paper and plastic disposable cups can be washed out and reused, but we throw them out without thinking about it.

Summer, of the Creative Mom Cafe, shows readers how to make candle holders out of tin cans. While she considers them great gifts, I’d be more likely to make them for myself as luminaries. When I was in high school, I volunteered every year for my home town’s holiday walk, which included hundreds of paper bag luminaries, filled with sand and a lit candle. We were considered the fire patrol; we constantly walked up and down the street with extra luminaries, candles, and a lighter, in case luminaries caught fire or went out. Tin cans are a much better sidewalk luminary idea.

Of course, art doesn’t always have to have a function. Thanks to Globally Green Living, I just discovered the art of Shari Elf, who uses found pieces from yard sales and the like to make her pieces. She also earns a lot of money doing so; it’s just a thought. If you don’t have an overabundance of tin cans, consider scouting out flea markets and thrift stores to use other people’s cast-offs in your art.