Trashion!

TRASHION: An Etsy Street Team that is all about visualizing beauty in unconventional objects and materials. Members fabricate art, jewelry, fashion and objects for the home from used, thrown-out & found elements. Trashion is a philosophy and an ethic. It encompasses environmentalism and innovation, and respects the human creative and healing potential.

Making traditional objects out of recycled materials can be trashion. Making avant-garde fashion out of cast-offs or junk can be trashion.

Who knew that what I've been doing all this time with much of my sewing was Trashion! Each and every owl & some of the fruits and veggies that I've sewn were comprised of upcycled materials - usually felted former sweaters, vintage denim and corduroy. Some of my favorite fabrics! The process has been very gratifying and fun. Once I found a group of other artists on etsy that have similar inclinations - of course I petitioned to join their team!

This month we had a Palchemy (read: Pal + Alchemy) swap. Each participant was paired up and asked to send a package of materials to someone else on the team. No specific rules were given beyond the request to send things that were to be upcycled into, yes, Trashion! The next steps: Receive, visualize and create.

Here's what my partner sent me:


Plus some things I added from my own stash:


My first Trashion Project was Kitten Carlisle:


My second was Puppy Rooney:


I cut out the embroidered part of a vintage pillowcase that my swap partner sent me and used that for the kitten and puppy faces...the rest is an amalgam of bits and pieces sent by my partner and what I already had on hand. Sure was fun making something out of "nothing". If you click on the links above - there are more pictures!

You can click here to see more work created as part of the Trashion Palchemy Project - it is quite diverse!