Plastic bags

How did I start collecting plastic bags?
I think it all started while I was on a trip to London. I bought a book at an impressionists collection that was showing in the national galleries and the shop keeper handed it to me in this beautiful plastic bag that had a painting by Renior on it. The bag actually matched the book I bought. As I travel, I try not to hang on to anything that can add bulk to my small carry on bag but there was something about this plastic bag that made me want to keep it. I thought I could make something out of it so I folded it up and stashed it in the suitcase. I had seen fused plastic made into wallets and thought i may use the bag to try something like that. I ended up making this small basket.


I started saving any plastic bags that I came across that were colorful.
My husband and I have always used cloth bags for grocery shopping. Every once in a while we would end up stopping at the market unplanned without our cloth bags and we would get those nasty plastic bags. Of course I saved them and reused them. Most shopping trips we don't bring home those plastic bags. That was until i figured out a way to incorporate them into my baskets by wrapping the white bags with strips of colored bags in the coil method to create baskets. Now every so often, when my stash is getting low I will do a grocery shopping trip to Safeway and not ask for paper or bring my own cloth bags.
The other colorful bags I save I don't seem to come across very often. I am not a big shopper. Most trips to stores I buy single items and refuse the bags. My biggest stash of bags right now is dog food bags, and the plastic packaging from things like costco paper products, like tp and paper towels. I do admit to being a bit of a museum store addict, especially books and I ended up with several bags from the legion of Honor, and de young museums in SanFrancisco. We are members and visit several tmes a year usually purchasing a book or two. Here is my museum shop basket



My first attempt to create anything with plastic bags was a purse I made out of a johnny cat kitty litter bag. I lined it with fabric and I thought for sure I would be able to sell it on etsy. After a month of no interest in it at all I removed it from my etsy shop and gave it to a friend, who is a self described crazy cat woman and she loved it!


I was finding the bags from the cheesecake factory beautiful and about as plentiful as their servings. I decided to try crocheting a purse out of the cheesecake factory bags but about half way through I got this idea to do coil baskets so I ripped the crochet out and started making a basket. It turned out great. I ended up gifting that basket to a friend who works in the cheesecake factory corporation.


It seems that when I travel I collect more. Maybe because I tend to buy stuff on vacation more than I do when I am home. We went to Disneyland for my 50th bday last November and I bought myself a pair of pjs. Always practical. I also bought my dogs some stuffed animals to kill... i mean play with. My daughter picked up some Alice in wonderland plates and I ended up with three very large beautiful Disneyland bags. I ended up making a mostly blue basket out of them.


When shopping and I am asked if I want a bag I say let me see it first...lol I have tried several ways to use the bags for the core of my baskets without wasting any. I think I have finally figured a great way to connect them without causing any bumps. Right now I am working on a basket made from bright green plastic bags a friend sent me. Every six months or so I get a package of her collection of bags in the mail. I am pretty sure this craft of mine wont last forever. There are already actions in motion to ban the plastic bag from the area I live and when that happens I am sure I will find something else to create with.

sold!

sold!
Originally uploaded by sarahracha

I just received the best customer feedback on this basket. Sure made my day. I did love the way the card I sent along with the basket matched so well. Here is the feedback:

Brilliant piece, exactly as advertised, shipped promptly, packaged beautifully, and a handwritten note. Thanks!

really nice.

New Years Resolutions

I remember reading when I was younger that January is the worse time of year to try to break old habits and create new ones.I dont make New Years resolutions. This year i did want to get back into an old habit. This new old habit was baking bread. I have baked bread many times in my life. I even had a bread machine that made baking bread so simple. I bought it 10 years ago when we lived in a drafty house that was very difficult to convince bread to rise in. I saved an article from a sunset magazine about baking the perfect sourdough bread. It had a recipe for sourdough starter that used yogurt. My goal, or some would say resolution was to get a sourdough starter going that I liked and that made great whole wheat sourdough bread and to start baking my own bread.

Day one: I dug up the recipe from sunset. it was simple. 1 cup low or non fat milk 3 tablespoons plain yogurt, 1 cup all purpose flour. you warm the milk to between 90 and 100 degrees. mix in the yogurt and then seal it up in a large mason jar, let stand in a warm area for a day. i put mine in the cupboard above the refrigerator.

Day 2: stir in flour and let sit for several days until it is nice and bubbly and has a pleasing sour smell. if it turns pink throw it away.

Sourdough Starter
Day 5:bake bread!
to make bread you use 1 cup sourdough starter,1 cup warm water 3 1/4 cups flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 tsp salt and one packet yeast. I put it in my bread machine and it groaned and squeaked and didn't do a thing! The motor had ceased. I tried the old brook handle in the garbage disposal trick of Jimmie it to get it to become unstuck, of course I used a wooden spoon not a broom but I couldn't get it to budge. I took the mixture out and mixed it by hand, kneaded it, put it in a lightly oiled bowl, covered it with a tea towel and let it rise for 50 minutes. After it rose I kneaded it a bit more and made loaves. Let those rise for 50 minutes and then baked in the oven at 350 for 50 to 55 minutes. I also took my bread machine and put it in our pile of stuff to get rid of. We will either take it apart, try to fix it,or make a planter box out of it. Imagine how much more storage I have in my kitchen without it! We now live in a much less drafty house. I have made about 6 batches of bread with this starter. After each cup of starter is removed you feed it with 1 cup warm milk and 1 cup flour. I slowly changed my flour from white all purpose to whole wheat. It is so simple, using my kitchen aide mixer with its dough hook and the bread is wonderful especially this time of year when a nice bowl of soup and a chunk of crusty fresh buttered bread makes the perfect dinner.

ok go

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

Painting the hall

About a month ago I got the idea to re paint my hallway. A friend had just done a remodel and she had a heck of a time deciding on paint colors. She asked me where she could dispose of all these paint samples and I said GIVE IT TO ME! I had all these tiny pots of paint in shades of green and blue and I decided that I could do some sort of mural in my hallway with it. I guess it was about 10 years ago when I last painted my hall. I had done a fantastic natural paint technique in my dinning room where I mixed cinnamon and curry powder with a left over white paint and painted my walls. It smelled so good ! They came out to be what was later called a Tuscan color and texture. I sponged it on, used a dry brush, and also used rags..I made a cute stencil of leaves and olives. This was way before everyone on earth was making and selling olive motifs . I still like my dinning room stencil. It is just one row of olive branches below the green chair rail on the Tuscan yellow walls. I used the same stencil to create cherries and cherry tree leaves all along my hall way. it was cute and I love the colors but it was time for a change.


this is the before.

I painted the wall and ceiling a nice blue. I used my friends paint samples and painted circles in a very random pattern all over the walls.
here is the after.


i also covered my switch plates with pages from magazines and packaging tape

new item

I am working on some recycled Jewelery. I love making my baskets out of recycled plastic bags but feel like no one is ever going to buy a basket. They make a great subject in a gallery or art show and I have no trouble using them but I don't see them being something anyone ever would search out and buy on etsy. I do want to have some sort of income from my creativity. I have been working the same basket weaving techniques into some simple jewelery. Here is a photo of some bangles I made using PLASTIC. the core is made out of three different sized pieces of plastic needle point canvas arranged to make a pleasing shape. The outer layer is made from strips of plastic cut from last years Disney store Christmas bags. I think they look fantastic. I will work and rework this idea until I perfect this idea and come up with something that looks sleek and elegant. My idea is to make treasure out of garbage, not more garbage out of garbage.

yeah someone likes me!

I listed my last two swirly boa scarves today. I tend to do one type of project for several weeks and then move on. I am either going to start working on some of my recycled plastic baskets or maybe I will sort through the materials I have gathered in the garden and start weaving baskets out of natural materials. I can make a basket out of natural materials much faster than the plastic recycled ones but then again my plastic stash is ridiculous and really should be tended too. I was surprised to see a contact on twitter mentioned they were going to talk about my baskets on their blog. Awesome! I really needed a lift. I did a search on etsy this morning for boa scarf and found many other people making what I thought was a unique scarf...lol although each of mine are made with several different yarns not just one. Still it sort of blew my idea of only listing things that I am unique in making. So when I saw the tweet from http://twitter.com/MyFreshPicks it really picked me up. Thanks so much for the shout out!
http://freshpickedshopping.blogspot.com/2009/10/recycled-plastic-baskets-by-sarahracha.html#more