Transformed Treasures

The Salvation Army fund raiser - vouchers were given to participants to buy from the Salvation Army stores and transform what they bought to raise funds at an auction to sell these treasures.
I bought an old wool sweater that had gone through the wash..not completely shrunk.  I washed it again and found a few holes.  I was going to line it with a cotton T shirt and make a jacket but, because of the small holes, decided against it.  The following photos of my transformation of the sweater.

I felted this sweater by washing twice and drying in a hot dryer.

In work...making the necklace..punching circles

closeup of the brooch and necklace.

Finished three pieces, neck warmer that I finished with a crochet edge, a necklace and a brooch.

Marin Museum of Contemporary Art Altered Book Show Piece

After spending hours thinking about this project and working the how to and what to to accomplish my idea, I finally began and then had to start again.  My first loom didn't work and I had to figure out how to make another.  Here are photos of the piece as it was being made.  I forgot to photo the weaving of the gold thread alone between the words.  The most difficult was attaching the piece to the backing and making sure the weave was floating above the book below.  The phrase I wrote took the longest to make and I wrote dozens of versions before I selected the final.  The piece won an Honorable Mention from 150 entries.

Sew a thread of golden words on weft and warp of a paper loom, then stitch a yarn to weave a tapestry of collected memories.  Final piece with added backing for hanging to display...

cutting out words from an old dictionary, aged patina....after mod podge brushed and dry....

my first loom to weave...was not working

New loom of board

Here is the new loom and also the small book I used... I found the page to be opened ...beginning of a new chapter and new scene....

weaving the words and definitions of principal words to my phrase.

finished weaving words and gold metallic thread...

stitching the words with needle and gold metallic thread to surround the weaving and book

close up of stitching...

close up of finished piece with a support on each side of the woven tapestry to float above the open book..