Once again, I'm sorry for the quietude on Extreme Craft! I've had to hole up in my living room on my computer for the past weeks, sorting through all of the entries to the Creative Reuse book. I'm incredibly grateful for the thousands and thousands of submissions that everybody sent in. Here are but three of the nearly 300 images that I've selected so far. First up is Athens, GA based artist Mary Engel. I'm incredibly excited to have her in the book. Her sculptures are like a tour through the seedy underbelly of American tchotchke market, incorporating all of those little porcelain figurines that are so easy to overlook into incredibly detailed 3D mosaic sculptures. I got plenty of mosaic submissions, but nobody compares to Mary Engel.
Next up is Rüdiger Schlömer, a German artist that I've featured on Extreme Craft before. His "ransom-note" remixed German soccer fan scarves were an easy yes for the "Art" section of the book. There have been plenty of other projects that use the same glee in repurposing the original objects, which was the reason I originally wanted to do the project. There's going to be incredible diversity in this book.
Next up is Sandy Drobny, who was also an easy pick for the book. Her aprons are not only funny and incredibly well-crafted, but they're amazing pieces of art as well. Check out the above piece, which includes rubber gloves and a repurposed tablecloth, but also an awkwardly typewritten (and hand-corrected) note from somebody to their cleaning lady. Drobny was also an artist-in-residence at the San Francisco Recycling Center. This hard-to-get residency was a perfect fit, yielding work like the one you see above.
The deadline for the book has passed. If you flaked out or missed the call for entries, I'm quietly accepting work for the next few weeks while I sift through the entries. I would especially love to get more entries with clothing, paper craft and geeky craft. Go to www.creativereusebook.com for details.
