Here are a few favorite things I found this week that fall into the categories of reuse and organizing. You can’t beat that combo!
Suitcase Side tables from Cupcakes and Cashmere
Crate’s are popping up everywhere and here are a few ideas for their use.
Crate Side table from Neet Magazine
Crate Shelves from Design sponge
Various shelves and organization by way of re-purposed crates, suitcases etc from Recreate
To see more ideas for re-using everyday stuff check out my Pinterest Re-Use It board. If you would like to follow my boards click Here.
There is a lot of discussion these days about how images collected on Pinterest are attributed, in my case I always try to link back to the original makers. In some cases, these items are for sale but may not be available. In other cases, they are simple ideas that no one would mind you reusing in your own way. In any case, I hope you will give credit to the creative makers who inspire us with their DIY inventions!
I loved how expressive, spontaneous and painterly these exercises were. I found working on the black background both challenging (seeing colors in a new way) and liberating (leaving my “typical” color combinations behind). I thought that the square format would be good for me (i.e. challenge me even more) because one of the things I really wanted to explore at Penland was my understanding of composition. Sure, I’ve got degree’s in art but my past 12 years as a designer of repeat patterns has stunted my ability to create artwork with “proper” composition. I found this out as I began to explore photography. As a designer I tend to center or repeat things out in a certain manner so I wanted to throw that aside while there and focus on understanding composition better. 
I may finish this piece off with a few beads at the ends to give it a little extra pizzaz but nothing flashy. I love the simple beauty of it. As you can see there was a lot of exploration and self expression that came out of this class for me. I’ve got some other bits I worked on as well that I’ll probably share down the road but this give you a good idea of the amount and kind of work we did within the two week class. It was fabulous!
Another fun aspect of the class was that our instructor, 
This class was primarily a surface design class and we began with limited materials and an 8″ x 8″ format using black backgrounds. The way we see color on black is different and this encouraged each of us to shake free of the “normal” color combinations we might use. We started with only gesso and color and eventually were encouraged to add stitching, collage or whatever else we wanted to. I find it tremendously helpful when I’m creatively stuck to really limit my options, within more restricted boundaries I find my self stretching to explore those limitations. 
After a few days experimenting and playing in this smaller format most of us began to explore other mediums and formats for our work. A group of us in the class began raiding the iron departments scrap pile and we began experimenting with rust dying. There is a good description of this process over 
Completed pieces of rust dye fabrics.
As you can tell we covered a lot of ground in this class. It was so freeing and inspiring, I came home with several new materials, techniques and ideas to work through more thoroughly. Both Jason and our studio assistant 
Jason working on one of his stitched pieces for the auction.
Debra’s scarf and a collaborative piece by Jason and Debra, donations for the Penland fundraiser auction.
Debra modeling a purse made by one of the students for the fundraiser auction.
One of the final projects I worked on was a collaboration with 3 other students which we donated to the Penland Session 4 fundraiser auction. I love to collaborate and this piece turned out well. I wish I knew who bought it…
Next week I will be back to share some of the work I began personally in class. Some of what I started is still incomplete but hopefully won’t be by the time I post again.