>> Wendy Tremayne is an event producer, conceptual artist, and yoga teacher. Her latest project, Swap-O-Rama-Rama, is a community clothing swap and series of DIY workshops that she created as an alternative to consumerism. Wendy lives in Truth or Consequences, N. M. Visit her at gaiatreehouse.com and swaporamarama.org.
Influenced at an early age by a mom who recycled everything and questioned consumer culture even before it was fashionable, Kate Sweater grew up making and receiving homemade holiday gifts and reusing just about everything. She considers herself lucky that she never had a lot of money or free time. These seeming shortcomings led her to the particular discovery that every problem to solve is an opportunity to create. Kate is a maker — she engineers something, looks for patterns, and blends things together, making it more interesting. When I happened upon Kate, she was making a rugged new textile out of recycled plastic garbage bags. This project was a departure from the media she usually works in: wedding cakes, wigs, and chandeliers (she is fascinated by things that are fancy). But her eye for detail, pattern, and the ornate is also evident in her transformation of the garbage bag.
As the first, important step of the process, she
selects bags with interesting patterns and colors,
which she brings together to form unusual designs.
The newly formed designs are reminiscent of the
well-known logos and icons that once adorned the
garbage bags, now reconfigured and transformed
into ornamentation of simple color and shape.
Once melted under the heat of a household iron,
these once-familiar images morph into something
free from commercial meaning. For the maker, they
produce a palette for the creation of new patterns.
Kate’s credo is that making new things is OK, so
long as they’re designed to last. Her tough textile is
best used to make rugged and durable items such
as wallets, bags, and shoes. × Kate Sweater, hard at work masterminding her next
crafty project at home.
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