Woods in Bruce’s sculptures are acquired from sustainable growth trees, not rain forests. In fact Bruce is a Rainforest Action Network activist who makes custom metal creations for businesses, architects, individuals, and the film industry. His works have been displayed in many museums and art galleries; printed in newspapers, books, and magazines; and shown in films and television.

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Solar tree installations by Ross Lovegrove are sprouting in cities across Europe. The scene above is in Milan. Next will come Venice, at the Biennale dell’ Architettura. The designs more resemble bouquets of flowers, with the petals being lined with LED bulbs and photovoltaic cells.

Related post: Solar Necktie Powers Young Professionals

via Core77

The wonderful think about folk art is its utter versatility. You can use anything you own, broken or intact. You can super glue some broken plate pieces, old car keys, a car battery, ten randomly bent paper clips, and a torn washcloth together to make a diorama of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Some of you may have the unfortunate affliction that causes everything in your house to break. This problem, commonly known as “Children” can turn everything you own, expensive or priceless, into useless junk. Of course, these debris can be collected and welded together into art that can awe your friends and strike fear into your progeny!

There has been a resurgence of this sort of behavior as of late. All around the world people are taking household items and squishing them together in a global mosaic of junk art. With them leading the way we can all test the limits of our creativity, ingenuity, and the patience of our significant others. (I will warn you now, ask before you start rummaging through their junk drawers. Sometimes a screw driver or Indian penny has more sentimental and/or monetary value than you realize.)

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I’m giving my niece the Kice Kice oval dress. This dress is made from 100% certified organic combed cotton jersey, and the oval pattern is printed using water-based pigments.The contrasting bright pink serged edge is a nice detail, and the fabric is light and soft. The bold pattern is subtle with the grey print, and this dress looks really comfortable to wear. I wish I could dress in Kice Kice clothing!

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Additional popular items are wine corks, key chains, dice, dominoes, and chess pieces. Look further to find cane and umbrella handles, pipes, tiles, and sewing needle cases. Most pieces are results from the fine art of scrimshaw.

The green and reasonably soft nut from the hard casing has the consistency of Jell-O. Once the nut is ripened, it becomes very hard, so this is the time to shape tagua into different molds.

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Welcome to the first Carnival of Green Crafts!

For more information about the Carnival, please see the Carnival of Green Crafts home page here at Crafting A Green World.

We’re pleased as punch to announce that the next Carnival will be August 9th at BlogHer, courtesy of Hobbies, Crafts & DIY Contributing Editor Debra Roby. Send in your posts via the carnival submission form today!

Thanks so much to all the crafters who shared their posts with us for this Carnival.  Let’s dig in!

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Crafting A Green World is thrilled to announce the new Carnival of Green Crafts!

The Carnival of Green Crafts is a twice monthly online celebration of all things eco and crafty. Whether it’s a full-fledged tutorial or your personal musings, photos of projects in progress or completed, great thrift store finds that are destined for a craft project, or a love letter to your favorite environmentally friendly craft supplies, we want it! We hope that this Carnival is a place to show off, inspire, rant, rave, learn, and support each other as we find ways to create beautiful things while protecting the Earth.

If you’re not familiar with blog carnivals, here’s the scoop. A blog carnival is basically a traveling event, a regular series of posts that collect links to recently posted content on the carnival’s theme. Most carnivals move from blog to blog, with each edition hosted by a different blog. Crafting A Green World is kicking off the Carnival of Green Crafts and we’re giving it a home base, but we invite the green crafting community to jump in and make this carnival what you want it to be.

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I know spoon wear has been around for a while, but it’s one of those things that I always forget about until confronted with it. It is a very clever craft that recycles the ordinary and turns it into the extraordinary. Thinking that these rings are the cat’s meow I purchased a fork ring which now sits comfortably on my hand.

Want one of your own? A quick trip through Etsy brought up a couple of designers that specialize in this area and are doing a fantastic job of it.

LT Creates Jewelry makes many wonderful items out of cutlery. Rings, bracelets and even watches made from spoons and forks can be found in their shop.

Dank Artistry also makes spoon jewelry. Check out the rings, bracelets, earrings and even bell pendants made from the end of a spoon and given a clapper. I can hear the small ting, ting that it would make.

Have a piece of cutlery you wear? Tell us about it in the comments.

Image credit: LTCreatesJewelry

“The broadcast of such images raises serious questions, not only about the morality of the artists in using dead babies in pursuit of their artistic expression, but of the broadcasters’ responsibility not to infringe their dignity,” ITC said.

Cannibalism can be more than art as has been documented among the Yanomami, Coaque and Anasazi Indians. Beth Conklin, an American anthropologist concluded in 2001 that cannibalism had a human face after spending time with the Wari’ Indians in the Amazon.

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As of May 15th, this bill was voted out of Senate Committee on the Judiciary and placed on the full Senate’s intent calendar. That means that the entire Senate will be involved in making the next decision about whether this bill will move forward. You can follow the progress of the bill, as well as media coverage of it, at its page on Open Congress or on its official bill status page on the Library of Congress website.

Preparing to Advocate

Before you communicate with your Senators about this bill, you have to do your homework.

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Kelly has written about Ex Libris journals and Night Owl Paper Good journals, and Tara tipped us off about her friend Nicole’s recycled wallpaper journals from Freshly Blended Press. I took a spin through Etsy to see what other upcycled, recycled, and handmade journals I could discover…

Holy cow, it’s insane over there!

I had to narrow it down to journals that use recycled, found, or scrap paper inside as well as recycled material in the covers, because otherwise my brain was overloading. I didn’t even scratch the surface, but here are some of my favorites:

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What items have such scary warning labels that you are asking yourself, “Is this project worth giving myself brain damage over?”

One of the products that immediately came to my mind was fusible web. Fusible web is a synthetic fiber that melts when you heat it. Brand names for these products include Steam-A-Seam, Stitch Witchery, and others. If you’re not familiar with it, think of it as thin sheets of fabric infused with glue. If you need two pieces of fabric to stick together, or you’re working with a fabric that needs a little extra support to either stand up or hold still, then you may end up using your iron to attach some fusible web to your project. You’ll often find fusible web in applique, t-shirt quilts, and used as interfacing in clothing.

But honestly, I’ve never tried to research it and figure out whether it’s a product I can feel good about using. Can it hurt me by touching it?  Is it safe to heat glue with an iron and breathe at the same time?  I have educated myself about food, personal care products, and clothing, and made (not enough) changes in my life based on what I found. So far, though, I haven’t given my crafting products much scrutiny beyond my varied attempts to use my local thrift store as a craft supply shop.

So just how easy is it to find out whether a product is safe and eco-friendly? Using fusible web as my test case, I set out to get some answers. Some of what I found may be old hat to y’all, but I learned quite a lot. In today’s post, I cover safety issues ; watch for Part 2 about environmental issues next week.

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Name how many men you know who own a sewing machine.

You might be shaking your head thinking, “Well, that’s obvious.”… because I tailored my request to resonate with women.

If you’re a guy, you’re probably wondering, “What is this crazy bitch getting at?” That’s OK, because I’m banking on the fact that most of our readers are, in fact, the gentler sex.

Maker Faire blows most craft shows out of the water in terms of vendors and exhibits. With an estimated turnout of 65,000 attendees, and over 500 “makers” exhibiting, it was almost surreal to witness. Though giving my presentations occupied me for a couple hours, I was free to roam the rest of the weekend, and still didn’t get to see everything. One thing I observed almost doesn’t need to be said. Male makers were a minority in the crafty corners of the event, and though women had a definite presence in the technology arena, they still seemed largely outnumbered, especially in robotics and other mechanical applications.

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We have recently come across the outstanding artists who are using found and recycled objects to create their masterpieces. Their work is gorgeous, intriguing and sustainable– what could be better?

The first we want to highlight is the “mosaic fusion” of artist S A Schimmel Gold. She collects junk mail and incorporates it into her stunning portraiture. Some are pure pop, some are moody and moving. I saw them “in person” at the AltBuild Expo last week and was floored. The artist says of herself and her work, “I am a rabid recycler - I am compelled to upcycle unusual resources to create my art and give others’ images and words a new life in my work. Look closely for menu items, cruise itineraries, gallery openings… stand back to view the sum of the parts - a textural representation of beauty.” Please review the Schimmel Art collection here.

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Plant a Tree and Give it a Name

This is the classic Arbor Day activity. Whether you plant a native tree or an ornamental in your yard, children love to plant trees and monitor the tree’s growth in comparison to their own. In our family, we name our trees, such as Maggie the Magnolia. This little bit of personification causes children to become attached to the their tree and provide it with lots of loving care.

Make Your Own Field Guide

Take your children for a nature hike or just a walk around the neighborhood. Collect a few leaves from the trees you see, then take them home. Identify the trees, attach the leaves to pages, and create your own field guide. We did this my first year teaching for all of the different oaks that grow in our valley. If you don’t have a book that can help you identify the tree species, you can also look it up on the internet.

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Light passing through the One Day Poem Pavilion’s perforations creates a poem that changes according to the solar calendar. During the summer solstice, the poem is about “new life”. During the winter solstice, the poem’s theme is the “reflection and the passing of time.” Each hour, a new line of the poem is revealed by the passage of the sun.

Via: Monster-Munch

Due to the fact that it snowed here this weekend, my six-year-old daughter, three-year-old son, and I picked some flowers to inspire our painting rather than draw them in their natural location.  We did set up our paints on the covered deck and worked quickly due to the cold temperatures.  Using chalk to sketch out our ideas, we then covered the canvas in “crazy” colors for the under painting. 

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A Birthday Garden
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Shopdropping is sort of like reverse consumerism.   Artist Ryan Watkins-Hughes switches the mundane packages on tin cans, then sneaks them onto the shelves in stores, such as NYC’s Whole Foods.  He thinks of it as reverse shoplifting.