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By Jackie, September 16, 2009 3:36 pm

During the tour of the new recycling building last Thursday, we went through the new set up for the MSU Salvage Store. An extremely cool place to go. Anything still usable that any university department gets rid of, ends up at the Salvage Store. They are even online.

I loved this ancient RCA record player.

There’s just a few bikes and maybe a handful of chairs…not! There’s also desks, bed frames, ancient equipment, even saw a sewing machine, computers, computer parts and the list goes on and on.

Building signage, anyone interested?

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By Victor, September 13, 2009 9:58 pm

I got a new lightbox for my birthday. Now I can make cartoons in 1/2, no!, 1/4 of the time! I’m rebooting my old “Life On The Slide” comic strip. Here are the first two I did in like no time tonight.

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By Jackie, September 11, 2009 1:36 pm

Drum roll please.

At long last I can talk about the summer project. Yesterday I journeyed up to Michigan State University with the TABB Packaging Solutions crew for the opening ceremony of the school’s new recycling facility. It was a big deal event. The university president was there, several board members, and lots of other bigwig people. I was thanked in one opening speech and several other times throughout the morning. My work received lots of compliments and I got tons of recognition. I stood for several photos with people I didn’t know but was told that it was a big deal. Okay, so know the photo with the university president was a big deal. I don’t have that one to share yet. I’m waiting on the university photographer to send a batch of pics from yesterday.

It was a very nice to get so many compliments on something I worked so very hard on all summer long. The ego is feeling a lot less bruised. The folks at MSU and TABB were so very appreciative of my efforts and would tell anyone they were standing near who I was and what I created. I realized yesterday that no one told the art department that they had alumni artwork in the big new facility on campus. So I emailed them today to fill them in and the feedback was great.

I have so much to unpack and blog about on this project. But for now, I’ll just start with the end. Here’s some photos

Here’s the framed pieces done and hung on the wall. The first shows the process of how the PET bottles (drink/food containers with a 1 on the bottom) will be recycled back into new containers if you put them in the recycle bin or bottle deposit machine at the store. If you put them in the trash, it could take up to 400 years to break down. The second shows the same but for HDPE bottles (cleaning products with a 2 on the bottom). And yes we had permission from the companies to use their products.  I also got to go through the MSU Salvage Store and pick out whatever I wanted to try and use with the pieces. That part was really fun.

Here’s my work hanging in the main hallway that everyone walks through. They were supposed to hand someplace else but that didn’t work out once construction was done so they ended up here. Yes, the spot lights were already there. It worked out great. The other photo here is one of the TABB owners trying to clean a smudge off the glass. They can be rather particular about stuff but funny at the same time.

They posted my bio on the wall between the pieces. Pretty cool.

Here’s before and after the ceremony. This is in the MERF room where they sort all the materials and bale them. That big machine is a big deal. The facility is huge.

Some signage at the event. Yes, there were even TV news crews there. Here they are interviewing the university president.

Here’s me and the TABB crew up at MSU.

Another MSU alum out of Texas made this conference table. It’s recycled glass and ceramic and resin. Seriously cool stuff.

So it was an exciting day. I’m still absorbing it all. And it was definitely an adventure of a summer.

This day was brought to you by the letters “S” and “G”.

“Be Spartan Green”

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By Jackie, September 7, 2009 10:40 am

I’m still working on putting some new order into the studio space. Back in June I colored these threads along with all the fabric I dyed for ‘the project’. I really like how they came out. I want to make more. Since thread is small I may be able to work it out here at home. But this will have to do for now.

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By Jackie, September 3, 2009 9:40 am

Here’s the website we finished this summer. It’s for TABB Packaging Solutions in Plymouth.

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By Jackie, September 3, 2009 9:33 am

I did manage to get a few things on our trip to Traverse City last weekend. I really could have gotten a lot more but I was trying to exercise some self control for the sake of our checking account. The beads are Czech Glass Beads that were on clearance and the book was 75% off. The book looks pretty lame from the cover but the beading illustrations and instructions are really excellent and well worth the $5 price tag. The thread was not on sale but it was pretty and I don’t have a lot of these two colors in my stash. I spent so long staring at everything in the store I felt I should probably buy something.

But back in the current week I have been preparing Xander for the first week of school, cleaning out the summer work space at the parent’s house and moving it all back to our house, while cleaning my work space out in the process. Frustrating? Yes, but good. It always refuels the creative meter. Only difference this time is that I want to make really small stuff instead of my usual large scale stuff. I also have quite an odd collection of objects from the summer project. I’ll start sharing that after next Thursday.