Badges from the Sourcery

Sistahoodz online maven, Christina Budeweit has been working to create less waste in her upcycling textile artist's studio. Working with thrifted knits, the rockstar coats are some of the better known pieces that she has made but she is happy to be able to use the resulting smaller bits left over, into other retreasured offerings. Here is an example.

Taking memes off our technology and inserting them in real life, check out the badges she makes when she's not incorporating left over textiles into whimsical yoga cats and funny bunnies.

Its upcycling, its painting with the palette life gives you.

Any way you look at it, its inspirational. The timelessness of hand stitching, a vintage art in itself, the combination of many different mediums, mostly thrifted or rescued from the cultural waste stream, all combines to make little portable art delights.

Here is the second in the 'BPH Series' (Black Pointy Hat) commissioned by a sista who is a great jeweller in her own right. Honoured she would want some of my humble efforts...

One more ... a commish from NY state... Fig Leaves Pads is celebrating their 3rd year with a little memento she had me make for her.

What is your badge going to look like? Message me on FB!

 And this is how these commemorate special dates...

The Sistahoodz Sourceress herself, walking her talk...wearing the Czarinahood, custom made and cashmere.

Some Regal Sleeves for Regina Chillin with Sista Neila

I went to Uni with this amazing sista who is a creative force in her own right when she's not holdin' it all together. She's doing better these days and I am so thrilled that I was happy to throw a bunch of Sistahoodz love and creativity into every stitch.

She gave me the colour palette to play with for each set of sleeves and let me run with the ball. I love it when folks know what they want and I pick up on it.

How close was I, Neila?

In the post tomorrow...

The red sleeves have a secret. If you can guess, you may get that feature on future sleeves of your own... Shhh... don't tell, Neila!

Sourceress Creativity

My creativity is only reined in by my ability to access raw material. Never having been one to dally in 'fine art supplies', I have always been the one who looks at a pile of what others view as nothing, and then I reorganize a component of it, and VIOLA ICI, we have art/design/form meets function and something useful, unique and beautiful.

Here then, is an assortment of the different ways I get my art therapy fix on...

Walking beaches requires a meditation that keeps me upright as sand and the surf are an uneven surface to walk and my equilibrium is challenged on the best of days. By looking closely at the ground, I discover all manner of treasure in the form of sand eroded beach glass that I've learned has been called 'mermaid tears' . I combine this with different filaments/threads/strings and a combination of knitting/crocheting/knotting/macrame/needlepoint and beading to make novel necklaces for summer gifting.

 Give rosebud art a try this summer. Collect wild and domestic buds when they are just opening. They keep well in tupperware or a baggy if you add a damp bit of tissue and keep them out of direct sunlight til you can work with them. A long needle, thread and your creativity and you have a beautiful gift to share that lasts all year as well as smells marvelous. (Try one in the car)            

There was a t shirt that I bought the year my son was born (ask me the story of the power failure and c section by candlelight after a state-wide power failure during my labour) and I kept it for years. When he was an adult, I hated the thought of losing it and it was showing a lot of wear but the poster on the thinning shirt was so historic with the volcano erupting and the location of the t shirt's provider, the Anchorage House of Harley, was such a big part of my life in Alaska, back in the day, that I made it into embellishements on two shirts for him. 

    

 

Here you see the front of the tshirt's design, it even had the hospital Dan was born in...

And here is how I appliqued the back to a dress shirt. I used lots of random zig zag machine embroidery to affix it... whether or not  he ever wore it, I have to guess, but I am sure pleased with this way to recontemporize a treasured memory.

I enjoy bike riding and have made sure that my bike is distinctive which I suspect deters thievery. After losing my previous bike to theft, I took it upon myself to dress the new bike so it will never be mistaken as being unloved. Meet 'Comet'. I now have a little bag I keep in the front on the handlebars for my little canine ptsd companion, Maggie...

This was the first attempt at mounting something and was a hurried job combining my little backpack with a few bungee cords I keep in it and Maggie adjusted by curling up in a little ball with her head poked out. Her little ears flapping as the trail flew by, is one of my best memories of the summer.

My travels have me bringing all manner of minutiae home to do something with later. Here, I have incorporated beach stones, a couple of chips of blue glass mermaid tears and some waxed linen filament to make a component that was added to a collage quilt for a Victoria BC project last summer. My first Victoria Art Gallery informal installation!

 

How about some little tiny dragon mittens for that sweet child on your gift list? I crafted these for a friend's son who was fascinated with the creatures. No pattern, just whipped 'em up.

How about those stash buster projects that you always intend to get to? I enjoy winging designs with my stash busters and pick up thrifted yarn in my travels that allow me to create hostess gifts on the fly for the kind people who let me hang out with them while I pass through.

I also make a lot of upcycled knits but there are previous posts about those. These are just a few of the other things I like to create to keep my mind and spirit fed.

  

I will put the graphic arts I enjoy dabbling in on another blog of its own but here is a preview...

Leave a comment or come visit me at my Facebook address ... www.facebook.com/sistahoodz...

Or friend me... Christina Budeweit ... innovative Resourceress, at cher cervix.

The Sistahoodz Cybertribe of Facebook Pages

 

Sistahoodz is the Mothership page, the octopus in the middle, with all the tentacle pages reflecting our philosophies. 

Something Out Of Nothing or *SOON* - This is a showcase page for what Mr. Rogers called ‘Looking to the helpers’. To counter our popular commercial industrial media machine and its horrific portrayal of violent men and subservient women, this page posts things that counters that trope and makes space for the kind of men feminists raise and befriend, and the kind of women who succeed in the face of misogyny. Good ideas, novel thinking, solution based, non violent communication are the hearthstones of the SOON page. Its the most popular page in the Sistahoodz cybertribe with dozens of comments an hour keeping me engaged.

Freehugger - If you ever wanted a sofa fort to hide in with a colouring book and your crayons, this is the closest thing I could come up with online. Sistahoodz keeps this for when we are having our triggery days that seem grey and our belief in human nature is shaken. Bolster your soul with postings designed to reduce dis-ease, make you laugh, turn that frown upside down at the very least.

Sistas Beyond Motherhood - Many sistas chose to not be mothers, many are past the years of bearing and raising children. This is a quieter page with less postings but they are always relevant to thinking women and their allies who support empowered personal evolution as we transform in our lives.

Bmb - Belly of the Misogynist Beast is where Sistahoodz puts the dicey shite that our population of intelligent free thinking feminist readers needs to see, but only on their terms. After my therapist asked me why I read only feminist literature, ‘Doesn’t that trigger you?’ I had to admit ... IT DOES! So that led to, upon arriving home that day, starting a new page. Therapist of awesomeness says ‘Put down the struggle, you are out of the belly of the misogynist beast’ so it was natural when I got home, to create a page called Belly of the Misogynist Beast, where we could keep the general Sistahoodz page for the encouraging media and corral the difficult topics into somewhere we can go to investigate when we feel strong and grounded. 

Historical sidenote: The day SOON was born, was the day miscreants blew up the Boston Marathon, so my plans to use the acronym B.O.M.B. for the page didn’t seem like such a good idea. Dropping the O made us much less likely to get a visit from the Men in Black. 

Sourceress Christina - This is where I keep postings relating to how accurate they are in agreement with who and what I am. Its a quiet little page but its a vault for those meaningful posters that really encompass my reality.

Two secret groups, one for Sistahoodz, one for Crones round out the Sistahoodz family.  

Sistaverse gives us a safe place to say ‘WHAT THE HELL>>>>????’ among one another about life in general,  

Hagazon is a crone zone that lets the older wise women a place to be elders among ourselves. Ask for admission if you believe you found your flock. :)

Sistahoodz peeps come from around the world. Many are new, many come and go and a few core people have been with us since the 90s. (Say hi!)

I want to shout out to our diehard admins and cyber sistas who keep it up when I drop the ball, namely, Grace, my daughter, Zoe McGillis and  last but not least Erica Dickson and Kathleen Onhasey  The MOONWIT days would have not been possible without Susanna Eve's help and the CYP days required Sarah Ele Za-Bear and a few other sistas to keep things running smoothly, for which I am eternally grateful!

Locally, my demographic group for Saltspring Island BC. gives back by posting free goodies and raves. I hope others become more involved but its only a year old today. 

Maggie’s Salt Spring Island Free Stuff was created to give back to the community that was a valuable part of my diagnosis. Upon magically experiencing super synchronicity in getting my compassion companion canine, Maggie, (A YEAR AGO TODAY Feb 13, 2015) I decided to name a free page unique to the location after my new sidekick. 

The next year found me in more secure digs on the Big Island and I created Esquimalt Eco Peeps - Rants, Raves n Freebies. It’s for goodies I discover that I enjoy sharing. Every now and then free things come along or I feel like raving about living where I do and its fun to toss my local dogwalk photos in there now and then.

So welcome to my world.

Poke around. This is FACEBOOK being used to put a feminist sourceress's brain out where I can see it and to share what that means with our entire cybertribe. Feel da love. Its your cybertribe too. No leaders, no laws besides respect/integrity/love.

Building community is where its at. 

Junebug's first magical raiment - A soft and protective light hooded blanket 100% upcycled content

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 I love diamonds... they're a girl's best friend... next to circles, that is... This little baby blanket is 100% upcycled content, hand crafted out of sweater bits and mad crochet skillz, in Victoria, BC, Canada by the Sourceress Christina herself... Another Sistahoodz creation soon to be gifted to a little girl born just a few weeks ago... Congratulations Lesley and Colin of the Omstead!

 Taking chunks of soft sweaters that are relatively lightweight, I first serged all the edges, then using a fine crochet hook, I created an edge with a chain /blanket stitch that I picked up to expand each square. Laid on the diagonal, the squares make lovely diamonds.

I topped it off with a little hood so that Junebug's little curls would be protected.

Maggie models how the little hood is so light you hardly know its on.

Being my supervisor is hard work and she also tells me that she is glad to see another Sistahoodz project head out the door.

Lesley and Colin are kind of adopted kids of mine and their having the first baby is very exciting! Closest thing to a Gramma I can get next to one of my own having one... which sort of happened in December.


But that's another  story...

The Evolution of the Sistahoodz Sweaterless Sleeve

 The Day Sistas

When I am not creating things, I like to create community or what I like to call co-MOON-ity, online with my cybertribe,  Sistahoodz, on  Facebook. The amazing people, mostly feminist based women, who are my peeps surround me with love and friendship that I find very healing, not just to me, but to many. I use the Sistahoodz page to show off my creations and from there, folks can show an interest and I made a few shekels which affords me my sweater habit. When I am not making coats, I make smaller items that more folks can access to be able to carry something with that non-muggle sistahoodz vibe. The most popular by far are my armwarmers. When I saw that there was a whole Pinterest section for legwarmers, it dawned on me that there would also be a whole section for armwarmers. This led me to a natch process of collecting a bunch of photos of past marathon sleeve sewing sessions, to share. 

Sleeves! Arm warmers. B.S deflectors. This is the common style, with a thumb hole at the end where the fancy schmancy section usually is. I must have made a thousand of them and I never get tired of it.

So here then, is a collection of photos that document my sleeve adventures...

Then I couldn't leave well enough alone and I began embellishing the sleeves with bits of precious gems/pearls and my little handcrocheted floral decorations...

This was a pair for an 8 year old girly girl. I think I nailed it.

These kick the sleeves up a notch and add $10 to the price.  I use semi precious stones, pearls, amber, buttons, you name it. The flowers themselves are created using all manner of fibre ... I have a LOT to choose from... Noone else will have anything remotely like YOURS.

Here is a  happy dozen... you get 13 for the price of 10, YOU can pick the colour basics and wether you want the style with the traditional tube and thumbhole or the elfen variety.  Feel the power. I'm at your command when it comes to handmade gifts and supporting your sistas.

Then you can see, I got a little tricky, and started to put together a sleeve that was more elfin. I am still thinking that these would be great in the festival circuit...

And then we have Sistahoodz fan mail, where the lucky recipients of my love on their arms send me photos wearing their Sistahoodz sleeves and armwarmers.

  
This has got to be my fave photo of all of my Sistahoodz albums.

 The Day Sistas

A photo so nice, I had to use it twice in the same article. Don't you just love the ingenuity of the composition? Those Day wimmen, I tellz ya. They haz the right stuffs.

Lets start pinning these shall we?

IF you are interested in commissioning me to make you some love for your arms, message me on facebook at Sistahoodz, or else email me on my gmail... resourceressbudeweit@gmail.com

I believe my prices are comparative to anything out there, buy more than 4 pairs and you can get away with as little as $10 a set for the basic design... If you order a dozen by Oct. 31, you will receive 13 pairs in time to gift them at Winter Solstice, a great plan to take 12 small gifts off your giving list.Talk to me.

Live in the Victoria area and interested in learning the craft of upcycling? That's possible too! Just let a Sourceress know!