Green Girl

I spend a lot of time on Etsy looking for exciting things to buy for myself and share with you, and recently, the work of Kathy Reed of A Second Life Designs caught my eye. Using reclaimed and recycled materials, she sculpts some interesting objects d’arte, jewelry, and other earth-friendly goodies. I had a chance to ask her a few questions about her designs, and here’s what I learned!

How long have you been creating art from found objects?

For all of my artistic life really. It began with using ordinary household objects as parts of the armature for papier mache folk art figures and then for polymer clay figures as well. When I took a class from Keith Lo Bue, I realized the possibilities for the beauty in these objects and began using them as part of the composition itself.

What is your process like? Where do you look for material? How do you start a piece and how do you know when you are finished.?

I find material literally anywhere and everywhere…..under your feet, in the yard, flea markets, antique shops, or actually any kind of shop, really. My husband travels a lot and looks for things for me as well. You just need to look at things with “new eyes.”
How I start a piece varies…..sometimes I revel in the idea of having literally thousands of bits and pieces to work with….then I just start pulling random pieces from here and there, discovering how they fit together as I go along. At other times, I’m just overwhelmed by the amount and so I give myself limits…..pick out one or two pieces blind that must be used in the composition and moving on from there. Either way, the whole process feels very serendipitous to me….the right pieces that fit together perfectly just seem to find their way to each other. Being finished means that adding another detail or part will not enhance the piece further. At the same time, removal of any existing element would be detrimental to the composition. Put in words like this, it probably sounds easier than it really is.

My hope is that found object jewelry will entice people to look at the normally discarded in a new way to the point where they might be inspired to actually use some of it differently themselves. I’m greatly encouraged by all the “green” info in the media right now. Historically speaking, a concept generally embraced by the media for a long enough time eventually becomes the norm. I hope we are now finally on our way to significant change.

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