The Polly Wood Debut

It was a little over 10 years ago when I started seriously upcycling cans and trying to come up with different embellishing styles. I started out with simple beads, colored floss, and silver & gold leafing. Awhile later I added my handmade paper beads, charms, and metallic threads. Then one day I had the idea that perhaps little wooden shapes that I could embellish all on their own and affix to the cans might be interesting. So, Stephen cut me some small wooden squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, and even some sombreros which he then sanded and primed. I painted them and added little beads and tiny trinkets on. Do you want to see some examples of these cans? Of course, you do!

About a year ago, I was looking through some containers in my craft room and I found my little stash of wooden shapes, or 'woodies' as I affectionately call them. Being that their time on cans had passed, I wanted to find another way to use them - give them another purpose to fulfill. Surely, I could use them in my jewelry making, but that wasn't anything new or exciting. The woodies had to be different, and they had to be arousing. And then it came to me. I could add them to my handmade cards. Here are some examples at my first attempt. Oh look! There are those crazy wooden sombreros! 😁

After a while, I came up with a different idea for the circle shaped woodies which led me to my Polly Wood notecard line. However, before Polly Wood debuted, she was inspired by these earlier cards below. These cards utilize upcycled items such as gauze and other fabric remnants, thread clippings from sewing, leftover wallpaper pieces, ribbon, and even a vintage button.

Now allow me to tell you a little bit about Polly Wood. Although she only has lips on her face with no distinct expression, her thoughts are relayed by words that I find from scouring through magazines, bulletins, and old greeting cards. She absolutely loves Avant Garde fashion and is confident enough to wear them. She doesn't even need hands and feet, much less a body! Yeah, she's that bold.

Without further ado, here comes Polly Wood!

One last thing about a Polly Wood card is that it can be framed and hung on a wall or placed on a shelf or mantle. And once again, it's being upcycled! 😍

I have told you a few times that if I had any 'new' news, I would let you in on it. The time has come! Remember now, this is still in its' infancy, but I have finally started a business page on Facebook/Meta. You can find me by typing in An Upcycled Artist, or an easier way is to click on the Facebook icon located on the bottom of my pages, across from my photograph. Eventually I will have my store ready for operation, but in the meanwhile, I will be sharing photos of things not featured on my blogs. I will also be sharing updates to blog items that were featured here. My new post today shows the lamp I upcycled with the new lampshade that I made. If you like my page and follow me, you will see my new posts in your feed.

Until we meet again next Wednesday, try your hand at upcycling something and have fun doing it!  

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