Turning Over A New Leaf

 



Autumn is upon us and the ending of another year is just around the corner.  I started the new year (2026) with a very dry, creative spell.  Ideas and the will to create were at an all time low and then I bought a pair of shoes for the spring.  Inside the shoes were a pair of cardboard shoe forms.  As I unpacked the shoes the cardboard forms grabbed my imagination and poof! my creativity was sparked and it hasn't stopped.  At one point I had so many ideas I had to write them down.  To date 95% of the ideas have come to fruition.  What started out t as a very slow year has become a very creative, productive year.  

SONOBE BALLS 

I like to dabble in origami from time to time and these balls caught my eye when I saw them advertised as lamps.  I still don't know how the light has been added to them, but I certainly enjoyed making them: no glue and self-locking.  I first tested out the ball with Tyvek because it holds a fold really well.  I then moved on to chiyogami paper  and decorative paper, which gives these balls a visual richness and pleasant weight.  




THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE 

The first piece I made, with the shoe forms, is based on the children's nursery rhyme, There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe.  Papier mache was the technique I used to cover the shoe forms.  I pasted three layers of recycled paper and then used decorative papers to cover them.  I built a box and used images of people to collage the inside of the box and the lid.  I covered the outside of the box with chiyogami paper.



closed box with decorated shoe form 


The old woman and some of her children in the top and bottom lids. 


The open box with two shoe forms, collaged images of people (the old woman's children) and a ribbon with the first lines of the rhyme written on it:  'There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,  She had so many children, she didn't know what to do:  she... '.  I added a small blank book to the bottom so one can write down what the old woman did: an exercise in expanding one's creative mind. 

This was only the beginning of the creative journey with the shoe forms.  

Mary 
bbinder999@gmail.com 




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