{REJEWELRY} Playing For Key-Pairs

The brick rumbling excitement arising from stumbling upon a giant crate of excess keys from the janitorial staff of our old school building during the move, struck those around as not quite normal. Cast-away keys are a gold-mine in the treasure chest of an upcycler.

The visual texture is unbelievable:



So many kinds, its necessary to create a nomenclature for them:

gazebos

pagodas, circles and frogs *Unpictured: knobs, trapezoids, pentagrams

a few uniques:


Using illustration board to organize and move the matched sets:


We filled the entire corner of my studio with flats of the paired keys, talk about KEYBOARDS!:

Attaching earring hooks took more than a few hours for so many pairs:

And packaging takes a little forethought, however with the help of a paper-cutter, stapler, holepunch, photocopied templates, and a few 2"x3" ziplock bags from ULINE...PRESTO!


Available for $5.00 a pair at MADAM CHINO'S LOOK NOOK but now you can make your own!

Check out these links to other artists using keys:

-Strictly key fashions by Key Into Fashion
-Keys as Charm holders from BCreationsGlass
-Decorated antique skeleton key necklaces from:
Romantiquarian Design
-Vintage Key Magnets by BUiLDiNGCHARACTER
-Hand-stamped color-enameled key charms by JoannGirls

xo,
Madam Chino

{JAGGED EDGES} Smooth Surfaces: an inspiration board mixing metallic and yellow

Smooth Surfaces, Jagged Edges: an inspiration board mixing metallic and yellow.

The bright, strong and friendly leather tassel bags and backpacks (view one in the bottom left) are being made at MEREDITH WENDELL

WOLF AND BADGER is a shop in the UK repping many artists, and has links to each one on their homepage!

PAMELA LOVE is a familiar indie artist gone global who creates esoteric symbolisms into miniature wearable sculptures.

I recently purchased a very similar pair of platform flats like the ones on the lower left from an awesome company called BERNIE MEV and absolutely love them!

{JAGGED EDGES} Smooth Surface by madamchino featuring stud earrings

{ON THE MAKE} T-shirt Cutting Performance Art of Adam Saaks

The goal, while searching for roots a midst artists working in the soft sculptural medium of t-shirts, was bookmarking a video witnessed long ago of a guy who turned cutting-up-t-shirts into a performance art. The suave intuitive speed and accuracy of his scissor-moves was memorable; coming naturally to him like a fisherperson filleting a fresh catch for a Valentine's dinner. His scissors, must have been sharpened daily and professionally.

The foggy look of memory lane made the google search terms experimental: "t-shirt happenings, artists cutting t-shirts in public, t-shirt performance art" and sure enough, on YOUtube, the name of Adam Saaks championed the list.


Adam plays up the performance by choosing a woman from the crowd to work on who has an intently staring, angry-looking boyfriend. And he's so sassy with his provocative cuts! There are many more videos, often time-lapsed showing multiple cuts on a shirt from start to finish.

The weaving technique that he uses is called "ladderweaving." His variable is the length of the cut to create variegated, webby-looking shirts that hold together with very little knotting. Use this as a search term on YOUtube to catch some tutorials if you are interested in this "home-spun" idea.

-Madam Chino

{Madam Chino's LOOK NOOK} Shop Tour!

December 4th, 2012 marked the 3 year anniversary of Madam Chino's LOOK NOOK, a compact shop chock full of vintage and hand-crafted goodies! After 3 years, those of you who haven't visited yet, can get a peek inside the shop via this post. I'm hoping to see you this coming weekend at the PARTY DRESS SALE!

For more shop pics, check out this Flickr SET

Although many have escaped, visitors, aka PEEPHOLE PEOPLE can be viewed at this flickr SET

{PARTY DRESS SALE!} A Pre-New Years Event with Cocktails and Cocktail Dresses!

Come get your Party-Dress on at Madam Chino's LOOK NOOK
Saturday December 29th, 2012: NOON-6pm
Serving Cocktails-and-Cocktail Dresses
All dress items will be $20 and under!

Madam Chino's LOOK NOOK is located in the Milwaukee Fortress Building
100A East Pleasant Street on the 3rd Floor!
Milwaukee WI 53212 USA

{METAL} Not-So-Heavy

Doing a little light weight lifting during the Holiday.

Not-so-Heavy Metal by madamchino featuring platform heels