My outlook has changed over the decades. At one time, when I was very much younger, I purchased some of my clothing by ordering from the catalogue. Eatons and Simpson Sears were the catalogues at my home growing up. When the catalogues came in the mail they were a treasure trove to feast your eyes and spark the imagination. The Christmas Catalogue was my favourite; there were so many lovely toys and games to look at. Not that my family had the means to order any of them, but it was fun to dream. That chemistry set always eluded me. Orders took weeks to arrive as everything was done by mail.
Today we search online for things and sometimes order things we need that get delivered to our door; sometimes arriving the very next day. Times have changed. So has my attitude towards consumerism. The current styles and colours as dictated by the media hold little interest for me. For the past couple of decades, I have taken a different approach to purchases that I make. Thrift stores are my favourite places to shop. They are full of treasures that can always be had for a much-reduced price.
Many of my clothes have come from thrift stores. You have to look things over carefully to make sure they are in good shape. Sometimes you even find things with their original price tags on them. Most thrift stores are well organized, with the clothing sorted by size, colour and type of clothing. There are also household items, toys, books and puzzles. You can also find small appliances that the stores have tested to be sure they work.
My favourite area is the arts and crafts section. Fabrics also interest me. White fabric pieces that can be dyed or painted are of particular interest. Of course you don’t know fibre content. If you burn a tiny piece of the fabric you can tell the difference. Natural fibres will give you ash and synthetic fibres will leave plastic residue. Natural fibres are best for dying, but all fabrics can be painted or printed with acrylics. My friend Joan likes puzzles so I always search the puzzle section for her preferred large-piece puzzles.
The art attached to this blog has some upcycled cotton in it. There are two pieces of fabric. The one on the left is silk and the one on the right is upcycled cotton purchased by our instructor at a market in Italy. The fabrics were soaked in Soy Milk. The wet silk was laid out on a piece of aluminum foil. Local leaves, dipped in Ferrus Sulphate were laid on top of the silk. A piece of soy milk-soaked cotton was laid on top. Starting at one end, the layers were rolled around a thick piece of wooden doweling. The bundle was then steamed for three hours. When the bundles were opened it was always a surprise as there is really no predicting how well the tannins in the leaves combined with the iron will print on the fabric. If you look closely you can see that the fabrics have the mirror image of the leaves. This was one of the combinations we tried in my workshop in Italy last fall. Now to think of something amazing to make with these lovely prints.
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