Conversation with Theda Sandiford

Theda Sandiford has had a treasure box since she was three years old. 

These days it's a series of labeled plastic bins — but the impulse is exactly the same. In this conversation, the fiber artist and activist (whose work is now in the Guggenheim collection, no big deal) talks about salvaging marine debris on the beaches of St. Croix, deconstructing a six-inch tow rope down to individual fibers, dyeing wine corks indigo, and why cleaning ocean waste is somehow more meditative than doing laundry. 

We also get into collective healing through crochet, reading neighborhood gentrification through street trash, and the 20-year paper doll project that's still in progress. 

Come for the art, stay for the Depeche Mode jean jacket story.

https://thedasandiford.com/ 

https://www.instagram.com/misstheda/

https://thedasandifordart.com/

Contemporary African Art Fair https://www.1-54.com/

https://elanatsui.art/

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/grandmacore-aesthetic-anti-aging-fears

This podcast was created by Natalya Khorover. It was produced and recorded by Natalya, as well as researched and edited by her. SALVAGE is a product of ECOLOOP.ART.

If you enjoy this show, please rate and review us wherever you’re listening—and be sure to come back for another conversation with a repurposed media artist. 

Music theme by RC Guida

Visit Natalya’s website at www.artbynatalya.com

Visit Natalya’s community at www.repurposercollective.com

Visit Natalya’s workshops at https://www.ecoloop.art/ 

Transcript

Welcome to Salvage, a podcast for conversations with artists about the repurposed materials they use in their art practice.

Hi and welcome to another episode of salvage. Today I'm having a conversation with my friend Theda Sandiford. Here's a little bit of her statement.

Theda’s studio is a living, breathing laboratory, an evolving conversation between land, sea, and memory. She immerses herself in the rhythms of the place, gathering whispers from the wind, stories from the tide and wisdom embedded in the soil, foraging seed pods, salvaging marine debris, and harvesting her own plant fibers.

She transforms these materials through weaving, knotting, beading, and eco dyeing,

breathing new life into what is often discarded. This is going to be an amazing conversation.

Good morning. Good morning. Thank you so much, Theda, for joining me here. It is my pleasure. Very excited to talk to you.

So I've been starting my podcasts with asking people about how they got started as being an artist. And I've been trying to rephrase my question.

So what would you say is your origin story as an artist? I'm like a born artist, right? Like, whenever my mom took my sister and I to the beach, we'd find shells and different things on the beach and string them together into necklaces. I mean, that is among my earliest memories. Is making some of these necklaces.

You know, my mom still wear some of them that I'm like, oh, that's so embarrassing. And she's given me a few, and I'm like, wow. I'm still actually using the same materials. I may have found new ways to use those materials, but there's something very familiar about picking stuff up off at the beach. That's so cool that you can see a through line from from your childhood.

Oh, and let me tell you those constructions. No bueno. But, but you know, what do you expect? The 3 or 4 year old. But of course, the fact that, at that time, I had an eye for things that I would call my treasures, and I had a little box. We decorated the box, and that was my treasure box.

And I still have treasure boxes. They're just plastic bins that I bought from Home Depot that are categorized and labeled. But, now I think of my treasures a little differently. Right. Right. But it's interesting that I think you still find your treasures at the beach, right? I do. You know, one of the reasons why I, moved my studio practice down to Saint Croix was the beaches.

I'm on an island. Well, Manhattan was an island, right? Jersey City was right next to that island. And we had coastal areas, estuaries and rivers where I would find lots of things. And I find those things down here, too. But now I'm finding things like, you know, ancient pottery or, pottery, broken pottery that came off of shipwrecks.

I'm finding sea glass, which I always loved finding when I was a kid. I'm finding all sorts of plastics and ropes and netting, all the things that were prized items. When I would find them in the new York-New Jersey area, I'd be like, oh my God, I got a rope! But I find ropes because I'm in, you know, I'm in the Caribbean.

There's fishing is happening offshore all the time. So I'm finding ropes all the time. I'm finding nets all the time, all different colors. Things that. Things that were the ones in a, you know, once in a while, I'd get something good on a beach, on a beach cleanup. But I do beach cleanups fairly regularly, and then I'm in a place that is, environmentally, I would say protected, but I would say that because people who live here know what we have.

There is an effort to look after it. Granted, it is a tourist income here that that's my again. So that does put downward pressure on that. There's things that I find in the, in the stream systems, in the estuaries when I'm foraging that I'm just like, why is is here? You know, like, is it? But then I also find, like, deer bones and, crab shells and all this amazing stuff.

Not to mention, I live in a rainforest environment, and so I have I can process bamboo, which is invasive. Other invasive plants, vines. So there's yucca plants. I was, you know, there is so much material to work with. So I have. Yeah, I mean, I can have a tremendous range of material. Yeah. I, my biggest challenge in the studio is what do I do today?

Because of the ideas and the fact that I have several tables and stations set up for processing different types of materials. So out in front of my studio, I have the power washer set up to power wash ropes and things to take all the, like, seaweed, which, when it dry, you know, don't smell great. So I want to clean that up pretty great.

Yeah. A little, little, little shells or barnacles that are growing on that. I want to clear all that stuff off. You know, then the a peeling back of bark and things that are related to, turning to make cordage out of like bamboo or any other natural materials. Oh, wow. I have different stations set up in my studio.

And what you know, depending on is my hand tired from doing this one repetition thing all day long, the day before I might move on and do something else. And I actually find the cleaning of, the marine waste, to be very relaxing. I don't like to do laundry in my in my real life, but I do love to clean marine waste.

It's bizarre. Okay. Hey, you know, it's, maybe because it's part of your art process. Yeah. To me, it's incredibly meditative. You know, like, I look at it and I see what it is. And then as I'm cleaning it, I'm removing layers. And sometimes I'm like, actually, I like that, but I know it's going to stink and I can't use that.

But let me take a picture and see how I can recreate that in a more archival way. Yeah. Yeah. So do you use mostly everything that you find? I use everything I find and everything that people give me. So, there are people all the time that are going to estate sales, particularly in the states. And they if they know, they know I love and collect old, old sewing patterns.

So I have so thousand old sewing patterns and so regularly because I've been collecting them for over 20 years. People that know me just mail them. So I it's exciting to go to the mailbox and see, you know. Oh my god, so much sewing pattern. So I what do you use the sewing patterns for? Because I went to your website.

00:08:00:16 - 00:08:20:11

Unknown

I didn't see that. Oh, I know, I'm collecting them for a massive idea that is bigger than I can execute right now. But one of the biggest things I plan at first I want to copy all of them. I want to scan all of them and preserve them, because some of the, some of the, designs are pretty incredible.

I just, I patterns going back to the 1920s. Wow. So, I, I want to make a series. There's a, the big idea is I would love to do some surface design on some fabric that I create, and then use these patterns through various decades to put together a, like a using the fabric, make these outfits,

Oh, and it's really built around the concept of paper dolls. When I was a kid, I used to love paper dolls. So my grandmother cut out a doll figure. We painted those because I wanted a doll that looked like me. And in the 70s, there weren't dolls that looked like me. So we made a doll that looked like me.

And then we would make outfits for those dolls, using paper or recycled fabric or old magazines and newspapers. So I wanted to recreate that experience using these. And this has been an idea that has been in my head for years. Over 20. Oh, wow. I just, you know, I'm not ready to start, but what I am ready is to, dye fabric, which I got a indigo bin that, that is, that's that is steeping out back.

So I'm dyeing fabric. I'm doing fabric manipulations, and I'm preparing all my fabric. And when I have that all ready to go, it's when I will start that particular project. But what kind of a couple years before you see that. Okay. All right. Well you know patience I have patience. Yeah. What kind of fabrics?

The fabric takes time. You know, and I'm working on a number of different processes, and I'm experimenting. I'm, like, doing everything from, cyanotyping fabric, using found materials that I'm finding or, plant materials that tell a specific story. So there's a whole throughline story that I want to tell with that. And I just don't have all the materials yet.

It's in here. I've written about it. But I have the I have the, the patterns. Now I'm making the fabric. Right. Okay. And I go with that. And are you buying new fabric and manipulating it? Are you finding. No, it's all recycled. So, people give me old sheets, I take sheets, I use that, I have, I have some burlap.

I have different things that I have a lot of the nets I weave on to the nets. So I would like to use the materials, that I've been getting. Donations of old linens. So people give me linen. So pretty much I'm using found materials or donated materials to manipulate those to to do these designs, I really does.

You know, I, you know, if Joann's was still around, you could go to Joann's, buy some cool fabric and make. Then I'm making, then I'm making clothes. What I'm actually doing is building story through the manipulation of these materials, as well as the origins of those materials that material memory passes, along with the work that I'm doing to manipulate the fabric to generate the story.

Absolutely. Wow. Well, that sounds like it's going to be incredible. I hope you have a solo exhibition planned for all of it. I, I have many ideas. We just need to get there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but, there's. I have a solo exhibition in November down here. That will be November and December. And so now I'm busy making those that you make.

That's the main focus. Finish all the work for those shows so I can photograph it this summer and have that ready, you know, to go. Is there a theme for your solo show? It's, it is salvage, witness and repair. Oh, yeah. So a lot of the things I'm salvaging, I repair some of it and some I don't, how it's all sort of put together, and the assemblage really amplifies it or diminishes its original use.

Gotcha. Well, what are you use? So many different techniques. I mean, obviously we you just listed all your all your materials. So, I would imagine that you have a gajillion different techniques that you use. Do you have any favorites? Coiling, wrapping, knotting, macrame knots that I learned as a child. Those those, because I'm fastening and I'm removing.

And I find that those are probably the skills I use the most. I love to crochet also. You know, I'm not afraid to, to use a glue gun. I have, I got I noticed that my nail tech would wear these little thimbles on her fingers to protect herself when she's, like, filing my nails. And I was like, ooh, I should use that.

So I've learned to, you know, not burn myself. But I would say I actually think recycling is a skill. Sometimes, material, like, like, otherwise Duchamp would just use a something and place it ironically at or unironically in, in accompanying something else. I think it can speak volumes and work. So I do think that even recycling and, dumpster diving, I think those are all skills.

Absolutely. I mean, because you do have to know what to pick up and what to leave behind. You know, not everything can come home with you, right? I always the lesson I'm learning all the time. Well, you know, what I find is if I have it and it told me it. Sometimes the materials, like, pick me up and I'm like, I don't know what I can use you for.

Inevitably, someone I know in my circle can use that. Or they would want that, right? They would be like, oh, I need such and such. And I was like, you you need railroad on nails. I happen to have three. I don't know why I picked them up. I don't use those. But but so that does happen regularly or people will be like, I need shells.

I'm like, I got you on the shells. So, yeah, I think, I mean, I pick up trash on my walks all the time. I'm much more discerning about picking up the trash, but there are things that I will always pick up. I've been like. Like I've been picking up glass, broken glass for quite a while now and I still haven't used it.

It's been a few years. I have some ideas, but I'm just still in the process of picking it up. Yeah, I keep seeing these wonderful videos, coming, on YouTube and on TikTok of, people using recycled glass in Ghana. Where they, where they melt the glass and manipulate it and turn it into jewelry.

And I just been like, ooh, that's so interesting. Yeah, I know that I would be willing to melt things. I'm kind of very, cautious. We need you need, like, you need a kiln to be able to do it. And I'm like, I keep finding I sometimes I find like I'm like I found a Coke bottle from the 1960s after a hurricane.

Right. Like the reef will turn up things when there's like a huge weather incident. You know, it will release things that are been down below for a while. And when it comes back up on the shore, I'm like, why is this here right now? And I'm like, oh, what can I use this for? I mean, that I can't leave behind, right?

But I don't have a practical use for it in my studio. And so I do have a little shelf with all these, like, random things I'd never think I'm going to use, but they just were like, take me. So, yeah. And someone often people are like, oh, what's that? I, I have a Coke bottle collection. We knew, oh, well, you can take that thing that was.

Yeah. No, I agree, I have, I have some random things too, but I just have. So sometimes I display it prettily. I have one of those, old fashioned type trays, you know, the wooden ones with all the. So I picked it up like 20 years ago in Vermont at some antique store, and it was in terrible shape.

People, people were into picking them up and then painting them white and then, you know, displaying them really prettily. And yes, I never did any of that. I like the patina. It's old worn patina. And I just stuffed things in there. I would just would glue the parts that need fixed and stain it, and I would probably use that to sort beads and things that I was, you know, going to use.

I'm about ready to sew some beads into this stuff that's behind me, on the video. So yeah, to me that's perfect bead sorting. It really is. I guess I just don't have that many beads, but I have it hanging on my wall and I have my thimble collection in there. Okay. And some seashells and animal bones and other weird doodads and stuff.

Okay. Piece of rusty. Something that I picked up. That's. I have no idea what it is, but it's really cool. You know, stuff like that. It's a treasure chest. It is, it is.

Oh. So you also work with the community, like, you are very much into the collective art making. Can you tell me a little bit about that? I, I never knew that I needed that, but I do, I love sitting down with people and talking about what I'm doing and then their interpretations of it and what they see.

And it's I find that it's incredibly expansive for my own practice. The type of work I do in community is mostly collective healing work. What does that mean? It's more like teaching people the meditative processes that I'm doing through my work and, having them do it as well with, sort of a guided discussion about whatever you might be carrying and how you leave that behind.

So I have a number of projects that are just specifically about releasing microaggressions. I have one about, any emotional baggage someone might be carrying. I have a whole, series that I do with people around their relationship with their hair. So I've written a series of, kind of like poems or reflections that I do when I'm thinking about that particular issue and making work.

And I invite people to make work with me and have that conversation as well. So are you saying that when you are making something that really is related to one of those issues, you're reciting your poems at the same time? Yeah, normally I'm doing it in my head, but when I'm doing it like I do this work, whether I'm with people or not, but when I do it with people in community, what's the dialog that I'm going on in my head, which is part of the meditation and the mantra that I'm doing to release anxiety and stress.

About what? About this subject matter? Right. I'm doing that out loud. So it's it's like a guided meditation, but it's not it's not like we're sitting there. We're all making. That's not what it is, where I'm teaching the process, and then I'm having a conversation about it. And then that's the conversation I would normally, it's less of, here's the mantra.

But in dialog with people, I'm not talking about people. I'm having a dialog with them, and I'm inviting them to have reflection and and their reaction to the subject matter as well. And oftentimes things come up, when I do my in my hair, which is really about my relationship to my hair, other people who have, have interesting relationships to their hair, too, and particularly men and and women mostly.

But there are men. I've had men come who are losing their hair, and they have long, luscious hair, and now they're going bald and they're, like, freaking out about it. Yeah, sure. Talk to you. Who can they talk to about it? And so they'll sit down and start doing the crocheting on the rope, and the conversation will come up about how do we feel about the current status of our hair?

And they'll have something to say, and often something they wouldn't normally say, certainly not in the presence of other women. But it is something they might be embarrassed about. I've even had a woman pull a wig off her head to let everybody know that she was going through cancer treatment, and she didn't want people to pity her, so she never let anybody know.

But she was carrying this thing by herself, and she felt, safe enough to share that in that space. So it's really about collective healing, right? Holding space for people, teaching them a process that they can kind of get in touch with their feelings using something very meditative, which is like crochet, to then actually be present to what they're dealing with and choose to let it go.

Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah, I think I mean, my meditative process is hand stitching. Yes. So I don't know how to crochet. I don't want to go down that rabbit hole, but I, I find that when I'm having a stressful moment, if I can catch myself and even like, think about it. Not just stress out, but like, think about, oh, I'm having a stressful moment and sit myself down and do some hand stitching.

It's amazing the relief that that can bring. Yeah, that's a beautiful thing that you are meaning in the back of your head, because otherwise you're poking yourself with that needle. Because if I'm not paying attention, like I know people who can do cross cross stitching and they can watch TV and chew gum and have a conversation at this, I'm like, I don't know.

I'm so impressed. I'm like, I have to sit down, really fit. You know, I'm focusing on what I'm doing. Am I the best crochet or no, I'm not making crochet dresses and I'm not doing that. I'm using very simple stitches that help sort of lock beads onto ropes or connect things. Because I'm more about the sculptural aspect of using the fiber materials, and I find that those stitches help me connect the dots.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah. I'm impressed. Hats off to you on the hand stitching. But my hand stitching is very simple. It's just the running stitch or it's a bunch of seed stitching. So it's not like

it's not embroidery. You know, it's not doing something fancy that if I was doing something like that, I probably would find that more stressful than meditative.

But because it's just a repetitive action and I'm just. And so there's a boundary. So, you know, my challenge to you, should you choose to accept it, I love doing that. And it's not mission impossible, although that's I would pick one embroidery stitch that amount that and say, I'm going to learn it because the repetition of doing that one stitch over now you got it and you've moved on, and then it will do.

It falls in line with the other stitches you're already using. Yeah. That's true, that's very true. I'm just saying, yeah. Because half the time I don't know what what I'm doing. I'm literally like, here's what I know to do, but I think this calls for something else. I watch a ton of YouTube videos. I take the if there's an online workshop that I can take, I'll do it.

Sometimes I might sit in a two, three week online workshop. And there's one thing that came out of that, and I was like, that was worth it for that one thing, right? Because I'm not taking those workshops because I want to learn about, like, you know, like lace making

that be cool. But I don't have the patience for that.

Right. But there's some aspects of how you use the bobbins, which would be very helpful with certain practices I'm trying to do. So it would be worth it for me to learn how to do that correctly, so I can actually break it and use it in my own practice. Right? I've learned the right way, so I can turn it on its head and write something else with it.

It's like knowing the rules before you break the rules. Yes, and I'm constantly trying to break them in here. Yeah, I have taken a lace making workshop way back when, and I still have the teeny tiny little bits of lace that I did with it. But yeah, I've never,

never gone back to it. I thought I would, but I never did.

But that doesn't mean that I still won't. Who knows? Yeah, it's just a level of patience and precision. It's like,

you know, it's the difference between baking and savory cooking and like me. Absolutely. I ain't no baker. You got to measure everything, and the conditions have to be right, and. Oh, it's too humid right now, so that's not going to rise properly.

Yeah, it's it's, that's lace making and I, I love the type A of it, but I'd like to visit, type A land and stay in messyville. Yeah, I like that. That's a good. Yeah. This is visit from time to time. Yeah. Let's make sure. Now, let me get the hell out of here. Right.

Taking a short little break here to tell you that this podcast episode was brought to you by the Repurposer Collective. And if you want some magic like we're talking about here, you should join us. Repurposer collective.com. Come on in. The doors are open.

Oh that's awesome. So I was poking around on your website and, well, first of all, you are a very active, regular blogger. Holy smokes. I had no idea. It helps me that I journal every day, so it's easy for me to put some blogs together based on what's going on. You know, most, many artists, their sketch, their sketch book looks like sketches.

Mine looks like color swatches, material study and lists. And then my then me journaling about those things, like, I see other sketchbooks and I'm like, wow, they really put that. They drew the whole thing. Yeah. I might have an idea that I get, I might sketch the idea or I might and and it's I never actually see the whole thing before it's done.

I because the materials, you know, the materials dictate how it will be done. So it's hard for me to see it before it's done. I know what I want to create and every step from here, the materials to what I want to create, every single step is intuitive and based upon what the material will allow. Right? Right.

And how can I manipulate that material in a way to achieve what I want? And it doesn't always work out that way. Usually when that occurs, that's when I'm like, wow, I didn't think about that and that the piece might shift as a result. So I love the serendipity of that. And yeah. So, that's, that's why I live in, you know, as, in this space that has tons of different clear plastic bin boxes that have different materials sorted out.

That's where you're going to see my OCD typing. And so I can find everything. Can you come over to my studio and organize my supplies? I'd be happy to. I actually get so much joy out of doing it because it to me, that's almost part of the sketching process, because I'll see something I forgot about, or I'll see something that all of a sudden there's a new use for it that I and and it's now in the work.

Right. So and it's also about the multitudes too. Right. Like if you find you have so much if you had just one thing of one something, it's not the same as having a lot of something. Oh yeah, I love collecting. I love that it it becomes its own thing and you can find different ways incorporating it in less as opposed to just having like the sewing patterns when I when I found the sewing pattern when my grandmother died in the 90s and I got her sewing patterns, and these were patterns that she taught me to sew on, I held on to them because they were sentimental, and then other people saw those things in my

studio and started sending me patterns. Right. So that whole idea that we talked about goes way back then. And so now I have I mean, I'm not exaggerating. I have thousands of patterns. Wow. But, so cataloging them and saving all of them, I mean, I feel like they should go to the fabric museum at some point, right?

Like to make a donation, like. But I want to use them first. Says, yeah. So I have, like, you know, right now I got bins of bottle caps, I got bins of corks. Llike wine corks? Oh, yeah. Wine corks. I'm making beads out of them. I'm like, oh, I'm making beads out of them to sew into.

So they're like, over very loosely. Are you punching holes in the in the wine corks? Are you slicing them up in different ways? Both. I'm doing, I'm doing both. So I'm playing with a lot of different processes and just, you know, like every week or so. Next week, I'm dyeing corks indigo. I didn't know you could do that.

You know, any natural, it's a not. Cork is a natural fiber, so it can take the dye. So, I'm doing a manipulating these things in a bunch of different ways and stockpiling them until the time is right for the piece that they're going to be in. So I'm constantly making something every day there's a project in the studio, I make something, and I set it aside.

I'm just gessoing cardboard right now. Because I want to do some, some studies, some paintings on the, on the cardboard. But I want to gesso the cardboard so that it becomes a nice, like a canvas. Yeah. But, you know, so I spent all week gesso in cardboard, you know. Do I know what those paintings are going to be yet?

No, but I just got that ready to go. And that was the little cardboard that, that used to be at the bottom of the, when Amazon delivery came. They put garbage cardboard at the bottom of the bags before they changed their packaging. And so I saved all that cardboard. And so now I'm like, I'm going to use this cardboard.

Now, you know, I love that. Yeah. So yeah, I, I agree totally with you. I save things that you don't know what you're saving them for. And then all of a sudden, you know what you save them for it. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. So I have a question to ask about. I was here, now, I don't remember where I found this on your website, but is this true too?

You have a artwork that is in the Guggenheim Collection. I do, which is one of it was one of the, they bought that piece at, one five, four fair two years ago. 154 in New York, Kate Sperry Gallery, who is who I've worked with, on and off the last several years. She's the one who brokered the sale was amazing.

They came, they saw the piece. They loved the piece. So I love the storytelling about it. It was made from rope, that I salvaged off the beach here in Saint Croix, as well as a fishing line that I, deconstructed. It was like, huge, a bow line that would have been used on a large towing vessel.

Oh, well, easily a six inch round rope that I deconstructed down to individual fibers. Oh, wow. And then I used a lot of beads and shells. And I crocheted all the rope together into a sort of, into a structure, and used a bunch of old sweaters that I had that I wasn't wearing anymore, living in the tropics.

And I took apart, the, the, the sweater and had yarn that I used to crochet into it. So it was all 100% recycled materials and found materials, and, they felt that it was, piece that was worthy being in the collection when that. So when they show, they put it in the section for when they show El Anatsui.

So we and a bunch of other artists, they want, for their African and African diaspora artists, collection that they have. When is it going to show? I have no idea, but it's there. They came up. I mean, come on, they put it into their storage facility that I'm sure looks like, you know, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

That's the end. You know, it's in the it's in a box. And who knows when we're going to see it again. That's exciting though. Wow. Very very cool.

I remember seeing El Anatsui at the Brooklyn Museum, for the first time, you know, in real life, after having, you know, drooled over my computer screen for years.

But that is just his his work is absolutely incredible. So. And you are in the same family as him, and that's amazing. Well, I aspire to be in the same family as him. I, you know, seeing the videos of him and how he runs his studio and all the helpers he has, I'm like, wow, I wish I had some more helpers.

Hey, I can do. If you had his helpers. I mean, just got to cultivate my own down here. You know, I, I love the the materiality. I love the innovation and the use of the materials. And I love the scale of the work I can totally relate to. He has hundreds of thousands of one thing.

And that totally speaks to my heart in a way. Yeah. That, you know, other people in my life were like, why are you such a packrat? I'm like, no, no, no, this is these are treasures. Yes. And back to going back to when I was 3 or 4 picking up shells off the beach. To me, those are treasures.

Yeah, yeah, I can't I even now, I can't resist picking up a shell off the beach. I don't go to the beach that often, but I still, whenever I go, I come away with a shell there. I can't help myself I yeah I the, the funny thing is, it's like when I see hermit crabs on the beach using bottle caps.

I know that's terrible. And I take this shell. So I'm now like, okay, a broken shell that they can. Oh, okay. But sometimes I just I love the broken things, you know, the broken things speak to me, I agree. Yeah, there's just something very poignant about broken things these days. I'm picking up squashed bottle caps. Ooh.

You know, truck tire or car tire squashed bottle caps. Like, on my way to the studio today. I, you know, this is Port Chester. It's pretty urban. It's messy and stuff. I literally, I think I was so, like, focused on this bottle cap I was trying to pick up. I think I knocked the delivery guy almost off as I stepped right in front of him to grab that bottle cap before anything happened.

So he's like, lady, what are you doing? Yeah. I didn't even look at his face. I'm sure his eyebrows were like halfway up his. What the heck is wrong with this woman? I think you know what's so interesting? Because I've been picking things up off the street pretty much all my life. But when I move into a new community or move around.

I live in a rainforest now, so there's no bottle caps picking up off the street. Thank goodness.. But there is what I see in the in the rivers, like the dry riverbed. So when it rains, it moves a lot of stuff. So you can see the type of materials. But when I was in the northeast and particularly in Jersey city, I'm moving around different, Bayonne, Jersey city, Union City, Hoboken, even Newark.

A lot of the Carney, then little neighborhoods. I would sort of move around in, even Montclair. There would be different refuse on the street, and you could know who lived in the neighborhood or how the neighborhood was changing, based on what you would find on the street. And, it was very interesting living in Jersey city for, like, 25 years and seeing the gentrification of the city through the garbage.

I was picking up on the street. So when you would go to the park, you would see different things. And I was like, oh, okay, no more Malta. So a lot of the Latinos have moved out of the neighborhood, but all of a sudden now I see Heineken. Okay, that's a little bit more blue collar. Now I've moved to, okay.

Dos Equis. All right. We got we got some, millennials in here. Literally almost to a tee when you would go out to a park and you would see people, you would be like, oh, yeah, you know, you can really tell who's your neighborhood by their garbage. That's so funny. All right. I'm going to have to start paying more attention.

Yeah. Go go to different communities and you'll be like, I'm going to see totally different things. I mean, you know, when we were in college in Boston, we would drive to different neighborhoods to go pick up furniture and things like that. At the end of the season, if we were going to stay on for the summer, and we would get some great stuff, right?

That's how we shop. But we knew the neighborhoods to go to to go do that. It's the same thing with picking up garbage. Yeah. No. You're right. Yeah. Now this is, you know, this is how my parents and I furnished our first apartment when we came to the United States. We had nothing. And we would go around like, oh, look at that nice desk.

Let's bring it. All right. Oh, oh, only the leg is broken. I know how to fix that. Nothing is broken. It's amazing what people put out in the trash. There's nothing wrong with these. Yeah. Actually, I, I'm. I wish I had thought of being doing that. The type of work to do, like furniture restoration and whatever, because there's just so much stuff or even just some paper marketplaces.

I absolutely. I'm obsessed with those videos were like, bought this for $10, I'm selling it for 300 now. I'm like, yeah, and you put an afternoon's work into it. Yeah, it's it's pretty amazing, isn't it? I just I'm so glad to see now that there's like repair cafes popping up in places and people actually if they wanted to could learn how to repair things.

So I'm pleased to see those that that's definitely trending for that tracks with Grandma Core which is like what's grandma core. I was, it was just reading about how in fashion and I and once you see things in fashion you see in other areas too. But, Grandma Core is going into grandma's closet and, so things like doilies are showing up on the runway now.

So I've been a little more Ashley old Laura Ashley from the 80s are now showing up on, showing up. And so some of the, the repair of old things that were in grandma's house or our parents house, that is now something that young people want to do. And, they're there, there there's a rejection of some of the fast fashion type concepts of replacing some things.

But this is a this is, you know, this is Gen Z that's driving some of this. They have some nostalgia for grandma's things. And so it's called cottage core. I have yeah I haven't heard about this. That's I mean I just literally moments before this podcast finished doing grandma cottage core grandma core grandma core. Okay. Yeah. I just somebody asked me to make a bag out of their wedding dress.

So she's got grandma's wedding dress, and she wants to. She wanted to me to take the bodice from the dress and make it into a wedding bag for her niece, who's getting married now. Was like, that's just. I love that because nobody gets that dress at once. Why not? Yeah. The style, and, and community through line material has memory.

Yeah. It's and it's actually really something borrowed in a much, you know, like, on steroids, you know, exactly. Taking the dress. I mean, because, you know, not everyone can wear those dresses from back in the day. When I see those, I'm just like, did people eat? Yeah, I swear, people were tinier. I think they were smaller.

Yeah. But I actually, you know, I started off my career in fashion design, so I actually enjoyed taking apart this bodice because it was amazing to see the amount of work that went into construction, constructing the spot that was handmade. Yeah. You don't see that anymore. It's very rare to see that anymore. I mean, I don't why I think some of it's coming back.

I think some of it's coming back. I think we'll see more of that in a few years. I mean, listen, the, the allure of fast fashion is intoxicating if you're caught up in trends. But I think generationally, we're seeing a shift now that, there's more individuality in finding something at a thrift store. And I think the younger generation actually recognizes.

Why do I want to look like everybody else that stepped out of a an Abercrombie? You know. Right. Yeah. No, I'm pleased to see that. Yeah. You know, so I see positive things. But then again, you know, I also live here in the, where I can't really there's very few place, you know, pretty much if I want something, I'm going to a seamstress to have it made, or I'm going to a shop that specializes in and handmade clothing, but I have no big box retail where I live, thank goodness.

Yeah. Thank goodness. Yeah, yeah. I can't just call Amazon and have it tomorrow. No, I haven't used Amazon in quite a while now. Proud to say, and actually my daughters have been reintroducing me to thrift stores. I've sort of like I mean, I don't very rarely buy anything for myself these days, but I've been thrifting with my daughters and I'm like, so pleased that they're thrifting.

Oh, yeah. I mean, because they're going to get something original and not look like anyone else. They're your daughters too, right? So they got an artist. Mom, you think they want to look like everybody? They want to be cool to just like mom.

All right, if you say so. I mean, I love it. I mean, I remember Pretty in Pink.

I was like, oh, yeah, I'm making my own, like, you know, remember Bedazzlers? I mean, like, oh, my God, I had Bedazzler jean jackets. That's like, I have friends down. I was oh my goodness, I was painting back. Remember when we were painting the album covers on the backs of jean jackets? Absolutely. That's what I did.

Yep. Yeah. Depeche mode I had that, that. Oh my. Oh that's great. Yeah. All right, so let me bring you back to your island. Is this is what I'm seeing true? Are you building a residency place? Yes. And I literally in the last month and a half, finally jumped through the last hoop to get the business license or to run it.

So next step is getting this website together. I got all the photos and I wrote all the copy, but starting, starting in the fall, people will be able to book to come down for a week, two weeks, a month or longer. I've had a, several artists come down over the last two years, to test it out and give me feedback.

And, I have a writer that's here now that's working on a book. So it's been a, it's been wonderful having different types of artists, everyone from shops to animal husbandry to fiber artists to people interested in ethnobotany. It's been, very interesting and personally enriching for me. And to be able to be a steward that shares a space that's incredibly beautiful and relaxing.

So you get your own bedroom with an en suite and there's a library, an upper kitchen, an outdoor kitchen area, pool area, pool house, a bunch of areas to go chill under beautiful trees. And, we have, we grow a lot of our own fruits and vegetables. We have a beautiful orchid garden, tons of medicinal plants on the property, five acres, hiking trails.

I mean, it's a wonderful if you want to be in nature, listen to birds, be inspired, meet other artists. Because one of the great things about the residency is, we host a dinner and invite other artists and people in the arts, to come. And so you can meet other people on the island and, and build, build relationships and community.

And it's just been absolutely extraordinary. I'm looking forward to the fall because we're going to be hosting a, a Mikhuy workshop here, a wellness workshop. What's a Mikhuy workshop? It's, it's it's an Incan practice to get connected to your chakras and pull in energy from the heavens, from the earth to perform healing.

So as some wellness, events are happening here, and there's a bunch of culinary events, competitions that are coming up where some of the chefs will be staying here. So I just I love the fact that all my personal interests and engaging with artists from all types, from culinary artists to writers, songwriters, musicians, fiber artists, mixed media artists, painters, whatever you are, you're welcome to come on down and enjoy, Joy, you know, this space.

And, the studio is, open for anyone who wants to come down here and work, in this space. And, Yeah. So it's been a labor of love the last few years, rebuilding this place from the ground up. But now it's at a place where other people can enjoy it, too. That's amazing. How many artists can you host at once?

If if it's, couple that can. 2 in 1 room. But there's two rooms, so four people or two people. We want to keep it small so that, again, it's five acres, so it's for people. That's enough for everyone to. Yeah. Have their own. I don't want to talk to anyone. They don't have to. Or I want to hang out by the pool, and everyone can hang out by the pool.

Yeah. So I'm not trying to have too many people at the, at the same time. No, it sounds magical.

it's really great. And I love it because people will walk. You know, before when I was in Jersey city, some someone was walking through my studio once or twice a week down here, not so much.

Right. So maybe once a month someone comes to my studio. So it's really it's not that it's it's just different. Yeah. I love the interaction with other people. I like seeing their reaction, and I like seeing that what they're doing, too. Yeah. I like someone who comes into the space, sees my materials and decides to make something with that, and it's completely different.

And I'm like, wow, I never would have thought of that. So yeah, to me, that's exciting to be around artists and just and enable them to just create whatever they want to create or be here and do nothing. Because sometimes the doing nothing is what you need to do to be able to create the next thing. Exactly. I agree with you.

Yeah, yeah. Wow, that sounds amazing. Well. Well, I think that's a good place to wrap up. Well, thanks, Natalia, I really appreciate it. Thank you for inviting me in. And, and, hello to everybody who thinks like us and gets to be, many think gets accused of being packrat or why you have all that garbage in the back of your trunk.

No. Now you're in. You're in a unique club. I'm happy to be a member of that club as well. Yeah, it's the treasure club. Yeah. Treasure chest. Yes.

Well, thank you so much. Theda. Oh. You're welcome.

Thanks so much for joining me for this conversation. I think it was magical and I hope that you thought so too.

This podcast was created, produced and edited by me, Natalya Khorover. Theme music by RC Guida. To find out more about me, go to art by natalya.com, to find out about my community, go to Repurposer collective.com and to learn with me, check out all my offerings at EcoLoop. Art. Thank you for listening.