LEFT: Part server's apron, part tool belt. Right: Detail of a finished Work Wrap. Photos by Carlyn Yandle
TOP: Free Store jeans and work shirts, fresh out of the solar-powered washing machine. ABOVE: A display of 10 Work Wraps, sold out at the Lasqueti Island Arts Festival, July 1-2, 2016. Photos by Carlyn Yandle This all started with too much stuff: the glut of stuff at the Lasqueti Free Store and all my own stuff I need to keep on my person, even more stuff than in my purse life in Vancouver.
I work differently here on the island. I don’t need all the ID and swipe cards but I’m still attached to my iPhone and other stuff: work gloves, notebook, Sharpie, sunscreen, jack knife, After-bite, cookie-stand cash, tape measure, scissors. I also need to pocket all the collected bits and pieces that need to go elsewhere.
What I envisioned was a tool belt/waiter’s apron hybrid, but nothing too dorky that I would drop if someone dropped by. It should be a wearable artpiece, but nothing too precious that I wouldn’t get down and dirty with it.
That’s where the Free Store piles of old jeans come in. All those industrially-sewn heavy-duty pockets, those shades of worn blue-grey so much like the ocean and mountain views that surround this Gulf Island — stuff already in the world that could be put to good re-use for the stuff of my life.
I made one, then a better one, then an extra, which someone bought, then seven others asked for them. I’ve been sewing up a solar-powered storm of creative work ever since. Suddenly I am a maker of Work Wraps, heavy-duty denim garments with an extremely light ecological footprint.
Making often leads to new ideas, like the idea that Work Wraps are not for one kind of work; they don’t discriminate or segregate based on gender, age or physical shape. Whether it’s sewing or building houses, whether it’s voluntary or paid, enjoyable or arduous, it’s all work.
BELOW: A sample of the first series sold-out series of one-of-a-kind Work Wraps. (Note the furry photo bomb.)
The second series will be posted when available for purchase, $55 each.
I work differently here on the island. I don’t need all the ID and swipe cards but I’m still attached to my iPhone and other stuff: work gloves, notebook, Sharpie, sunscreen, jack knife, After-bite, cookie-stand cash, tape measure, scissors. I also need to pocket all the collected bits and pieces that need to go elsewhere.
What I envisioned was a tool belt/waiter’s apron hybrid, but nothing too dorky that I would drop if someone dropped by. It should be a wearable artpiece, but nothing too precious that I wouldn’t get down and dirty with it.
That’s where the Free Store piles of old jeans come in. All those industrially-sewn heavy-duty pockets, those shades of worn blue-grey so much like the ocean and mountain views that surround this Gulf Island — stuff already in the world that could be put to good re-use for the stuff of my life.
I made one, then a better one, then an extra, which someone bought, then seven others asked for them. I’ve been sewing up a solar-powered storm of creative work ever since. Suddenly I am a maker of Work Wraps, heavy-duty denim garments with an extremely light ecological footprint.
Making often leads to new ideas, like the idea that Work Wraps are not for one kind of work; they don’t discriminate or segregate based on gender, age or physical shape. Whether it’s sewing or building houses, whether it’s voluntary or paid, enjoyable or arduous, it’s all work.
BELOW: A sample of the first series sold-out series of one-of-a-kind Work Wraps. (Note the furry photo bomb.)
The second series will be posted when available for purchase, $55 each.
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