Turning trash into trinkets: Artisans give new life to used goods

By Jennifer Lloyd
Seattle Times staff reporter

BETTY UDESEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Bottle caps are embedded in belt buckles designed by founder of Steel Toe Studios Erica Gordon. Antique keys and old letterpress letters often appear in her creations. She also tools and dyes the leather belts to accompany them.

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From dump to funk. From funk to fashion.

Entrepreneurs throughout Puget Sound turn their crafts to cash as the fair season enters full bloom.

It sounds idyllic, but getting into festivals isn't easy: It takes a very early wake-up call for nonmembers to sign in for a spot at the Fremont Sunday Market, and there's no guarantee vendors will get one.

But unlike selling their merchandise to shops, public markets give crafters a chance to witness customer reactions to their work and their prices, for better or worse. Plus, they get to hang out with other artists.

Three Seattle crafters give sublime new life to used goods and sell their wares at local weekend fairs and markets.

From a professionally trained craftswoman to a vendor unhappy with the quality of wholesale goods, each artist has infused her background into creations that make the world a better-accessorized place.

Bashing out belt buckles

	BETTY UDESEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Using a torch, blacksmith Erica Gordon adds a backing to a belt buckle.

Erica Gordon, founder of Steel Toe Studios, stood over a glowing orange metal washer (think nuts and bolts) she had recently culled from her forge. With an aqua bandana holding her hair out of her eyes, she took a hammer and rounded out the thin metal circle.

A belt buckle was born.

Tired of the standard blacksmith ensemble, Gordon decided to spruce up her attire with her own metallic contraptions. Then she began selling them to stores and at a monthly art sale at the Crocodile Cafe called I Heart Rummage.

"I have to wear pants every day because I'm a metalworker and I can't wear a lot of jewelry. The buckles add a bit of fashion in the shop."

Gordon creates architectural ironwork for a living and metal sculptures for pleasure. For about a year, she's also been contriving metal belt buckles and leather belts for sale on the side. They cost between $80 and $140 (www.steeltoestudios.com).

Not at all reminiscent of the giant contraptions worn by pseudo-cowboys in too-snug Wranglers, Gordon embeds objects such as bottle caps, antique keys and old letterpress letters in her buckles. She also tools and dyes the leather belts to accompany them.

"Metal holds history," said Gordon. Growing up in a family of artists, she watched her family friends doing metalwork.

	BETTY UDESEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Buckles with old letter-press type by blacksmith Erica Gordon are available at stores and a monthly art sale at the Crocodile Cafe called I Heart Rummage.

"Especially when you're a kid, it's magic to see people forge," said Gordon.

After studying jewelry design at the University of New Mexico, she was reintroduced to metalworking and has been soldered to the craft ever since. "I realized my personality is better suited to this," said Gordon. "It's really loud, very physical and I like the heat of the forge."

She likes working with recycled items and pre-made industrial components for the buckles rather than forming all the metal shapes from scratch.

For her circular bottle-cap buckles, she molds an industrial washer to fit the body with a few taps of a hammer on its heated surface. She then solders on the clasp, which will hold it on the belt. Later, she glues on the bottle cap.

"I wanted to use a component that was already in the world, that already existed as opposed to making it," said Gordon. "That kind of gives you some parameters. I work better if I have some boundaries."

To avoid copyright problems, she sticks to vintage bottle caps from eBay or caps from foreign countries brought to her by her friends. She also enjoys drinking Cock'n Bull Ginger Beer, so those caps tend to show up in her work.

"I like to play a little bit with the fact that all of these things are going on belts, which is pretty intimate," said Gordon. "I like playing with the idea of the chastity belt.

"Sometimes, if I'm feeling spanky, I'll put little words inside," added Gordon, describing her letter arrangements. "It's nice to reward the viewer."

	BETTY UDESEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Colorful rings made from old buttons are sewn to bands of elastic. Kristen Rask's choice of recycled medium ranges from Bakelite plastic buttons to glass and even wood.

Jewelry from buttons

Kristen Rask's life revolves around circles. From her polka-dotted T-shirt, to her fascination with buttons, the round shape dominates her choices.

"One night I was looking around my apartment, and I started cracking up because everything was circular," said Rask.

For three months, she's been using skills gleaned from studying fashion design and applying them toward her enterprise called Circles and her invention: button jewelry.

With a mild button fixation, she specializes in rings, hair bands and lapel pins ($7 to 10). She hopes to soon begin designing bracelets and necklaces to sell alongside her other goods at I Heart Rummage and boutiques in Seattle.

"I wonder why someone bought this?" she muses over a button as her small fingers sew it into place on a ring of black elastic. "Were they going to make something? Were they going to fix a jacket?"

She has collected thousands of buttons, primarily bought from estate sales on eBay. They range in age from the 1920s to today.

"Those grandmas' old tins of buttons, I can just picture people going through those old rooms filled with stuff and they don't really want them and they sell them on eBay."

She's turned her soft spot for neglected buttons into a portable moneymaking venture and a creative outlet. She even takes up her needle and thread on the commute home from her job as a patient-services representative at the Bastyr Center for Natural Health.

"I do it on the bus a lot," said Rask. "I'm sure people are like, 'What is that crazy girl doing?' "

Her choice of recycled medium offers her endless variety. From Bakelite buttons to glass and even wood, picking and choosing which to use may be her biggest dilemma.

"I like colorful ones," said Rask who favors the rarer 1970s orange buttons. "They're all so different. It doesn't get as boring as making the same thing over and over. It's kind of like an Easter egg hunt, putting them all together."

That boxy look

	BETTY UDESEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Marlene Wong-Doutaz's glittery cigar-box purses make lugging around a box cool.

The idea of lugging a box around may not sound appealing. But Marlene Wong-Doutaz has at least made it look appealing with her glittery cigar-box purses.

She began selling purses made from used cigar boxes about three years ago at the Fremont Sunday Market and has expanded to the Issaquah Public Market and boutiques.

Initially, she bought the cigar-box purses wholesale from several designers around the country and resold them with her company, Mushu Treasures. She decided she could make better purses herself.

Her husband, Robert Doutaz, helps. "He has creative license for the hardware and the tassels, so he's a very important part of the business," said Wong-Doutaz.

Plus, he actually smokes cigars. Unlike Wong-Doutaz.

"When I was in college I tried one and got really sick. I decided that probably wasn't the vice I wanted to keep up. I just think they're beautiful boxes."

She purchases most of her used boxes through eBay. They may be newly used or up to 20 years old and arrive already decorated with sassy labels such as "Rum Runner" or "Sweet Daddies."

She preps the box with an application of polyurethane (plus some glitter for a little glitz) and reaffixes the lid with brass hinges. Sometimes she polyurethanes a fabric print on the back of the purse that matches its theme.

Next, her husband puts on beaded or bamboo handles depending on the style of the box. Then, Wong-Doutaz lines the interior with faux fur or velvet and adds a small circular mirror.

"I'm a faux-fur type of person," said Wong-Doutaz who enjoys the process of designing the purses in her basement as a creative outlet from her job as a contract office assistant.

Finally, the purse goes on sale for $125 to $250 depending on the value of the cigar box used (www.mushutreasures.com/index).

"I don't have to cut down any more trees to get the wood to make my cigar boxes," said Wong-Doutaz. "There are some places that sell you a cigar-style box and then decorate it, but I'm actually using the recycled box."

Jennifer Lloyd: 206-464-2113 or jlloyd@seattletimes.com.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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