christinerenee

I am a full-time crafter and button/magnet/pocket mirror maker living in Chicago.

I used to work for a big daily newspaper, but they offered a buyout and I took it.

So now I'm home all day making stuff, and even though I make less money (so far) I'm infinitely happier.

The focus of my crafty business is using recycled materials. I frog (unravel) old sweaters for most of the yarn I use.

And I make all sorts of things out of old books: buttons, magnets, pocket mirrors, collages, blank journals, boxes (from the covers).

My favorites are always changing, but this is what I'm listening to now: CSS, Mosquitos, Cibo Matto, Art Brut, Sonic Youth, Lilly Allen

Cinema Paradiso, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Wings of Desire, Grapes of Wrath, Royal Tennenbaums, Waking Life

The Riches, Big Love, Ugly Betty, Daily Show, Craft Lab, Uncommon Threads, Creative Juices, That's Clever

Knitting, collage, weaving, sewing (I'm just learning), embroidery ('m just learning this too. I'm a master of the blanket stitch.), screen printing (including Print Gocco), Letterpress (I just bought a 100-year-old tabletop letterpress that I'm trying to figure out how to use), bookbinding.

Basically I like experimenting with different crafts. I especially love being able to combine techniques from crafts that you wouldn't think would be compatible in unusual ways.

For example, I've been experimenting with fusing plastic (using a hot iron to melt plastic bags together to form a thicker plastic with interesting colors and patterns from the different bags combined) and then cutting that plastic into strips and weaving with it. Then I want to take the woven plastic fabric and make tote bags out of it. It's still a work in progress.

OH, and did I mention I absolutely LOVE working with recycled materials? That is very important to me.

Bikes (especially red ones), anything travel-related, anything handmade, craft supplies, the color red, buttons (both the pinback kind and the kind you sew on clothing)...

But I'm pretty easy to please. For me the excitement is in getting a package from someone I've never even met before. So far I've been thrilled with everything I've received.