Cheri Kopp
Orange You a Cutie?
Cheri Kopp https://www.cherikopp.com
Is there a purer expression of nature’s bounty than fruit? Ready-to-eat, in their own edible or biodegradable packaging, oranges, berries, pears, and all their sweet cousins, nourish us.
But the packaging detritus! Non-recyclable plastics and paper, shiny, sticky, foiled. Bright colors meant to grab our attention. This debris of our healthy diet, tossed into the trash heap.
Or, in this case, collected for several decades, then trimmed, shaped, molded, stretched, glued, stitched, and even quilted to form this fresh, multi-layered ensemble:
Materials: plastic fruit packaging (mesh produce bags, labels, berry boxes, produce stickers), foil-covered boxes, scrap paper (tissue and foiled), ribbon, yard sale beads, leftover cotton fabric; on knit fabric, felt, plastic foam dish packing, hula hoop, acupuncture needle sleeves and flip flops:Outer Layer:
• fascinator – stacked berry and pear boxes (lined with bee-printed tissue paper from local honey honoring pollinators, without which, we’d have no fruit), ribbon from fruit gift, on foil-lined food container
• capelet – Halo- and Cutie-brand plastic, pieced, quilted on plastic foam dish pack
• hoop skirt – mesh and plastic bags from oranges, on hula hoop
• sandals – orange-themed leftover quilt fabric with mesh tassels, on old flip flops
Inner Layer:
• necklaces – yard sale beads, and produce stickers, on acupuncture sleeves
• fitted bustier – images of oranges cut from plastic product bags, on felt
• puffy skirt – orange, red, yellow and green mesh produce bags, on leftover knit
credit for my model – she really made it come alive. Her name is Julie Christine Johnson
call: 206.947.7932