I arranged to sketch Karie Brown of Karie Sue Creations at work creating her one of a kind hand bags from all recycled materials. I met her at Roho Coffee and Art downtown where a group of a dozen or so people had met to brainstorm and talk about upcoming arts events. At the coffee shop Karie asked the proprietor is she would be willing to recycle her used coffee bean bags. The proprietor of course agreed and offered Karie some bags on the spot.
When we got to Karie’s studio, she cut away the edges of some Gillies Coffee bags to use just the gold and silver outer lining with the coffee growers logo. She then started going through wall paper sample books which were also recycled. Her plan was to use the wallpaper samples as the inner lining to the bag.
After much careful measuring she used the sewing machine to stitch the two inverted fabrics together, and to stitch the zipper in place. Then came the more complicated task of folding and stitching the corner sections. Once everything was done she had to delicately turn everything inside out and then the bag took on its final form. With one bag finished she had an errand to run for a friend and since I hadn’t finished my sketch yet I agreed to join her on this task. She drove to the friends house and took the 4 dogs out for a walk in the yard. One dog was a huge dark beast the size of a horse and when he charged down the hallway at me I was sure I was going to die. He just barked a bit and sniffed me however.
With the dog sitting out of the way she then wanted to go to a local coffee shop where she had gotten many of the supplies she had used that day. She asked for the manager and Karie gave the manager the finished bag. The manager loved it.
Most of this sketch was done when we got back to her makeshift studio and she began to experiment with new sizes and handles. The work was rather fast paced and I ended up erasing more than I drew. But I still had a great time getting to meet this vibrant local artist.
