Converting Waste to Art

As part of the renovations we're doing around the house, our builder has altered the archway from the loungeroom into the hall. I don't know anything that makes a dust which is as invasive as the Gyprock which lines our walls. It results in a fine white dust that settles everywhere. So, in an attempt to reduce the effects, I moved all the ornaments and artwork from the loungeroom. Doing that made me look more closely at a number of things that I had begun to take for granted. One of them is this piece of textile art that I made in 2004. A friend persuaded me to enter it in the inaugural Waste to Art competition in our town. This competition is aimed at encouraging the use of recycled materials in artwork.
My piece contains Tyvek from old legal envelopes, which I painted in pale pinks and golds, and machine embroidered with gold thread. I then heated it to distort it. The background is a piece of polyester lining fabric from a remnant bin, painted with gold textile paints. It's hand and machine embroidered with blue and gold threads. The Tyvek seemed to me to resemble wings, and so I named it Fallen Angel. I framed it in a recycled frame. It won the Open 2-dimensional section of the competition.
I still quite like it, so decided to share...


And here's a closer look...