Conversation with Elise Vazelakis

Please enjoy my conversation with Elise Vazelakis. Elise, a Los Angeles-based textile artist, creates sculptural textiles and installations that explore themes of consumption mapping and capitalism. Central to Vazelakis' work is the juxtaposition between the resilience of certain materials and the fragility of others, a theme that permeates her artistic exploration. By integrating discarded items and single-use plastics with fiber elements, Vazelakis forges a unique space that bridges the realms of textile and sculpture, constantly pushing the boundaries of her craft. Each of her series is distinct, marked by the incorporation of unexpected materials that infuse her pieces with unpredictability and a captivating aesthetic.

http://elisevazelakis.com/ 

https://www.instagram.com/elisevazelakis 

https://www.csulb.edu/school-of-art/fiber

https://textileartsla.org/ 

Gamsha scarves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamcha 

Warp or weft? https://drapersfabrics.com/en-us/blogs/drapers-diaries/what-about-weave 

Ruth Asawa https://ruthasawa.com/

Anthropocene https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/anthropocene/ 

Woolsey Fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolsey_Fire 

Wayne Art Center https://wayneart.org/

Beyond Plastics https://www.beyondplastics.org/events/beyond-plastic-pollution-spring-2025 CLASS STARTS FEBRUARY 19th!

This podcast was created by Natalya Khorover. It was produced and recorded by Natalya, as well as researched and edited by her. SALVAGE is a product of ECOLOOP.ART.

If you enjoy this show, please rate and review us wherever you’re listening—and be sure to come back for another conversation with a repurposed media artist.

Music theme by RC Guida

Visit Natalya’s website at www.artbynatalya.com

Visit Natalya’s community at www.repurposercollective.com

Visit Natalya’s workshops at https://www.ecoloop.art/

Transcript

Welcome to Salvage, a podcast for conversations with artists about the repurposed materials they use in their art practice.

Hi. Thanks for being here. Please enjoy my conversation with Elise Vazelakis. Elise, a Los Angeles based textile artist, creates sculptural textiles and installations that explore themes of consumption, mapping, and capitalism. Central to Alicia's work is the juxtaposition between the resilience of certain materials and the fragility of others, a theme that permeates her artistic exploration by integrating discarded items and single use plastics with fiber elements.

Elise forges a unique space that bridges the realms of textile and sculpture, constantly pushing at the boundaries of her craft. Each of her series is distinct mark by the incorporation of unexpected materials that infuse her pieces with unpredictability and a captivating esthetic.

Well, thank you so much, Elise, for joining me here today. I don't remember how long I've been following you, but I think what really caught my attention in your Instagram feed was
your woven sculptures with those prime bags. Yeah, that was like. I was like, wait, what is happening here? They look so amazing. So I'm very happy to have discovered you.

Yeah. Thank you. And likewise with you. I mean, we're to kindred hearts as far as material usage. Yeah. Yeah. So were you an artist as a kid?

You know, I wasn't as a kid, but, you know, my my first influences were with my grandma in both my grandmothers. They both taught me to sew one treadle sewing machine, which is, a non electric sewing machine.

And so you use the pedals to make it, which is very much like a loom weaving loom. Oh okay. I didn't even think about that. Yeah. Yes, that makes sense. Yeah. And my other grandmother taught me, like, hand sewing. So it was it, you know, I, I started, I always saw things visually, and I really wanted to, go to art school, but my dad was like, no, you'll go to business school or, be a lawyer.

And I was like, okay, business school. And so, you know, that was fine. And so later in life, after I had my children, I, I stopped and kind of closed down my business aspect of my life. I started doing art. And so I kind of my first inroads were drawing and painting and sculpting. Okay. And then I found fiber art about, I'd say almost 15, 20 years ago.

And it just felt like I went back to my roots. Yeah, yeah. And my childhood. And it felt very authentic and something that was really, you know, it resonated with me. And did you then go back to school for art. I did during that right before the pandemic, I had always wanted to, go to art school and, and I found a school here through an organization called Textile Arts LA.

And they and it's one of the only schools that has a fiber department, really program, I should say fiber program, fiber and textile program with 15 blooms. Dye. That's, papermaking facilities. What else? It was phenomenal. And so I applied for my masters, and you had already been working on your art for a good while for like a decade or something before that.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, probably 15, 20 years, so. Oh, that was kind of like, why do you want to go back to school? I'm like, you know, I, you know, I think it's never too late to reinvent yourself and particularly not. And and so I got in and I hadn't been to school in a year, so, you know, it was it was just wonderful.

It was just great being around younger energy. And the professors were funny, nominal and, you know, I learned a ton in a formal kind of a setting that I, you know, which was a great balance to self-taught. And my grandmother's, you know, of course. Yeah, I think about it every now and then I have a BFA.

I did go to school for art. But it was for fashion design, so it wasn't really art. Art. And now it's been, I don't know, 30 years or something. And I think about and I actually have always wondered whether I should take an MFA and always, like, had this hidden desire to do it. So I don't know if I will, but I keep thinking about it.

I yeah, I think you're always learning, no matter what profession or what age you're in. So but to take it that to that next step and make it

official. Yeah. It was big. Yeah. That's. Yeah. There were a few times I thought, what the heck am I doing? This is like really a lot, you know,

but, you know, I think it's really good, you know, keep challenging yourself and being around, you know, a cohort of really creative people on a regular basis and get kind of that input, from, you know, not only the professors, but, you know, the student body was really invaluable.

And also the one thing about,

in, going back to school for me was to help me really talk about my art in it, because you just have to constantly you're doing these critiques, so you're constantly, you know. Yeah, I think that's huge. Yeah. Yeah. That's something I've been learning over the past 20 years myself. But, you know, taking I've taken workshops, I've taken I've been I belong to crit groups.

So I'm learning all of that through there. But I certainly see the advantage of doing it all and in a concentrated form. Right. All right. So were you.

Doing fiber arts for a while, like you said, you started with painting and how like, how did the transition to the fiber arts happen for you? It actually happened. Yeah. I'd been painting and then stone, clay sculpting, then stone sculpting and, and then went back to painting and then in, 2010, you know, when the economy kind of dog my husband, got a job in Dubai, which, was really a blessing because he was in retail, the retail industry, which was kind of shutting down, but it wasn't there.

So we picked up the family and moved. Oh my gosh, went kicking and screaming. They weren't high school. They were not happy. But it was like a wonderful thing for them. And, I took my art practice there. I was really informed by not only, the arabesque kind of, motifs that are prevalent there, but I was really informed by, the immigrant workforce, that was building Dubai, and they wore these fabric scarves called conchas, and they're, they're a thin scarf, and they use them to cover their face for the dust and under their hard hats.

And they, you know, all I could see, and they're very colorful. They're from India, and they're just brightly colored. And they just littered the landscape, which is a, you know, more kind of muted brown desert landscape. And I became obsessed with them. And I started trading,

them for a new, a new commercial. I found they, have a work camp where they lived and I went there and they had stores, and I bought new ones and, you know, put little kind of a package together and I would trade them.

And I became kind of known this way. You would trade them for the old ones. Yeah. I wanted the old ones because they had a history. Yeah. The new ones, you know, if you know how fabrics, if you go to the fabric store, they have kind of a, you know, a stiffening product in them. They have a few of them, and these ones have paint on more holes in them.

And, you know, they I obviously took them back and laundered them and I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. And then I started, I painted on and I played with online and I started, tearing them into a yarn, fabric yarn. And I started weaving with them. And at the same time, I had been photographing these young men as well.

So I integrated their portraits into the weavings with the armchairs. Yeah, I saw those on your website. They're so intricate. Were you using a loom for that around? Yeah, I was using it to pedal loom. And, and so I, I, wove kind of their stories, because they really the heart and soul of Dubai, their Dubai is like a budding, you know, get, you know, city with a lot of new structures.

And they are really the ones that are creating, you know, the new modern Dubai, but not really looked at, in that way, elevated that way, not noticed. They're very invisible there. And so I brought kind of them to the forefront. I made the structures, the weavings about 8 to 10ft long and then all wound healing.

And they would be installed in a space where people kind of had to see them, had to walk through and touch them, and, and, so you exhibited them in Dubai? Yeah. I had a solo exhibition, a gallery, and then was in, it's the Sitka Art fair, which is part of the Art Dubai. Yeah.

It got a lot of attention. Right. Wow. But that was kind of my first inroads to textile art. Because, like, so I went kind of back to that and, also finding things in my environment to utilize so that both those things kind of coincided at the same time. And that was in around 2000, 12, 2013.

So the, the, the part of where you are finding things in your environment to use, were you

consciously thinking that I want to use something environment in my environment, or were you more like, I want to weave this and I need something, what could it be? And looking around and finding it in your environment? Yeah, well, after the gone project and we came home okay.

And and and but that was like finding things that, you know, that kind of led me on the road to finding things in my environment. I came back here and I was like, oh, wow. What? You know, what? What am I going to do now? And so I kind of started looking around, and found, some wire and my, my, our garage and started.

I thought, well, that's an interesting way to try to weave wire. And so that kind of set me on a whole series of weaving wire. The gorgeous thing thing. So was that found wire or were you buying wire at that? Well, it was kind of found wire in, you know, at first start. At first I started using like stereo wire and my husband was like, hold up.

You know, that stuff is super expensive. Yeah. You know, well, you can't use that. So you gave this wire that was cheaper. It was, you know, galvanized steel wire that you get at, Home Depot that, you know, try things up, you know, for fencing or whatever. And, but then I was going through so much, I did have to purchase that.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, I purchased that in bulk, kind of, spools. Wow. And you can use a textile loom to weave wire. Yeah, yeah. Wow. So I guess the the weft is still fabric and then you're just you're. Yeah. The warp is. Sorry. The warp. Yes. For. No. That's okay. It took me a lot, you know, but, the warp is a fabric.

I mean, a lot. There are people that do warp with wire and then you say, well, as wire, too. Oh, wow. You know, I was informed, obviously, by Ruth Asawa, who was. She was not weaving with the loom, but doing, kind of a hand crocheting her options. And they're all wire. But there are some artists, fiber artists that are doing, the warp and the web, and but that's a lot harder.

Yeah, I tried that, but yeah, mine was fabric combining fabric and different kinds of metals. And how did you from there go to single use plastic?

Oh, wow. It was sky it, you know, it was a progression. It started where I, I really started looking at my own consumption patterns and mapping my own consumption, and, and by that, I mean I started saving all my single use plastic.

What prompted that? Like, did you, like, have a revelation about the the plastic pollution or was that something you noticed yourself and were like, what? Were curious. Yeah, I just, you know, both of it. I started getting, you know, really aware, as we all have been of, the invasive plastic use and, and the throwaway culture and, and the Anthropocene got on my radar and that really and started to inform my work of what the future was going to look like when these plastic elements became part of our geologic age and the sedimentation in our structures were going to be plastic.

And so I just started looking at my own consumption and I thought, oh, you know, I cook a lot. So I don't, you know, do a lot of take away. And I think farmers markets. So I have a really low carbon footprint. I was, you know, disturbed and disgusted with how much plastic I used when you don't notice it until you start saving it and it starts piling up in your studio and bags, because when you're throwing it away, it's kind of like, oh, I don't see it anymore.

And I didn't mind. Yeah. And I started collecting it. Mapping it. By that I meant, I mean, I started logging everything, so the day to day basis, I would, you know, collect it all, log it, and, you know, you just don't even think about, you know, your lipstick container or your hair shampoo or your lotion. You know, not to mention all the things that I was cooking with that, you know, I would just go, oh, no, you know.

And so I started to try to make a conscious effort. So, yeah, it was just kind of, you know, it all kind of happened at once. Well, but also I the thing that really, catapulted me into looking at the environment, environmental change was I have I was directly affected by, climate change in 2018 because of my house burned down in the 2018 Woolsey fire over in California.

Oh my goodness. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it was a devastating and a really difficult time. And, but, you know, like, through all difficult times, there's a tremendous amount of growth. And, I started to really look at, you know, what was happening in our environment and that it really informed my work as well, because when we started re, rebuilding the structure, we were living on the premises, while we rebuilt and,

and I started to really be informed by a lot of the, the, items that were going into the restructuring of the house, that thing to be hidden.

So concrete ties, you know, nails,

Everything that goes on. Probably. Yeah. Installation. You know, all the things that that, this stuff called base and board, that's, you put under tile, that is kind of a waterproofing material. There's just. I started to become really interested in the construction materials that were going into the house that were ultimately going to be covered, and not seen.

And, I called that series exposed and, and so I kind of started to, you know, expose and it's kind of it was kind of, also looked at how we kind of cover up a lot of things in our own persona. So when you're using those materials to make art. Yes. I wove, that's a whole series called exposed, and I, I wove a lot of the items into the loom, loom and woven fabric, but also then, like the base and board, it's already a grid pattern.

So I took pallet ties and started to weave them into the structure. So, there was all kinds, you know, I use different things, different textile methods. And that's kind of my practice reflects, traditional textile practice, but with unconventional items. So, knitting, crocheting, weaving, basket weaving, twining. You know, it just really depends on the materials that I find.

And then I integrate them into kind of a traditional technique. Right? Right now that's it's incredible. I mean, your, your website, it's a very good website with a lot of really good photos. I have to say it was like, wait, what? What's that? I kept looking at it and going, oh, wait, what is that? What's happening here? It's very fascinating to get lost in.
ks. I need to update it. Oh, don't we always need to share with, I know, yeah, I know, and and then also, when I was on site, I noticed all the water bottles that construction were reusing. I kind of went back to the construction workers, and they were just they weren't really recycling their water bottles. So I started collecting them.

They were ending up in the, you know, 40 yarder or in the trash bin. So I started collecting, washing them, taking the labels off, and the caps and I well, the caps, I was the, did you weave the caps? I drilled a hole into the caps and then strung, you know, strung them. Yeah, like a necklace.

And then when I would, the work would open. I would put them through. So. And then I utilized the labels, wove those as well as twine, nails and then started using repurposed, thrift store sweaters. I unraveled those, utilize that yarn and made these kind of woven, structures and put the bottles inside. And they became, an installation and a structure.

Was that the, Oh, what was it called called thirst. That whole series was called thirst. Okay. That's that's I was thinking, oh, I know the one I was thinking about was the pandemic time warp, but that's later. Yeah. Yeah. That. Yeah, that was during that was during that time too. I was, coiling around, you know, irrigation tubing and medical grade tubing.

Wow. And kind of a way to keep time for me, days, like just get blending into another time and, and, so I started, coiling around this tubing and then I would make a break and, when the day ended and, and then there was actually a sound component that my son helped me develop that that kind of coincided with that, that work as well.

Oh. Ha. Cool. Wow. And where were you getting the tubing? On site, some of the irrigation tubing that they were utilizing as well. And then just the medical tubing I got online. Gotcha.

And that kind of brings us up to, my latest body. Yes. Tell me so prime bags. Yeah. So you saved them for a while. It's easy enough. Yeah, I've saved some of myself. Yeah. No, I won't be sending you any. Don't worry. Okay.

I got a lot of people sending them to me now because I actually, you know, I saved them as part of my mapping, my consumption. I had you know, had a whole stack and, and then started, actually started sewing with them. Oh, I think I saw you had something quilt like with it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so I started sewing with all of my single use plastic that was kind of a thinner plastic and creating, you know, structures with those.

But then I, I was like, what else can I do with those? And, you know, they are they aren't recyclable. Just that's why it doesn't matter what they say on them. They're not really, you know, they but it's deceptive because it's got the facing arrows. But if you look closer, it says store drop off only. Yeah. And then they say that they're made into pellets.

But now the newer ones actually have a line through. They're not recyclable at all. Yeah. Well did you know that those chasing arrows were invite invented by the plastics industry to start with

now. Yeah I that's just something I discovered recently. Yeah. Doesn't surprise greenwashing from the stars. Yeah

I, you know I, I just started I kind of go through series and then I started to get, really informed by basket weaving.

And I love to look to the past, especially with textiles. Since you know, it's embedded in such ancient, ancient practices. Yeah. And, basket weaving is one of the oldest textile techniques. And so I started wondering if I could make a yarn out of this material, and I, I kind of crafted and found a way to make, continuous, strand of.

Yeah, ball of yarn, with them and then started twining, which is, technique to make baskets and started kind of making a structure like this. This is a small know how to do basket weaving before that. I, as part of your practice already. Well, I had actually, during my MFA, there was no right cultural class of traditional, taking traditional textile techniques and sculptures and one of that was a twining that I learned how to twine.

Oh, cool. And, so I started trying twine with this, plastic. And it was really I had been twining with and, actually natural materials in my environment, like plant materials. And that's the and indigenous

culture is used, right, right. That's how weaving started. Yeah. Yeah. On their land. So I started going on my land and finding different plant structures.

And that's how pine in my way basket weaving started. But now I feel like, you know, in the

Amazon, bags are, are just as prevalent in our, our environment. So they're a natural resource as well, unfortunately. Know. And we need to find them everywhere. So this is kind of the structure once it's done. Yeah. They look like beautiful fiber baskets.

Yeah. Yeah. That they deserve

Yeah. Actually I've noticed this too. So I stitch on them. I do, you know, collage work on them and I stitch them by hand and machine and it they do get a little softer as you're working with them. Yeah. Just like a natural fiber would. Yeah, absolutely. And especially if you cut them really thin that then they're even more pliable.

But yeah, it's not as yummy as a plant material or a fiber material. Like I was using waxed linen a lot.

you know, I've gotten used to it and I like the pattern that it kind of creates as well. Now do you separate the orange bags and the blue bags or you. Yeah I, I do but I kind of I did at first have only blue bags because they, they were only like that.

Like that's true. Yeah. But orange bags are more unusual. I don't know this, but I never made it to their madness of what kind of bags they're spending. And at Christmas time, I think last year they had, like, red ones, so. Oh, okay. And now they have a darker blue one. And you have the lighter blue one.

So they have. Yeah. And then every now and then we get the at least here in New York, we've been getting the paper ones. They are, you know, there's about 15 billion plastic Amazon envelopes created a year in just North America. Oh, wow. So there has been, you know, from environmental groups, you know, yeah. Push for Amazon to switch their packaging.

And so they are phasing out these envelopes. Yeah. I wonder if they really are, though, because there was a period I want to say, a couple of months ago, I noticed that whatever something came from Amazon, it was in a brown paper bag and I was like, oh, hey, look, they're they're doing it. But then it kind of stopped and now everything is back in plastic again.

Yeah, I have noticed that too. So I think they're trying to phase out the plastic because I think a lot of their vendors, you know, when you order something on Amazon, then a lot of times it will come from their warehouse. But a lot of times, many times there will come from a vendor directly, right, to have those bags in stock.

So I yeah, I, I think, you know, it's just going to be a process like it anything. But hopefully hopefully, hopefully that you know I will be out of plastic bags and they will go completely to the paper. I hope so, yeah, I hope so too. You're probably going to wind up with other plastic bags. Yeah. I mean Fedex still uses and yeah, you know, there's it's just it's invasive.

It's no, it really is. Every now and then, you know, somebody will comment on my work and say, well, they just upload plastic plastic bags in New York State, which is now a couple of years. Are you going to run out? No. Yeah. No, I'm not an issue at all. Yeah. Yeah. They've been outlawed here as well. But they're still being utilized.

And you know if you order something or even buy like a T-shirt at it, you know, at a brick and mortar store, it's a lot of times packaged in a thin plastic which is not recyclable either. You can't even make pellets out of that. No, no. And actually, what I've noticed here lately is, yeah, when the first stop, first the plastic bags were outlawed,

everyone went to paper bags, and then they were told that if they had a stash of plastic bags, they could use them up.

Yeah, well, it's been like four years. They're still using them up. Yeah, I don't understand how that is. But now they have these bags that look like cloth bags. They they're sort of like this, but they're not cloth. They're not a natural. They're not a cotton. They're still plastic. They just make the texture look like it's a cloth bag.

So it's a whole new type of plastic bag out there. It's really I, I heard those are even worse than just a regular old plastic bag. Yeah, they might be, because they're sturdier. So that last longer, but not outdoors. But I noticed that they're just not recycling. No. Oh this as well either. They can't. Yeah. Yeah. Or just reusing them in your arsenal of grocery store bags when you go.

Yeah. Oh well yeah we do that. But you know how many grocery store bags we have now which are all woven plastic, right? I mean, I mean, it's it's mind boggling. It, it it really is it it really is. I mean, all I can say is I'm make out with them, right? Yeah. So that's what I was just going to say.

At least we get to make art with them and make a statement with, with making by making art out of plastic. Yeah, yeah. Wow. So how many of these prime bag sculptures have you made now?

Oh, I mean, let's say I wanted
n
about 6 or 7 and then I barge two, right? Yeah. There's there's quite a few very large ones.

There's six by six. Do you have an exhibition coming up for them? I do, I do. There's going to be one in, Palos Verdes, California, and so that's going to be in January.

And then I have some work and craft forms in, Wayne, Pennsylvania.

Oh, yes, at the Wayne Art center. Yeah, yeah, that's a great place. So hopefully they'll, they'll move around and get, Yeah. Well, I guess at least they're very late to ship. Yeah. Are they hollow inside or are you stuffing them with something? You know what? I stuff them with all that. So thank you for bringing that up.

I stuffed them with all my single use plastic that I cannot or I'm not using right now, or other plastic bags. So they grab their stuff so they kind of keep a form because some of them are moving and kind of undulating and and they'll collapse. So I have stuffed them with my other single use plastic. Perfect. Yeah.

Yeah I know that's yeah, that's what we do. Whatever. We can't use we stuff into something I know. So that yeah, there's one Instagram post I made. I'll have to make another one where I take the sculpture and I start saying, oh, let's see what's in here. And I start thinking like a pizza bag. You know, I'm like, oh, pita bread.

And you know, oh man bag. And you know, so all these different, you can kind of see what I, I've consumed the last week that goes into there. So that's funny. So it's like a record of your consumption for the week. Yeah. Yeah, yeah I think

that's you know most of my work is. Yeah. So you, you were when you were recording all your consumption.

Were you like, making just, a document online or were you writing them in physically? What? How are you making. Yeah, I was writing them in, in my drawing book. Okay. So kind of keeping a a log like company of this type of plastic bag. How many bottles? That kind of stuff. Yeah, well, I did it daily.

And then actually, I went to the computer and then kind of looked at different plastics and it says, that's that's interesting. So that could be a whole start of another serious, if you like, May made charts of it, you know, and made some sort of gradations of things. I know some artists do that they take like, like temperature data or something and make weavings based on temperature data or other data like that.

Right. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I yeah, I find that really interesting.

Especially since, as you probably know, different plastics, you know, to, to recycle successfully, there's different grades of plastics and you know, they can't essentially it's impossible to, to recycle effectively. Yeah. Yeah. Now it's very sad but true. I know I, have taken several classes. I think I talk about this on every podcast episode I record.

But I've taken several classes from Beyond Plastics, where and it's a really fascinating class that I would highly recommend to everyone. To audit, you don't have to take it for college credit. It's online, and it just teaches you all about how the plastic is produced,

what happens to it, why it's not recyclable, how much of it is out there, and it's being constantly produced and it's it's mind boggling.

Oh, I have to do it because you interviewed her on one of your podcasts, right? Yeah. So the yeah, I just when we were as we were recording this just yesterday, I released the final episode for season, the first season of salvage, and I interviewed

a community organizer from Beyond Plastics. Yeah, she talked about that, but.

Yeah. It's it's actually, it's

horrifyingly fascinating. Let's find out why. I'll. I'm going to have to look into that. I'm going to definitely have to take yes to read every article I can on, you know, plastics and the recycling of plastics. And, you know.

so much information, like the first time I took that class, I like to copious notes and screenshots and everything, and I was completely overwhelmed. But then I took it like two more times. And those times it just I didn't take any notes.

I just sat there and I listened and I absorbed, and I did the readings that they asked you to do. I kind of figured that it the it gets it gets updated each time, you know, because there's new things. Coming up all the time. And it's, it's just, it's it's fascinating. It's and mind boggling and all of those things.

So it just makes me want to continue making more art with this. Yeah. Free material, which actually makes for a really nice art material. And hopefully, I don't know, I keep hoping that if I am making art with this and there's so many of us making art with this material that eventually it will inform more and more people about it.

Yeah, and maybe something will be done to curb

because yeah, I'll be happy to move on to a different material. Yeah. Likewise. Right, right. Yeah, absolutely. So can I ask you a couple of questions about your studio? Sure. Do you have a studio outside the home or inside the home? Inside my home. And how many looms do you have?

And we have one loom. Oh, okay. And what kind of I know nothing about looms. Okay. What kind of loom is it? It's a silk set of three loom, which is a Japanese loom. And it's a two pedal low. I had another loom that was, five pedal them, but that crashed in the fire. And, but I find, you know, two battle loom, and then I do hand weaving a lot, so I'll make, like, a frame loom, or just hand weave with, like, twining as a form of weaving as well.

Yeah. No, I've done that kind of stuff, you know, piece of cardboard, make a loom frame. Yeah, yeah. Not with kids and myself as well. That's fun. But, looking at the actual, you know, big floor loom is always so fascinating to me. Yeah. I love this story. Looms, they come with the pre war. So you can either warp the loom yourself or it comes with a warped loom, you know, a warp fiber roll, which makes it a little bit easier.

And they're portable. Mine, like, folds up, which is really nice. So if I feel like taking it down, you know, downstairs or into the main, my husband always jokes like, the whole house is basically my studio. Yes, well, I can stop everywhere. So, Yeah. Oh, bone of contention there. So, yeah, I can fold up my little home and take it into the main, you know, kitchen space and.

Wow, that's very cool. And so do you.

Do you sometimes weave, like, I don't know, a rectangle of material on a loom and then sew it together into form? Yeah, absolutely. The wire weaving, since the loom was only like 42in wide. And my other loom previously was 30in. I would do big long strips and then actually sew them together.

I would that be by hand or by machine?

Both. Oh, well, the wire weavings I obviously had to do by hand. And I did it with wire. But the, the fabric, pieces that I've integrated like plastic in, I can, I can run, zigzag stitch or, you know, it's a proper seam and then fold it out.

So. Yeah. Wow.

And is there anything that you can't weave on your loom?

You know, these concrete ties from the construction I did with them, but I couldn't when you weave fabric, it goes around and it ends up like rolling on to the bottom. So the warp that's that's rolling. And then the, the finished kind of product rolls and.

But that was this, these big, bulky kind of, structure metal structures. So I could only see this much. So it's going kind of 10 or 12in no more. Yeah. So with those I actually well wove a piece and then would sew them together to make a longer piece, but I couldn't. Yeah, I was limited by, by that material.

Oh wow. And probably the bottle caps too. You can't really roll those either. Yeah. Those were a little bit more flexible because they weren't as long and they kind of I could kind of crunch them up into the, into the,

I don't know what you call it. Anyways. But then I was limited. If it got too big, then I had to stop.

Right. But the concrete ties were just impossible. My goodness. But you know, the the bottle caps. I actually could make a longer piece. And I can pull them out through there. Oh, but anyways, it did work. I did manipulate my loom somehow to get a longer piece of that. That's what we do, right? Yeah. We like having it be like my sewing machine.

So, yeah, we I know and that's the, the fun part of, you know, I probably your art practice, my, our practices is kind of coming up with solutions. Yeah. Exactly. So yeah. Yeah. And that's what makes it interesting. If it's constantly the same, I personally get bored. And that's why sometimes I move from from material to material or, try to master different solutions to problems with, with the material I'm using.

And that makes it challenging and interesting. So absolutely like, you know, yeah, I kind of welcome those problems. Like, how am I going to do this and how am I going to get get through this? And it might take, you know, a few tries and have quite a few failures. Right. And that's but you learn something new with every failure.

Yeah, I love that. I know I especially love solving. So I, I haven't done too many installations, but that's like my new found passion is like, all right, how am I going to make this into almost an immersive experience? Like, what can I do? And I love this kind of stuff out. I agree, I love installation art. I mean, that's kind of my passion.

I love being creating an immersive environment. And and I happen to be on this quite a yard. Yeah. That's exciting. Now do you have any installations on Permanent View somewhere? Now?

No, not on Permanent View okay. Well, other than collections in people's houses, but that's not really an installation. It's more of a. Yeah, look at somebody just come and visit.

So yeah.

Wow. Well, this has been fascinating. Elise, thank you so much for sharing all that. Your, your your art practice. That has been amazing. Well thank you. I'm honored that you asked me to be part of your podcast.

There's so many of us artists using repurposed materials, but every one of us does it differently.

Yeah. And that's what makes these fascinations, these conversations fascinating to me personally, because every time I learn something new. So thank you for letting us all learn something new today. Yeah. My pleasure. Thanks for thanks for asking me. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you so much to Elise for that fascinating conversation. And thank you for listening. Everything we talked about is going to be in the show notes, so please click through to see Elise's website. And if you're interested in learning about my work, go to Art by natalya.com. If you're interested in learning with me. Go to Ecoloop Dot Art, and the doors to the Repurposer Collective will be opening up in April for Earth Month.

So get your name on the waitlist. I hope to see you there.

This podcast was created, produced and edited by me, Natalya Khorover, theme music by RC Guida.

Thank you for listening.