Ask any committed environmentalist and you’ll be told that plastics are the bane of our modern-day existence.
Used to wrap meat, bread and other foodstuffs in supermarket aisles as well as enclosing pre-packaged fruit and vegetables, plastic is everywhere.
We’ve all seen horror photos of seabirds and seals with plastic strangling them.
I can vividly really a shot of the contents of a dead pelican’s stomach that contained dozens of bits of plastic of varying shapes, colours and sizes.
Logan lace artist Mary Elizabeth Barron is putting discarded plastic wraps to good use – she’s using the stuff to make stunning lace works.
“I use bread bags and other lightweight packaging together with the plastic used to wrap around pallets that are delivered to supermarkets,” Mary Elizabeth said.
As a kid she can recall making many items from discarded bits of rubbish.
“I got pleasure and a sense of achievement after making things from items that had been thrown away,” she said.
As an adult she got into making lace and ended up with an enviable reputation as one of Australia’s best exponents of the lacemaker’s art.
“It occurred to me that there was a lot of plastic going to waste and I wondered if I could use it to make lace,” she said.
That led to experiments where Mary Elizabeth realised that she could cut the thin plastic into strips, sew it and end up with exquisitely detailed lace creations.
Her works, fashioned from waste plastic at the Home Of The Arts gallery on the Gold Coast, are on display there this month.
The major work there is a representation of the nearby Nerang River.
From May 23 Mary Elizabeth’s work will be on show at the Logan Eco Action Festival (LEAF) at the Logan Campus of Griffith University, Meadowbrook, where her pieces on the Albert, Logan and Mary rivers will come together to adorn one of the walkways.
LEAF Festival is on Sunday from 9am-3pm.
Ms Baron will run workshops at LEAF using bread bags where children and adults will be able to create their own dolls and animals as a make-and-take exercise.
Information on LEAF can be found at leafevent.com.au.
