The Humble Beginnings

My work with transforming clothes into other useful things began when I was pregnant and had no money 17 years ago. I needed baby clothes and happened to have several a-line dresses made of a soft jersey material, perfect and cozy for the baby. I had no sewing machine and only a needle and thread. I drew the pattern around the baby on the inside of a piece of Christmas wrapping paper. and let my imagination do the rest.

You have to fold the pattern in half to make sure both sides will be identical. Then cut out two pieces of material and sew them together where they should be sewn together.

One must consider that changing the baby's diaper will be involved, so you have the option of using snaps around the inside of the inner legs. You can have an opening with strings in the back. This is the primitive first post of the ragga-morphological beginnings.

Morphings in Africa - Plastic Bags/Plastic Dolls

Burkina Faso Women Spin Trash Into Exports
Run Date: 07/08/07
By Emily Bowers
WeNews correspondent

Female artisans in Burkina Faso have found a way to turn plastic litter into handcrafted dolls and woven goods. The women now sell their wares at markets and are beginning to export them to boutiques in the United States.


For entire Article:

Burkina" Faso Women Spin Trash Into Exports

An Ode to Ragga-Morphology

It has been 17 years now since I began turning one thing into another, although this blog was born today. I call the craft of transforming these objects that of "Ragga-Morphology." This will fall into many categories of application -- from crafting goods, to crafting ourselves and the smaller worlds we call our own. Ragga-morphology shares patterns, technique and ideas as morphologies that venture into the categories of creative and inventive.

The focus is on morphing the old into the new. This is not about the worn out rag, but the old way, object or means that yearns to become something new. It is an odd sort of death that is not a death at all. One thing simply ceases to be what it used to be, in favor of the new. A dress becomes a purse. A shirt sleeve becomes a vase cover. Old magazines become a 'designer' way of framing mirrors. The mind is changed. Our bodies sometimes age but can be revitalized. Some morphologies benefit the environment as well. Less haste and waste in favor of creativity.