In Berlin and still making things!

Luckily vacation time = work time! Thanks to Caterina for letting me use her abandoned sewing machine. Here is the latest creation. And there will be more to come. The great thing about being in such a big city is getting inspired.

 

Article about the Casa del Disco CD bags!

Thanks to everyone at Gargarin magazine for making it possible to have some publicity about the Casa del Disco and the products that we have been collaborating on! Gargarin is a free press magazine that has just been started to promote the rich cultural and artistic offerings of the Reggio-Emilia region in Italy. Check it out for tips on what to do in the region and characteristic local events, concerts, shops, and exhibitions. Download the magazine for free here! And look on page 61 to read the article about my bags and iPod cases! 

Here is the article in English:

Vintage packaging of Anna Zylicz is good for the environment and...the wallet

We are pretty much used to vintage clothes, as well as in markets that make art recycling a real cult. Gears that become rings, keys join to form a bracelet, old pieces of plastic transformed into necklaces.

But Anna Zylicz, versatile American artist and illustrator living in Italy for a few years now,
decided to include recycled materials also in packaging that revolve around world of music and telephony.

Her first product was the CD bag, a little bag created entirely with fabric second hand recruited in middle-hand markets of Europe. That's it? No, because those materials that once were who knows what and today serve to bring home our latest CD, seem never to end. Anna fact, soon realized that her creation could serve once again to something even inserted the CD into the stereo. The bag can be transformed to carry small things, a book, a bag inside a bag, in short, one of those carry-all bags that women like so much.

The Casa del Disco (my friend's record store) of Faenza (RA) among others has made the CD bag really productive: the bags cost less if you purchase a cd and there is also a discount offered if you have the Gio Card if you return to buy and article bringing back the bag signed Zylicz (this also cuts down on using more plastic bags). The bag with the purchase of at least one CD costs 10 euros, while the bag alone costs 12 euros.

But the designer with a passion for vintage is not satisfied just trying to prevent the use of some plastic bags, and now is trying to use these anti-ecological bags in an innovative way.

And for Anna all it takes is a needle and thread to embroider on them turning them into iPod, iPhone and smart phone holders. Simple, no? 

iPod Classic/iPod Touch/iPhone holders

iPod Classic/iPod Touch/iPhone holder

A lot of times the things I make come from my own necessity. With all these fancy objects like iPhones and iPods we need to keep them safe. And I always seemed to loose headphones in my big bags, so I included a headphone case. The plastic allows you to continue using the touch screen feature of the phones and iPods, so you don't have to continue taking it out and putting it back in.

Each one is unique and different, still using 100% donated, found or recycled materials.

Casa del Disco CD Bags

Located in Faenza, Italy there is a historic little record store called the Casa del Disco. The store is owned and operated by 2 young and music-saavy women who help organize in-house dj sets by visiting bands and window concerts that often spill out into the quaint streets of the city center. Opened in 1954, the Casa del Disco continues to reinvent what it means to be a record store. Along with collaborating with them on their website, logo, and event posters, I have also been asked to create custom CD bags that are great for gift giving and then also can be as a small wallet, beauty case, pencil stasher, or any other use you can think of. Once again these items are made not only with love, but with 100% donated or recycled material. (Besides the thread.) And you get a dicount for buying a bag with a cd inside. Great idea!

Have a look at CD bags on the Casa del Disco website!

100% recycled journals

These journals are made from plastic bags, sewn together, old photos from a National Geographic and also recycled paper that I collected from willing donators. The journal is simple bound using acid free thread. Once the journal is finished, you are encouraged to replace it with a new journal and keep reusing the cover, which slips off easily. How's that for recycling!!

recycled bags, wallets, and journals

In the spirit of reusing everyday materials to make something new and useful, I have been making these books, journals and small bags out of plastic bags, found paper, fabric swatches, and my grandmother's lovely Necchi sewing maching.

These products will be available at Roulette Vintage in Carrboro, N.C.

 

If you are interested in selling them in local stores, please contact me. Or if you are interested in obtaining one of these lovely items, they are for sale at low prices. I can also make custom designs for you and yours.