On occasion, people with extremely high-brow tastes have told Aberdeen resident Sharon Thompson her fiber art creations were “garbage” but they really are quite the opposite.
“Environmentally smart,” she explained. “Everybody has them and we need to use them in an attractive appropriate way.”
Thompson crochets many things using cut-up plastic grocery bags. Strips of the man-made material work well to fashion flat items as well as structured pieces.
“What you can do with these bags is only limited by your imagination,” Thompson explained.
Two of her most recent creations will be presented at the upcoming Aberdeen City Council meeting tentatively set for Sept. 28: large-size recreations of the city police department’s patch and badge.
Both will be on display in the station lobby after the official presentation at city hall.
Each piece took weeks to complete and required thousands of plastic bags in different colors.
The pair, especially the badge, Thompson described as “the most challenging projects I’ve ever done.” she said. “But it’s also the best work I’ve ever done.”
Capturing the texture of the ornate badges required two layers silver-gray plastic, for example. She ultimately decided to use a darker color for the base of the badge and a lighter shade to create the raised metal parts. Curling ribbon — another plastic-based product — worked better for some of the features so it was used instead but alongside the bag strips.
For the patch, Thompson used blue and green bags from Home Depot to depict ocean and greenery while yellow bags from Grocery Outlet are used for lettering, borders and the sun. Black is the common color of trash bags and borders virtually every detail on the patch. The brown sections of land and a ship are potato bags.
Stores have their own logos that can provide unique color flecks on white or beige-brown bags. White bags are used to recreate a ship’s sails, birds and clouds on the patch.
Beach hats look like they were made from yarn. Her business card holders look like they were weaved from raffia.
“But they all last longer,” she said. “Those plastic bags are a very strong crochet fiber.”
She keeps pictures of many of her creations in a scrapbook. Among these are custom wall hangings for a variety of businesses, including Wal-Mart, Staples and a local barbecue restaurant, Lucy’s BBQ and Mixer Mart.
The now-defunct restaurant’s piece includes a dimensional representation of the owner’s dog holding some ribs in its mouth. It was named after Lucy, the owner’s dog, Thompson said.
She has been acquainted with many of her art clients, though the meeting with police was different.
“Drug dealers were in our neighborhood,” Thompson said. “I appreciate all the work the officers do for us, day-in and day-out.”
After Police Lt. Dale Green saw what Thompson could do with plastic bags he asked if she could make something for the department.
Several years ago, Thompson created a Christmas-themed piece for the White House near the end of President George H.W. Bush’s second term. The small rolling recycling bin she stitched held candy canes and pieces of local trees.
“(First lady) Laura Bush sent me a thank-you note,” Thompson said as she flipped through her scrapbook to show it. “It was exciting. I heard she took it with her to Texas rather than put it in the archives.”
One notable exception to the use of plastic bags or ribbon are the baby hats she crochets. These are made with traditional yarn. Creating the tiny hats for babies at Grays Harbor Community Hospital requires plenty of colorful yarn — something she’s always trying to find more of, she said.
