Re-purposing my favorite Mobius-wear

I am trying to de-clutter my apartment and I have been going through some of my t-shirts. I have a lot of t-shirts and many are old old old, very worn, and I love to wear them.

Chris has been after me for about 5 years to get rid of this shirt in particular:

This is a "cyclist" shirt made by Tim Hunt and Karen Massey circa, oh, 2001? 2000? The shirts they made just got more and more comfortable, the fabric softer and softer and the design and colour always stayed true. As the shirt got older I started to use it as a "painting shirt". I have lots of shirts now, intended and unintended, that are painting shirts. This one just had so many holes that it was almost unwearable.

arm split open along the side

many different sized holes in the middle of the front

So what to do with this old favorite? I tried tossing it twice now and couldn't do it. So today I put it to work.

i

 After ripping it, easily,  into long soft ribbons

I used it to tie my tomato plants up off the ground.  Shown here is the true success story of my garden:

Cosmonaut Volkov tomatoes, which I direct seeded  into the ground.   

I couldn't believe when they germinated in the poor garden soil, and I couldn't believe when they flowered, and now I can't get over the tomatoes growing on them!

The blue Mobius shirt was soft yet strong and I felt confident enough to tackle even the most sprawling of my tomato plants, the yellow cherry pear-shaped tomato. Look at this mess of blue t-shirt ties.

Next year I will do myself a favour and get the tomato cages. 

Really, I'm just trying to get through the gardening year this year.

 It's been a long long long time since I had my own garden. 

But, I'll make sure to have a few retired Mobius t's just in case.

Illustration Friday: Homage III

An Homage To A Friend.

Although startled, cats the world over looked forward to a

skritching by those monster hands.

Day Olds - Dec 29 2007 - Swamp Things #1 and #3

I made these years ago, maybe 2001? Maybe earlier. 1998? I had just started experimenting with drawing and painting and mixed media. I remember that I was selling in the lobby of the General Hospital here in town, and I had several different subjects in this style. They were all triptychs, as in a series of three related pieces, all made in this way. I had giraffes, dragons, moose, frogs, fish, cats and dogs. All of them had friendly plastic accents. Some were more successful design-wise than others. For what they were, there were a lot of steps. I haven't made these since. I do lots of one-offs, lots of experiments, and I usually just bring them to a show, hopefully sell them, or if I don't, they come back home with me and I misplace them to be found years later.

BTW I was at the General Hospital with my friend Tim of Mobius T-shirt fame and we loved going there to sell as they had THE BEST HOSPITAL FOOD ever! I know, I know, this is really not what you expect, but their scones! OMG they were to die for... oh. Probably I shouldn't say that when talking about a hospital eh? Hmmm.