The Twelve

Susan Lenz, featuring her piece "The IT Mandala".

For the most part, the piece was created using eight fax phone receivers and most of the "insides" of four fax phones ... plus lots of red, blue, and yellow telephone cable connectors, caddies, CPU connectors, and individual keys from two Dell
keyboards. The only non-e-waste pieces are the eight blue
and red plastic lids and eight yellow buttons. The substrata
is made from synthetic fabric on two layers of recycled
industrial felt. The only thing "new"/bought-new-by-me is
some of the thread.

The work is mounted on a stretcher
bar over which I glued a piece of foam core. The piece
was then stitched to the foam core so that no section is
supporting more than a few inches of the weight of the
objects. The piece is heavy but professionally framed with
a strong wire for hanging.

Tammy Loftis, featuring her piece "Mother Earth".

I chose to take a whimsical approach for my project by
creating the face of Mother Earth. As most mothers know from time to time our children disappoint us... the true joy is when they discover the revelation that change needs to occur and they take
action. This is where we are. Mother Earth is symbolic
of the environment from which life thrives. She
personifies nurturing and growth and how the earth
looks over us and provides life. It’s our responsibility to
care for her as she has cared for us.

We must consider the part we play in the outcome of our future and the future of generations to come, each of us individually
and collectively have a role in her healing and survival.

There are no small steps, each and every step that
moves us in the direction of improvement moves us a
bit closer to a beautiful balance with nature. Her
expression conveys the confidence she feels that
together we can accomplish incredible things.

Flavia Isabella Lovatelli, featuring her art piece "Call Waiting".

The title of my piece is Call Waiting and the short description: I chose to create my piece with phone receivers because that was one of my strongest memories growing up, I remember simpler times, no cell phones, only rotary phones at home, and we used to have to fight to use the phone. I also remember when my father found and extra long cord so we could walk around the room and pace if we needed to while talking or go hide in a room to talk privately.

I didn’t have any idea what I was going to make out of my loot, I had to sit with the bin full of tangled cords and receivers for three days and only when I unpacked them and started sorting out the different styles, lining them up to sort them out did this vision hit me, or rather, hit my husband. The receivers lined up in nice little rows reminded him of old diner pleather chairs, the red and white striped ones, so he suggested the chair! It was such a great idea we were able to build it within two days, taking apart an old folding metal chair, cutting the wood for the base, gluing and screwing the receivers in, painting the wood, and wrapping the cords on all the legs.

The table took another two days of scavenging for the parts, painting, gluing etc.