Mixed media artist Deborah makes wearable art from found and discarded items. Uncover the story behind her creations in our Friday Feature Artist interview.
Folded pages, metal snips and rolls of film are just some of the unlikely objects cleverly pieced together to create wearable art with a story to tell, not just through the design, but through the very materials that compose it.
This is the work of US-based multimedia artist Deborah H Carter, who transforms post-consumer waste into extraordinary upcycled wearable art. From a young age, Deborah was driven by an unstoppable passion for imagining, creating and sewing. After graduating from Parsons School of Design with a fashion degree, her upcycling days began when her children were young. Her enthusiasm for these offbeat materials and passion for sewing converged when Deborah launched her line of upcycled women's clothing, designing garments using thrifted textiles and selling them at craft fairs and online.
Deborah now breathes new life into discarded items like food packaging, books, wine corks and even mussel shells, turning them into stunning one-of-a-kind pieces.
Deborah's work invites us to marvel at the innovative use of materials while challenging our perceptions of waste and consumerism.
Always Making
“I started sewing when I was about eight and just love the construction side of it,” explains Deborah. “I love to create. I have a family of creatives and grandmothers who taught me and my mother and I was allowed as a child to play around. That helps you discover new ways of making things and doing things."
Deborah sewed clothes on the weekend and would beg her mother to take her to the fabric store, eventually getting a job there so she could get a discount.
“After learning to sew, I felt like I could make anything. I started working with conventional materials and making things out of linen, like jackets and tunics. Then one day, I thought, there's so much packaging waste and waste out there, why don't I try to make clothing out of it, and realised you can sew plastic, foil and paper, and it became kind of fun."
From Cast-Away Items to Wearable Art
An example of Deborah’s work is a piece made from safety fencing material.
“It was in the woods where my husband and I hike nearly every day, and we walked by it and it was just this pile and never changed. Nobody was ever picking it up or using it. I looked at it enough to think it would be kind of interesting to form that into a dress. The finished product is pretty sharp, which is its only drawback!"
In some cases, Deborah can hold onto materials for a year before they will start ‘speaking’ to her. Once she gets started, her work is all driven by the material and she confesses that there are usually plenty of setbacks on the way to the finished product.
“Sometimes I sketch things out, but when I start working with the materials, I realise what works and what doesn’t. Often, I say my pieces are made three times: start, take it apart and start again, then finally realise along the way what is going to work.”
A fascinating creation and a great example of starting, stopping and trying again is Deborah’s mussel shell dress. “Our family had mussels for dinner, and I threw the shells in the garbage, then noticed how beautiful and iridescent they were. They were blue and grey, and they were off-white and just gorgeous! So I took them out, then scrubbed them and came up with the idea for that dress.
Originally they were all horizontal, and that didn't work at all! I knew they had to go at a diagonal, because one side of the shell is straight and the other side is curved, and then the opposite side of the shell is opposite that.”
The finished piece is fantastic… but noisy. “It was in a show, an outdoor show in our town. And I had never really seen anybody wear it before, but the model wore it, and I could hear her block away. It was fantastic!”
Creating clothing from discarded items can take a lot of creativity. Potato chip bags, for example, are not so sturdy. “I had to cut recycled laminate material and stuff it into the bags, so they became much stronger and could be stitched.” The piece was a labour of love, especially working without a long-armed machine. Her creative pursuits mean Deborah can be found folding, twisting and even drilling to complete her finished masterpieces.
Every Artist Must…
Deborah’s advice for other artists is to “Accept that you are going to make mistakes and learn from them. Also, every artist must be prepared to stand behind their work. And have a good sense of humour!”
About Deborah
US-based multimedia artist Deborah H Carter breathes new life into discarded items, creating striking, wearable art.
Deborah’s art has been exhibited in galleries and art spaces in the US. She was one of 30 designers selected to showcase her work at the FS2020 Fashion Show, which takes place annually at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. She was featured in the Spring 2023 What Women Create magazine and her work is on the front and back covers. She is also represented by The WIT Gallery.