Page S-4- Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, July 7, 2011

ArtBy NATALIE JOHNSON

For many people, it starts with a rip or a tear, a busted taillight or a smashed bumper. Maybe the sole of your classic Converse All Stars have disintegrated, but you’re not ready to part with them yet.

You’re a resourceful (and cheap) person so you know where to turn for any of these dilemmas – it’s shiny, sticky and can be used to fix virtually everything. You know what I’m talking about – it’s duct tape.

“My first experience with duct tape was when I had a series of really bad cars … the top was peeling off so I fixed it with duct tape … then I hit a stump and I had to keep the bumper on with duct tape,” confessed Nicole Thode, the branch manager for the Yelm Timberland Library. “Between duct tape and that foam in a can, basically that was my car.”

As Thode soon found out, putting duct tape to practical use, like fixing her car, was the gateway to becoming a full fledged duct tape addict and using it as many do, to create unique and well, sticky, pieces of art.

Thode recently gave a class at the Shelton Timberland Library on duct tape art and taught a room full of people how to make their very own duct tape wallets.

In the last five years or so duct tape companies like Duck Brand tape started coming out with colors beyond the standard gray or black, offering blues, pinks, oranges and even designer tapes with camouflage or Hello Kitty

designs. Naturally, the public responded by putting this tape to good use.

“I just thought, “Oh these are really cool colors, I don’t know what I’m going to do with them, but I’m going to get them anyway,’” Crystal Rodriguez said of her first experience with colored duct tape five years ago. “Then I started messing around and making wallets.”

Since then, Rodriguez has likely made hundreds if not thousands of wallets for anyone

Fix-all

and everyone who wants them. They’ve been distributed all over the country and the world by her family and friends. She also makes duct tape roses, ties, and has even started a black duct tape jacket with a hot pink duct tape skull sewn on it.

Duct tape has come a long way. According to Wikipedia, a well-respected repository for completely accurate and fact-checked knowledge worldwide, duct tape was invented in 1942 for use in the military for anything and

everything that needed taping. Today, the super sticky tape is

used equally for fun as for serious endeavors. Every year Duck Brand duct tape has the “Stuck at Prom” contest which gives out scholarships up to $5,000 for creative duct tape prom outfits.

Now you may be asking, isn’t prom hot and sticky enough without adding duct tape? You may be right, but for $5,000 I bet you’d put up with the chafing too.

“I was looking up prom dresses and stuff, I don’t think I have the

Journal photo by Natalie Johnson

Crystal Rodriguez even makes duct tape roses.

Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, July 7, 2011 - Page S-5

patience for that, or the time, but this keeps me busy and it’s fun,” Rodriguez said.

Both Rodriguez and Thode said they loved duct tape as a tangible art form – a craft something like crochet or knitting for the next generation.

“I like to sew, I crochet in the winter. I think my duct taping stuff is like … my grandma was big into crafts and stuff and taught me how to make things,” Rodriguez said.

Thode said that it was the texture and feel of duct tape, along with cool colors, that drew her to exploring duct tape as an art form.

“It’s kind of alternative and it feels kind of good when you’re ripping the duct tape and it stays where you put it,” she said. “I’ve done some cool things with foil too, because the foil stays put.”

Both ducters also said that the durability of duct tape drew them to the product. If it rips, they said, you can just tape over it.

“It’s so durable, I just tell people this wallet will last you forever. I know people who have had their wallets for three or four years and they get grotty, they get sticky, but they still work – it adds character to them,” Rodriguez said. “You can throw that thing in the washer and it will be fine… make sure it doesn’t get in the dryer though, it’ll be a mess.”

Both also love the individuality of duct tape. You can get as crazy as you want, use whatever colors you want, experiment, or add stickers, patches, fabric, or anything you like.

“I do sewing, I used to do zippers, I like the way it looks but velcro works just as good so I just use velcro,” Rodriguez said.

Ultimately, duct tape art blends the product’s past, present and future. Rodriguez said it best when she deemed it “functional art.”

“I like it because it’s functional art, I like functional art, not art just sitting there collecting dust but you’re actually using it.”

Journal photo by Natalie Johnson

Crystal Rodriguez works on this week’s cover art.