When Coleen of the Howard County Arts Council asked me to create a recycled plate purse for the Power of the Purse auction for The Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County, I was extremely honored and said yes right away. Two minutes later, I thought, how the hell do you make a purse out of recycled china? After a few brain storming sessions, I decided on making a stained glass style purse out of broken plates. I jumped in head first and quickly realized that that was not my best plan. Suddenly it hit me, my good buddy in craft, Caitlin Phillips of Rebound Designs makes amazing purses out of recycled books, and I should leave the purse construction to an expert.

The choice of book was easy. I quickly shipped Caitlin my copy of Broken for Youby Stephanies Kallos. Broken for You is a wonderful story about a complicated friendship between two woman, who often use drunken plate breaking sessions as a way to deal with the hardships in their life, from love lost to health concerns. This leads one of the characters  the discover a passion in  mosaic arts. Clearly I can relate.

Just as this planning was going on in my head, I heard a giant CRASH! Next, I heard Jason say “I have good news and bad news.” When I walked into the dinning room, Jason stood there holding a vintage Johnson Brothers Indian Tree platter, which had fallen out of the cabinet. The good news and the bad news were both the same, the platter was broken. Thus, the decision as to which plate I would use for the book was made.

This purse represents Collaboration, one of the 9 C’s of women’s giving. This collaboration ended up being a giant collaboration between myself, Caitlin Phillips, Stephanie Kallos, poor Jason who broke the plate. The auction will be a part of the 2010 Celebration of Women’s Philanthropy, Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm at The Spear Center, General Growth Properties Building, Columbia, MD. Keynote Speaker: Sondra Shaw-Hardy is a noted philanthropist, co-founder of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute, author of the upcoming book “Women’s Philanthropy: Boldly Shaping a Better World”, and creator of the 9 “c’s” of why women give. 

Thank you Coleen for asking me to do this, it was great to think of things other then jewelry for a moment. Thanks Caitlin for doing this project with me, turned out great!

I’ll leave you with my favorite quote from the book. It represents my view on plate breaking perfectly.