Handmade Holiday Shop: Colleen Attara Studio

I am Colleen Attara of Colleen Attara Studio and I am a treasure hunter/eco-artist. I love to use salvaged materials that others see no value in and create something full of hope and color.

Click through the pictures below to visit the shop and find a treasure of your own:

I hand-script words from salvaged plastic that make sweet gifts all year long. This “believe” above looks right at home on the branches of a Christmas tree or on a holiday table.

A few months ago, I felt a pull to listen to the writer within me and a whole line of new work was born. It has been like treasure hunting deep inside myself.

I have been writing all my life, sometimes just a sentence and at other times, chapters. I am using all of these words that I have saved pressed between pages in books, plus new ones that come effortlessly out of me.

I sew special photos together and change colors and composition by layers and thread. I add in pieces of fabric, vintage stamps, postcards, painted paper and all the bits and pieces that fall to the side of my studio desk or on the floor as I am working (I cannot help it. I love the pieces that are left behind most. I always have.). My stitches are bold and the hanging threads become part of the artwork.

In “heart light” my feet are on a porch in New Hampshire walking towards a New Jersey shore sky:

This print below is inspired from three different studio photos. You can see a “yippee” written out in chalk. And I do wish I was more mature. But I’m just not. I wrote this thought in my cell phone and here it is in full color. Do you feel like this?

These prints (and 16 more) are now in my shop (a big thank you to Matt and Darice!) and each 8 x 10 print ($30) is stitched so that when it is framed, thread can wander a bit. I never like to stay in the lines.

Each print and word is packaged sweetly with washi tape and string, I always add a little note. Right now there is a free shipping option in my shop at checkout.