Artigianati.com

“Second floor — ladies painted shoes, painted handbags, button bracelets, button watches, dresses made from tablecoths...”

Seeing artist Jane Kelly’s array of hand-embellished bracelets, shoes and purses is reminiscent of the mid-20th century elevator operators at Macy’s Herald Square in New York City, where items for each approaching level of the six-story department store were called out.

Kelly is an artist with her own whimsical style. Her home is a showroom for all she creates.

“I’m always doing something. My mother was an artist and painted. She taught me to sew and was a big influence in my life. I didn’t paint as a child, I sewed and embroidered.”

A professional singer, Kelly said it was while living in Santa Barbara, Calif., in the 1980s that she discovered how buttons could be arty.

“My mother had a button box and I started embellishing collars and sewing buttons to elastic to make bracelets. People started giving me buttons... I make watches and bracelets, even a cellphone bag to wear around my neck.”.....

Read more at  -  http://www.gvnews.com/articles/2010/02/18/news/42shoes0217.txt