Crafting old news

“This craft has really energised me,” she says of her latest artistic endeavour.

“It offers a lot of different avenues to do all manner of things.” Chappin has mastered the art of newspaper craft, so much so that she teaches a class at the public library, opposite to her home and business place on Brierley Street, Sangre Grande.

“I have to pass on my knowledge,” she said in a Sunday Newsday interview.

“It is not just about doing this and keeping it to myself. This is something for future generations.” With her slogan, Taking Nothing And Making It Into Something, Chappin has turned her knack for newspaper craft into a thriving business with customers from all over the country.

The mother of six said her clients are fascinated by the unusual and often inexpensive items she produces at her home.

She could not say, though, if hers is a unique talent.

“I really can’t say if anybody else is doing it but people from all over come here and I feel proud.” In fact, Chappin said several of her past students also have taken the art to other parts of the world, including Nigeria and South Africa.

“One of my students went to Canada about one month ago and she is going to start a class of her own, doing the same newspaper work.” Chappin said the class, which began just two years ago, currently has an enrolment of about 25 women.

“But interest is growing. People are still coming because they want to join in time for Christmas to make their house beautiful.

So, then I would have to incorporate drapes and cushion covers into the class,” she joked.

Chappin said the classes are generally conducted twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, from 1-3 pm. Sometimes, it can run until late evening depending on the assignment, she said.

The artisan, however, noted that some people join the class but leave prematurely believing they have perfected the craft after just a few lessons.

“What I have recognised is that some of them will be interested, start the class, and feel they know but they do not because you can take one pattern and make so many things out of one pattern. But is how to make it. You must have the technique.” Chappin said she hosted a hugely successful exhibition last year, and another was being planned for some time in the upcoming months.

Once a member of the ancillary staff at the nearby Cunapo (St Francis RC) School, which she also attended in her youth, Chappin has always enjoyed art and craft.

There, she earned the title, flowers lady, in keeping with her penchant for using mostly flowers alongside other items in her creations.

Chappin also has used Bristol board, plastic and cardboard to create beautiful ornamental pieces, over the years.

But rather than utilise the ready-made craft merchandise available in stores, Chappin uses old, inexpensive and discarded items in her pieces.

“So, if I or any of my students have to make a chair cushion, it must not cost over $5. I don’t want the idea for people to start buying things,” she said.

“You could take paper and you could make flowers. I sold some gazette paper flowers that you would not believe is gazette paper flowers. I sold the plant pots and made curtains out of gazette paper and people can’t believe it.

“I believe that craft is not about going out and buying things to do it. I believe that you can take nothing and make it into a beautiful something.” She said far too often people discard things which they feel have no value. “But when I used to walk from school, I would see things all over the place.” Chappin recalled taking a cover from a soft drink bottle, one day, and creating what she felt was a beautiful piece of art. “I said to myself, ‘If you take that and put it on a cardboard and tile it, that will look good. My thoughts just started to go wild.” The soft drink bottle, she felt, could also have been turned into a vase.

“You start imagining all sorts of things that could come out from nothing.” Her introduction to newspaper art came quite by accident.

Chappin recalled that two years ago she had received a call from workers at the library, who told her that the children wanted assistance to build a Christmas tree.

She quickly agreed but requested help in acquiring the material.

“We eventually made the Christmas tree out of cardboard.” Days later, while walking through the main street in Sangre Grande, Chappin observed a visually-impaired man twisting some straw.

“I said to myself that I could do that but instead of using straw, I decided to use newspaper to make a Christmas tree and it was at that point that the class started.” Chappin has since made vases, cups, dishes and a host of accent pieces, both for her home and commercial purposes.

Dolls, bicycle wheels, canes and garbage disposal bins are also among the objects Chappin has fashioned with her skilful hands.

She did not perfect the art overnight but has laboured painstakingly to get the desired results.

“I learnt by trial and error.” Her first order of business, she said, is usually to get the raw sheets of newspaper print, which is then rolled and glued into a long, pointy stick, referred to as a pipe.

“You use the glue to form a pipe and bending it (newspaper) to start to plait (in the form of the desired object). So, all you have to do at the end of the day is to buy glue.” Chappin recommends wood glue for newspaper craft, mainly for economical reasons.

“If I use the standard glue they sell, it costs too much. So, I buy a gallon of glue for students, it might last two months.” She said the glue should be dried to the point where it loses its softness, after which varnish or poster paint must be applied, depending on the finish required.

“You then have something to last a lifetime. It is a beautiful craft.” With the downturn in the economy, Chappin said newspaper craft can be an avenue through which young, unemployed people, craft lovers and others can earn a decent living. “Young people now feel they can’t survive but you could. All you have to do is use your imagination.” “With this class, someone could be self-employed because when you make things, it sells. Remember, this is something that many people don’t know about. People are still amazed when they hear the word newspaper. I have sold vases for as much as $500. So, people could make a profit out of it.

“But what I want them to understand is that the theme is taking nothing and making something.” Chappin makes a point of creating one-of-a-kind items for her clients.

“God bless my hands. Whatever I get, I will use to the best of my ability. When I make something for somebody, they are guaranteed that no other person will have that because I have put my stamp on it,” she said with a laugh.