b. botting

Ms. Botting is a habitual reclaimer of all things vintage – from textiles and clothing to household jawns and furniture. She hates to throw anything away, even the smallest scrap of fabric, ascribing to the theory: “you never know, it may come in handy later.” She is thrilled to be a neighbor of The Resource Exchange and walks over once a week to pick up anything from office supplies, gardening tools and building materials to beautiful fabric remnants and trims.

I naturally use reclaimed and recycled materials in my work and in daily life – it just makes sense – environmentally, economically, creatively. I collect vintage clothing, patterns and textiles, sewing gadgets and 50s furniture and am inspired by their design, quality, color palettes and patinas. I like to think that most anything can be made viable when altered to fit, re-covered or re-purposed and I thrive on giving things another chance at a new life. This way of ‘imagining what’s possible’ has enabled me to develop a personal style and to bring that same creative way of seeing to all my projects.

Barbara Botting is a designer, visual artist and prop stylist. She designed surface patterns for Urban Outfitters and the GAP and is former corporate Manager of Visual Display for West Elm stores. She holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, has taught at Moore College of Design and Wesleyan College, and is teaching at Drexel University this spring. She resides in a teeny house in Mt Airy with select pieces of original vintage modern furniture and has a well organized studio in Fishtown, full of clear textile bins sorted by color. ‘small studies in the larger picture,’ b.botting’s gallery of mixed- media collages and related sundries, will be on display in our reCreate Gallery throughout November.