Gaymann uses grocery bags from Surangel and WCTC as well as trash bags to make her wearable art.
“It’s just a hobby to reduce stress at home,” Gaymann said in an interview. “When I get stressed out in the middle of the night and I can’t sleep, and when the house is dark and quiet and nobody bothers me, I crochet.”
She used to crochet using yarn, which she learned in school. And then she started thinking about what to do with the grocery bags accumulating in her kitchen. “So I started out cutting and tying and crocheting,” Gaymann said. “There’s so much grocery bags in my house. Every time I go shopping, I bring home 10 bags.”
Gaymann said she had to figure out what to do with these plastic bags. “And I don’t like throwing them in the garbage. I feel there’s something I can do with them.” She said the wet ones she uses as trash bags, the dry ones she saves for her art.
Gaymann’s hats are soft and wearable. The ones she made out of WCTC grocery bags are white, from Surangel’s are yellow, and from trash bags are black.
“If I really concentrate, it will take me two days to finish one hat. But if not, one project usually takes a week,” Gaymann explained. She said sometimes she would do it for an hour, put it down, take care of the child, take care of dinner and then come back and do it again.
She also makes empty juice packs into colorful bags by sewing them all together with straws. Olbaol or spit bottle covering is also one of her useful creations.
Although Gaymann has not thought of selling any of her stuff yet, Carol Emaurois of Palau International Coral Reef Center has asked her to bring some of her hats to PICRC so they can sell them at the gift shop.
“Maybe when I have the time, I’ll bring down whatever I can finish,” Gaymann said.
Gaymann entered her creations to the PICRC’s 4Rs Fair, and they’re on display at the PICRC conference room today.
