Maria’s new Kickstarter project, “Reclaiming VIntage Hankies,” just went live on Kickstarter this morning, she’s seeking $4,000 in finding to find vintage hankies, buy some new sewing equipment and reclaim the hankies by turning them into vintage scarves and possibly streaming pieces and pillows. Maria was inspired as an artist by the quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. In the past year, she acquired some beautiful old vintage hankies and began making scarves out of them.

People all over the country began sending her some beautiful old hankies that belonged to mothers, grandmothers, aunts, friends, their messages have touched both of us profoundly and their poignant desires to keep this part of their loves ones alive inspired Maria to do this project. Most of the people simply couldn’t bear to see these wonderfully crafted old hankies vanish from the world. So Maria has been reclaiming them, turning them into beautiful things that will live on and endure. They have become so important to her.

This is the essence of her art, connecting with people,  recycling fabrics into beautiful and meaningful things. Like me, she found Kickstarter a strange idea, neither of us were used to asking people for money for our artistic projects. But this is a project of love.

And this is the new world, we are both plunging in, we are excited to change and be a part of it. Kickstarter is called crowdsourcing, it is a democratic way of raising money for the arts, keeping the arts alive in lean times, and also giving artists the freedom to pursue passions like saving old vintage hankies from extinction. It has generated a lot of good work.

Check out Maria’s project, I love the idea of reclaiming beautiful old things from the people we love, it really speaks to me. It is just what Kickstarter was meant to be.

When I put my “Talking To Animals” project up on Kickstarter, I found a vast audience of people there who are eager to support projects like this, and Maria is offered several rewards and incentives, including custom-made scarves for pledges of a certain amount. Maria has a beautiful video on the project site too, showing what she hopes to do.