Friday, June 23, 2006

Jane Webster, surrounded by her beautiful art & craft
items, at her studio in Newlands.

After many years of faithful service in the Cayman Islands Postal Service, Jane Webster decided to keep busy during her retirement, by making marvelously imaginative craft ornaments.

The range of her work is as wide as her imagination, and Ms Webster makes virtually anything out of virtually anything.

"I started in Summer 2002. I was operating a pre-school and during the summer some of the parents asked me if I could take some older children during the summer vacation. I had to find something for them to do, so I went to the craft store and bought some craft materials.

"When it was time for them to go back to school, at the end of the summer, I thought it was time to do something myself.

"The first thing I did was a bunch of grapes out of purple beads; I said to myself: 'This looks good,' and tried to do some more.

"It was just a pastime, but the more I worked at it the more ideas came to me; so I found myself branching out to start many different kinds of craft.

"I started to do some rugs with scraps of cloth, after I saw someone doing a rug. I had about six or seven but then Ivan took them all away, but I've just started to do some more now.

Many of her beloved craft treasures were swept away by Ivan. Undaunted, Ms Webster has been working to re-establish her remarkable collection ever since. Webster finds inspiration in a variety of places; she never stops learning new techniques, or trying out new ideas. "The Good Lord gives me the ideas," she said.

"One time I went to Nassau in the Bahamas. I went into a craft store and I saw some beautiful boxes covered in shells.

When I came back home I went to the craft store here and bought some shells; I also picked ups some shells from walking along the beach."

The shell box idea was one Ms Webster first tried out with the children at Sunny Smiles Pre-School.

"I glued the shells round the cardboard tube from the inside of a roll of toilet tissue," she said.

That idea, like all Ms Webster's ideas, blossomed, and now she has a fantastic collection of delightful and exquisite shell boxes, made from all manner of household items most people just thrown away, such as plastic yoghourt pots.

Her works are not only attractive, but also useful: "I have made pin holders and pencil holders made out of yoghurt containers," she said.

Another one of Ms Webster's specialties, is making beautiful mosaics out of different coloured matchsticks. One of them gained her the First Prize as an entry to the Cayman Islands Agricultural Show's Craft Section.

The mosaic is of a Blue Iguana, intricately pieced together with cut up matchsticks, each one painted beforehand.

Another remarkable mosaic is a map of the Cayman Islands, lovingly made from thousands of sections of matchsticks. 

"That was an Idea I thought of myself, I didn't see that anywhere else," she said.
The beach area is made from real sand, adding to the map's authentic look.

Although she does all the mosaic-work herself, Ms Webster sometimes has some help with the drawing stages of a new masterpiece, as with a delightful picture of Walt Disney's Cinderella.

"I got my son to draw it out first, then I filled it in with matchsticks," Ms Webster said.
Ms Webster is never limited by materials; anything lying around her house might just become a craft masterpiece of tomorrow.

One of her favorite pieces is a delightful tiny table and chair set all made from clothespins. "One lady from Jamaica I saw made a table and chair like this, so I decided I would try it myself," she said.

Ms Webster's creativity knows no bounds, however: "I've made these bowls of vegetables and fruits out of bread and glue. Ms Connolly from East End told me how to do that.
"When the bread gets stale and hard you grate it and mix it with Tacky glue. Then you shape it into whatever you want and leave it for a couple of days and then paint it."

One of Ms Webster's sculptures is of a little rat, apparently reclining under a miniature palm-tree.

"The rat made out of shells and the tree is made from a sea fan washed up on the beach," Ms Webster said.

Another material she uses for craft is sand and glue, and she has made several pieces out of this material, including a delightful little turtle.

Another piece is a family of turtles, a mama, papa and baby turtle, each made from a different shell.

christopher@caymannetnews.com

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