Grace Babb

October 2011

Grace Babb

Grace Babb is always thinking – colors, patterns, designs. Away from her job as a sales associate at Goodwill’s Carmel-West Store, Grace creates a wide variety of artwork from repurposed materials.

“It makes me feel good that I can take something that maybe somebody doesn’t want or it could be something that’s really ugly, and I can transform it into something really neat,” she says.

Grace’s final products are beautiful: quilted wall hangings made from fabric scraps or fabric dye-transferred with old pieces of silk; felted purses made from repurposed material; crocheted water bottle covers; salvaged canvases that Grace has painted; bracelets created from used beads; and much more.

The source of most of Grace’s raw materials? Shopping at Goodwill stores & outlets and clickgoodwill.com. “I get a lot of inspiration from shopping at Goodwill,” she says.

By shopping at Goodwill, Grace says she spends about $100 a year on supplies for her artwork, finding deals online and at sales. She says she’s hopeful to spend more now that she is employed. Grace had to stop working in her career field as a certified surgical technologist because she has seizures, depression, and fibromyalgia. Although she worked part-time in various jobs, she didn’t have steady employment.

In February, she worked with a job coach at a local organization to find her job at the Carmel-West Store. The store worked with her to accommodate her disability, and she now works every other day in the store’s back room in textiles. “That works out really well for me,” she says.

Formal art school training hasn’t been a part of Grace’s background. She dropped out of high school art class due to lack of feedback from instructors and took only one basic college-level correspondence art class because finances were tight. She says she’s been drawing since she was a child and that her artwork was born out of necessity and a love for what she does.

“Not having money, you have to find a way to make due,” Grace says. “You know – you want something; you make it. I find it fun. I said, ‘I’m glad we’re poor because you can be more creative.’ ”

Grace, who just graduated from a Goodwill class where individuals learn to find community resources and set personal and financial goals, now has lots of hopes and dreams for the future of her artwork – a new sewing machine, a new printer, taking classes, selling some of her pieces, and passing her knowledge onto others, especially children. But the best part of her artwork? Grace says how it makes her feel and lifts her depression.

“My artwork makes me feel really good,” Grace says. “If I’m feeling down and I start doing something with my hands and I get interested in the process, your mood just changes.”

Video: See Grace & her artwork

Grace’s Goodwill shopping tips

Sales: Take advantage of Goodwill’s sale days, including 50% sales, 99-cent Sundays and Senior Discount Days at the regular stores and Blowout Sales at the Goodwill Outlet Stores. (See www.goodwillindy.org for details.)

Shop at clickgoodwill.com: Grace has found great deals on glass beads and semi-precious stones for jewelry-making and European yarn for needlepoint. She advises that the most expensive items aren’t always what you’re seeking. “You just have to look at the site all the time and look for the new things that come on,” she advises.

Needlepoint: Search stores for plastics and yarn for your work.

Painting: Look for canvases that can be reused.

Fabrics:
- Shop the outlets for scraps of fabric or yarn (www.goodwilloutlet.org)
- In any store, look at the different fabrics & unique buttons that clothing and other fabrics have to offer.
- Silk (including shirts, robes and ties) are affordable at Goodwill. Grace uses this material for dye-transfer projects.

Hardware, accessories & more: Look at Goodwill for anything you can re-purpose or reuse, including keys, hardware, buttons, acrylic paints, picture frames, books, art, photos, reference magazines, vintage lace, felt, etc.