I am occasionally asked why I use so much denim in the recycled items that I create.  Here are few facts about denim: (reported by Daphne Sashin and Toby Lyles, CNN updated 2:22 PM EDT, Mon May 20, 2013)

1. Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada, came up with the idea of riveted pants in response to a customer whose pockets kept ripping. He feared someone might steal his idea and recruited Levi Strauss, owner of dry goods wholesaler Levi Strauss & Co., as a business partner. They obtained a patent on May 20, 1873.

2. Denim jeans -- or trousers, waist overalls or dungarees -- started out as work-wear for hard labor in mines, factories and fields. By the 1980s, as high fashion brands began to introduce the concept of designer jeans, the shape and fit began to slim down.

3. Consumers in the United States buy approximately 450 million pairs of jeans every year.

4. On average, U.S. consumers have seven pairs of jeans in their wardrobe, according to Cotton Incorporated.

5. Environmental awareness has pushed denim laundries to improve techniques for bleaching and coating jeans to give them different looks, Corrente said. Where lots of water, aggressive washing and sandpaper was once the norm for creating that worn vintage look, lasers and ozone gas cameras are now being used to minimize water waste and chemical runoff
6. A typical pair of blue jeans consumes 919 gallons of water during its life cycle (this includes the water to irrigate the cotton crop, manufacture the jeans, and the numerous washes by the consumer).

Whenever I create something to sell at craft shows, I try to keep in mind what we are doing to the environment and what I can do to help protect it.  

I was inspired by my friend Maryna to create these baskets.  The blue ones are made from strips of used blue jeans and the brown basket is made from a piece of calico that was given to me several years ago.  I love the idea of making something beautiful and elegant out of something that might have ended up being thrown in the trash and end up rotting in a landfill.