Most artists hunt for the perfect canvas, the right shade of cadmium yellow, brushes with just enough spring. Michelle Haynes and Sandy Barber rummage through junk drawers. They prowl thrift stores. They rescue jeans headed for the landfill and pocket rusty gears that catch their eye at estate sales. At the Creative Arts Center of Bonham (CACB), these two artists are making the case — quietly, persistently, one repurposed object at a time — that sustainable art isn’t a compromise. It’s an invitation to see differently, to find beauty in the overlooked, and to create something deeply personal from what someone else threw away.
Michelle Haynes: The Junk Whisperer’s Garden Magic
Michelle Haynes works under the name The Estella SheShop, after her clever great-great-grandmother Estella, who, among other achievements, invented the Cuthbert suitcase for avid travelers. That urge to engineer survives in Michelle. By day, she’s a technical writer. But in her Whitewright, Texas, studio, forgotten objects become what she calls “garden charms” — kinetic sculptures that spin in the wind and throw light across garden walls.
“I love seeing the potential in items most people would toss,” says Michelle. A vintage garden tool. Chandelier crystals from someone’s remodel. Bottle caps, weathered gears, beads in colors that shouldn’t work together but somehow do. “These dismissed parts may all come from unrelated moments in time, but they find each other and become something new as yard art.”
Her work draws inspiration from Alexander Calder’s mobiles. Everything moves. Her sculptures catch the wind, weather naturally in the rain, reflect and refract sunlight. “They’re designed to create ‘mindful moments’ — those instances when you pause on your patio, watching a garden charm spin, noticing the way light passes through the beads. You can be mindfully present in your own backyard.”
Sandy Barber: The Case for Visible Mending
Sandy Barber, CACB’s director, has enjoyed textile arts since her Girl Scouts days. Embroidery, cross-stitch…she is always making something with her hands. But in March 2025, she discovered visible mending and became, in her word, “obsessed.”
Now she’s on a mission to save jeans from landfills, one stitch at a time. Using techniques inspired by sashiko — a traditional Japanese mending method — Sandy transforms holes and tears into decorative features. She doesn’t hide the worn spots. She celebrates them. Peace signs. Flowers. Groovy lettering straight from the 1960s and ’70s. Her aesthetic, she says, is “peace, love and harmony,” turning practical repair into personal expression.
The economics alone make a compelling argument. “Custom mending can save your favorite jeans for a fraction of what people pay for pre-distressed designer denim,” explains Sandy. (You know, the $100-plus jeans that come from the factory artfully ripped.) But Sandy’s case for visible mending goes deeper than dollars.
There’s the environmental math: keeping garments out of landfills, reducing demand for new production. There’s the mental health angle: replacing mindless scrolling with the meditative rhythm of hand stitching. And there’s her fundamental belief that art should be accessible, practical, not precious or intimidating. “It’s art you can wear into the world,” she smiles.
Sandy accepts custom mending commissions and has worked on projects for fellow CACB artists, including jeans for Jessie Bryant and a special piece for Michelle Haynes. Beyond clothing, Sandy also creates fabric collages, garden charms and mixed media work. All of it embraces the same philosophy: materials deserve more than one life.
Different Materials, Shared Vision
Michelle works with hard materials — metal, glass, weathered tools meant for outdoor spaces. Sandy works with soft ones — fabric, thread, garments meant to move with your body. One creates sculptures that spin in the wind. The other creates art you button on and walk out the door wearing.
Learn to See Differently
Sandy and Michelle both teach workshops at CACB. Michelle’s Garden Charms Workshop guides participants through creating wind chimes and mobiles. She helps students select materials and solve creative problems as they assemble their own wind-catching, sun-reflecting garden art. “I love watching students puzzle through how they are going to turn a jumbled pile of beads and trinkets into an art piece they can admire in their windows and gardens,” says Michelle.
She also accepts commissions for custom pieces, including memorial garden charms — sculptures that keep someone’s memory present in the spaces they loved.
Sandy’s classes include Embroidery Basics for beginners, Groovy Jeans workshops focused on visible mending techniques, and casual Sip & Stitch events where people gather to stitch and socialize. She also accepts custom mending commissions. “Bring in your favorite jeans with holes, and I’ll transform them into one-of-a-kind wearable art that tells your story.”
Your Trash, Reimagined
The next time you’re about to toss something — old tools, worn jeans, that weird vintage thing you inherited — pause. Could it become something else? Could it capture wind and light in a garden? Could it be stitched into wearable art?
Visit the CACB gift shop to see upcycled art in person. Sign up for a workshop to learn the techniques yourself. Or simply start looking at your junk drawer with fresh eyes.
Your trash might just be treasure that hasn’t found its story yet.
Michelle Haynes / The Estella SheShop
estellasheshop.com/
Upcoming Garden Charm classes on Oct 18 & Nov 15 – read more
Sandy Barber / Sandy Barber Designs
Facebook: Sandy Barber Designs
Instagram: @SandyBarberDesigns
Upcoming class on Visible Mending on Oct 17 – read more
Garden Charms
Garden Charms
Groovy Jeans (visible mending)
Visible Mending on a shirt
Visible mending on a blanket
Visible mending on a jacket