Podcast with The Way-Cool Sandy Buffie, aka The Lint Lady

Oh, my little chickadees, I had more fun talking to Sandy! As you'll be able to tell when you listen and hear me laughing. And laughing. And laughing. Sorry about that, but you know how it is when someone just delights you no end? That's Sandy--she's just wonderful.

I met Sandy years ago at Artfest when we shared a table in Lynn Whipple's workshop. It was a funny thing--I took the workshops just because I wanted to meet Lynn--I'm not a workshop-taker-person and had no interest in the project, so sitting next to Sandy and talking to her was way more fun than what I was supposed to be doing (Lynn was also fabulous, by the way). Sandy was in my journal skirt class, and ever since then I've wanted to talk more to her about lint. Specifically, dryer lint. And what you can do with it. Or, rather, what *she* can do with it. I can't do anything with mine--but now I know where I'm going to be sending it--and, man! I wish I'd known about this before: she welcomes donations of lint *even with cat fur included.* Who knew?

What does she do with dryer lint? She makes celebrity portraits. Scroll down and check out my favorite: Jack Sparrow.

Well, you just have to go down to that little player and listen. Here are a couple photos to show you what we're talking about--you'll find more on her website, here. You can find out more about her here--we did an artist profile over at CreateMixedMedia.com, and there are more photos there.

And here are just a few more fun facts Sandy sent me--I love these:

Fun facts about this little chickadee...

• have lived in 9 states
• have 3 fantastic children- twin boys (22) and 1 daughter (20)
• have a MA in Speech Pathology
• been married to the same amazing man for 28 years
• stopped using my oven for food and started using it to bake dryer lint in 1996
• had to move to another house that had a  barn because the dryer lint “hobby” took over room by room
• at one point I had over 200 people saving their lint for me all across the country.  I no longer had to rely on commercial laundromats 
• have never used belly button lint
• have enormous tubs of lint separated into piles: with pet hair, no pet hair, electric dryer, gas dryer,dryer sheets, and liquid fabric softener 
• collected my own lint for a year before I knew I would be using it for art.
• did art and craft shows for 10 years-many stories about the responses!
• the hardwear jewelry line started as a “chemo craft” I put together for my friend Bev. while she was battling ovarian cancer :(
• I am able to use my Fathers tools that I inherited to make the hardwear. He would have loved it.  
• I have an amazing sister who is my best friend and constant source of creative energy.  
• just cowrote and illustrated a children’s book and gratitude journal-just this week sent queries to publishers
• working on 2 other books with my friend Jamie.  One called StudioSnacks which is a collaborative artist book with photos of their studios, art and a recipe of their favorite snacks. And the other is called The Better Scoop. It is a recipe book for healthy ice cream 
• I am difficult to walk with because I am always looking down and stopping to pick stuff up
• I  LOVE to recycle everything
• I have donated over $15,000 to charities from lint sales
• was contacted by the Tonight show several years ago because I did a lint head of Jay Leno.  They decided not to have me on the show because I looked too “normal”!  I still have the head!
• I was interviewed by People magazine and had a photo shoot and everything.  The article never ran because it wasn’t “Racey” enough!  What did they want me to roll around nude in piles of lint? Sorry folks- I am totally covered when I work with this stuff- it is crazy dusty!

Enjoy!
(All photos courtesy of Sandy)