"Anyone can look for fashion in a boutique or history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store and fashion in an airport." - Robert S. Wieder

I'm Emily, the artist behind Candy Calamity.

I learned how to make chains from gum wrappers as a child and was inspired to try making jewelry chains from all kinds of candy wrappers in 2006. I don’t know why I am so drawn to candy, but it is something that almost everyone likes and it certainly isn’t hard to eat candy to get more materials for my work. Luckily I don’t have to eat all the starbursts used in my bracelets. I’ve had help from a super team of candy eating students at Collinsville High School.

What I love is taking everyday things that would otherwise end up in a landfill and making something beautiful instead. It’s really hard for me to throw anything away; I always think everything could be useful someday. My upcoming projects might include things like tea bags, potato chip bags, gum wrappers, soda can tabs, plastic grocery bags or anything else that comes my way.

Environmentalism is important to me, along with the upcycled materials used in my items I try to run my shop in a earth friendly way.

In the blog I hope to share some of the behind the scenes stuff that is the business of making art from candy wrappers. Plus I'll be featuring other artists and things I've come across because really there are too many neat things on the internet for me to leave it alone.