Accidental Artists Turn Old Into New

Think of her as The Unsinkable Peggy Peck.

At 75, having survived breast cancer, two carotid artery operations, a heart attack, two stints, a bad back, three small strokes, arthritis, cataracts, a botched carpal tunnel surgery and atrophied fingers, it is a wonder Peck is still walking the earth.

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True, she does walk with a cane—but Peck is quick to quote a friend, who said of her, "Peggy is like a Timex watch. She takes a licking, but she keeps on ticking."

That she weaves intricate baskets centered around shiny objects—a broken Christmas ornament, a brilliant cabochon, a Brazilian agate—is even more wondrous.

Due to her bad back, Peck, who lives in Manhattan Beach with one of her two daughters, weaves in her recliner, her elbows on the armrests, the basket resting on her chest.

"I weave upside-down and backwards," said Peck, a strawberry blonde with turquoise-blue eyes and a stinging wit. "One of my teachers said I was the only one to weave that way. I asked her, 'How do you know that? Did you know the first person who ever weaved a basket?'"

Humor is just as apt to pepper her extensive resume of ailments. When showing off long scars on either side of her neck from carotid artery surgery, she quips, "I'm not Scarface; I'm Scarneck."

But let's face it. People with atrophied fingers don't ordinarily take up the craft of basket weaving, which in Peck’s case is an art.

Surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome went afoul in 1997, crippling her fingers.  Peck developed "trigger fingers," meaning her fingers remained bent at the joints.

"I had to do something," she said. Her joints eased by little plastic braces on her fingers, Peck, an avid gardener ("I love mud," she said), found that, while her braces often ended up in potting soil, her hands felt better when active.

Forced to retire from office work, she took up making dolls out of plastic water bottles to keep her hands and mind busy. It was the doll-making teacher who asked her to weave a basket for one of the dolls.

"She sent me home with a bunch of dirty pine needles and told me to just keep weaving," said Peck, who had never woven anything in her life. But when she showed the finished product to a weaver friend, she was told she had innate talent.

"I have very strong hands now," Peck said as she relaxed on a sofa at , the Redondo Beach gallery on Catalina Avenue where she exhibits her work.

Hung like pictures on racks specially built for her by Michael Morales, who with his wife, Royce, owns the gallery, Peck's baskets fit beautifully with the type of ecologically smart art displayed in what the owners describe as a "green store."

Opened in 1994, Harmony Works offers "eco-fabulous" items made with natural materials by artists who "cherish the earth and its inhabitants," according to its website.

More importantly, Peck said, Royce Morales, along with family and friends, was among the first to encourage her weaving. "Without Harmony Works and the L.A. Basketry Guild, I would not have advanced as a weaver," she said.

Peck's baskets today are substantially different from the somewhat crude pine needle basket of 14 years ago.

Using blends of sweet grass, sea grass, waxed Irish linen and, yes, pine needles, she creates baskets that subtly reflect colors of various central objects: pieces of jewelry, vintage beads or a favorite cat pin she had worn for 10 years ("I bought it at Harmony Works," she said). When the pin landed in the washing machine by accident, it became fodder for Peck's art.

"Some of more vibrant [centerpieces] are cloisonné pendants that would have gone on a silver chain," she said. "There are so many colors in them; I match them with colors in the threads."

Before an object reigns in its woven home, it is sent to North Carolina, where it is captured in circular resin. Peck weaves the resulting basket around the resin centerpiece, blending various shades of reeds and grasses that she procures from nationwide sources.   

Sweet grass, which she orders from Kentucky, "has a wonderful fragrance," she said. "If I didn’t have allergies, I could gather some of these things myself."

Pine needles, which she obtains from North Carolina, have to be soaked in soapy water before she can use them. "If I use a mask, I'm OK," she said. "Fortunately, I have a friend who washes the pine needles for me."

Braided sea grass provides some of the brighter colors in her weavings, as does a wired yellow paper rope, which helps make the weaving tighter.

"Weaving keeps my mind sharp and has surely strengthened my hands," she said. It has also strengthened a remarkable spirit.

Transforming old into new

Peck isn't the only local artist to exhibit her works at Harmony Works; the shop also displays Donna Kleinman's decoupage boxes.

With their gleaming varnishes and distinctive images, the 25-year Redondo Beach resident's decorative containers are wonderful for housing everything from old love letters to fine jewelry—or simply to display as works of art on their own.

While many of Peck's baskets start with a vintage object in the middle and are surrounded by newer materials, Kleinman often starts with a newer "base"—like a glass plate or sheet of canvas—and covers it with vintage items. The 55-year-old decopauge artist mines for her materials at flea markets (the Rose Bowl is one of her favorites), garage sales, on eBay and the Internet.

"The trend of 'repurposing' is very popular today, connecting to the environment and helping it as best possible," Kleinman said. "That's the initiative on my boxes as well—taking something old and/or damaged and making something new out of it."

Although Kleinman still considers decoupage a hobby, something she devotes weekends and evenings to, she is “always looking for any new images or paper” wherever she goes. That includes her travels.

When first contacted for an interview, she was in Indonesia on behalf of her full time job as V.P. of Marketing for Main Street Décor, a picture frame manufacturer that supplies retail stores such as Aaron Brothers and Michaels.

The business trip took her to Bali and Singapore as well. "I went to a Dali exhibit in Singapore at one of their museums, and it was awesome," she said. "I didn't realize he was a sculptor and a collage artist too!"

Inspiring, she said, were Dali collages in which the artist mixed pieces of photographs with his drawing and painting.

A divorcee with two college-age children, Kleinman has been collecting wrapping paper, vintage ads, prints, and pages from old books and newspapers since she began decoupage 18 years ago. She feels fortunate to have a separate room devoted exclusively to her extensive archives in her "eclectic" Redondo Beach home.

It all started after a friend gave her a decoupage plate as a gift. It launched the vivacious blonde into "reverse decoupage," a technique that begins by first applying a central image on a glass plate, as opposed to beginning with the background.

"Everyone seemed to like [the plates], so I started making them for gifts for friends, and then started selling them at craft fairs and small stores," she said. 

In the past couple of years, the artist has turned more to decoupage canvases and boxes.

"On the boxes, I sand them, paint and crackle them, and then apply the images, starting with the background first and ending with the central image or theme"—a Victorian girl, a colorful bird, a biblical scene. Lastly, she applies four coats of varnish to seal the paper and paint.

Aside from Harmony Works, Kleinman is represented by Intercontinental Art, an art publishing company that sells to Pier One, which purchased three of her canvases this year.

Along with offering plates on Etsy, an online outlet, she exhibits at local fairs, such as Oktoberfest in Manhattan Beach, and conducts gift/craft boutiques in peoples homes once or twice a year.

"It still surprises me that someone tells me what a good artist I am and that they love my things!" she said.