Is this good plastic?

In December I put all the plastic bags I collected from charity shops, museums, supermarkets and the cheese shop inside one of the bags  and stashed it under my work table with the idea that I am going to do a snapshot of the months in plastic over the year. Not exactly dining on plastic, more seasonal plastic.  I wonder whether the attitude about plastic will change it, whether marketing, colour, size will change as the year wears on?

I love that the Waitrose bag had a winter theme and I chose to put some complete writing on this piece in case I decide to use it for something I am submitting to. It says holiday, winter, joyful abundance to me.

I worked in a furious sort of way following ideas one after the other for a day and half.  These are not in order of making. 

Having just spent a long time working mostly in an observational way, I enjoyed playing with all the same elements but in an inutitve and differently restricted way.  Most of these are first drafts.  I may free float them, put them on a surface and use paint to make them relate to their edge differently.  

front

back

 I wondered about mounting this one directly under glass so you could see both sides.  Which is 
'good plastic'?

And is there a male or female aesthetic in collage, in plastic? 

Beetroot and Ties

Beetroot and Ties, fused plastic collage with stitching, 16x16cm

A few weeks ago my friend, the poet and educationalist Jeni Smith, gave me a couple of bags she had collected: beetroot, parsnip and vegetable crisps. They are deep colours and the plastic fuses well. Patrick had also been eating crisps: and his bag was fuchsia with black (ridged popchips - smoky bacon flavoured). That bag was silver lined so tricker to use. I may have had one or two of Patrick's crisps, but this fused plastic collage is a mixture of my dining and that of others. The wonderful turquoise comes from the bag that held the handle tie freezer bags. Other plastic comes from  potatoes, carrots, toilet paper and  there was a red bag I had that I needed to use in order to create the intensity beetroots need. As I worked I wanted to evoke a sense of the movement of unearthing root vegetables - red sky at night.