CyclonaDesigns's Profile

Bio

When I'm not in the workshop making art and jewelry, I'm mountain biking, cruising the city streets and performing with my bicycle dance troupe, the Velo Vixens. I am also very proud to be designing and producing unique leather accessories for a wonderful local designer, Cory Judge of Shi Studio - which you can check out at shistudio.etsy.com!

I love the creative process of handcrafting Cyclona's bike art - each piece is a satisfyingly unique composition. The worn out bike parts achieve a new life - after traveling hundreds of miles on highways, byways and soft woodland trails, I like the idea of them traveling hundreds more as art.

I use cowhide and the occasional deer hide in my leatherwork. All the skins come from animals who were killed primarily for their meat. I hope that my leather work creates long lasting, high quality goods that honor the lives of the animals whose skins were taken. I believe leather is a renewable, natural, greener alternative to fossil fuel, petroleum based plastic products like vinyl. Whenever I can I recycle and upcycle old leather into new products.

I use lead free solder in all my work - it's more expensive but it's worth it not to introduce any more of the toxic metal into our world. I avoid toxic chemicals and use vinegar to neutralize the flux that you need to make metal solder bond. I reuse, reduce, refuse and recycle wherever possible in my life and use self-propulsion over the combustion engine every chance I get!

Cyclona Designs is the creation of Kyla Hubbard and takes place in a busy home workshop that she shares with a bike mechanic who recycles broken bicycles into ridable art. There is a rhododendron bush outside the window that blooms pink in the spring and the house is dwarfed by tall green cedars.

Female, Born on December 9

Favorite Materials

Reclaimed metals, copper, glass, natural stone, leather, watercolor paints