Green Chicks Studio
We take recycled plastic bottles, newspaper, wire, recycled fabric and duct tape and turn it into fabulous, whimsical art.
About Us
What is a Green Chick?
What is a Green Chick?
What is a Green Chick?
The Green Chicks are composed of recycle artists Suzanne Miller and Nikki Cooper. Each piece of our art is created by using approximately 90% recycled materials. We work from our home studios and exhibit at art fairs and shows throughout the Midwest. We exhibit as a 2-person team, each creating our own pieces using the same recycled process. We trade off working in each other's home studios to keep consistency, share ideas, and feed off of the other's creativity. Each of us specializes in certain types of animals or themes and we are always open to interesting and challenging custom commission ideas.
Our Medium
What is a Green Chick?
What is a Green Chick?
We start out with junk from the recycle bin - plastic bottles, yogurt containers, card board tubes, tin cans - anything we can find that has a cool shape. We cut them apart and tape them back together using duct tape, wire and balls of newspaper. This base armature is then covered in fabric mache -strips of recycled sheets dipped in a glue mixture. Over this, we add a clay made out of newspaper pulp and glue to sculpt all of our details. After air-drying the clay, acrylic mediums are added to seal the surface, then many layers of acrylic paint and varnish finish the pieces. Each piece is completely hand-formed and has about 9 steps before completion.
How it Began
What is a Green Chick?
How it Began
Suzanne's art career began as a prop designer for the theatre. Through techniques learned there and much experimenting on her own, she discovered the challenge of creating art out of recycled items. After moving to southern Wisconsin in 2000, she started an evening women's art class and introduced her sculpting method to her students. Nikki Cooper was one of those students. As a former agriculture teacher and self-taught artist/cartoonist, Nikki discovered the joy of bringing her 2-D cartoons to life in 3-D form. The two women formed the Green Chicks and began exhibiting together in 2006.