A few sheep and lambs might be grateful to know their wool has a second life.

Clinton artist Susan O’Brien has saved many old sweaters from an untimely and wasteful death with her line of re-created sweaters called Ragaissance Wear. And this year, O’Brien will be one of the numerous community artists lining Langley streets at the Choochokam Arts festival selling their hand-crafted wares.

With her wearable-art line O’Brien uses high quality salvaged woolens to create new pieces that are one-of-a-kind sweaters. They are contemporary in style and some are sophisticated and elegant while others look like a cross between your grandmother’s cozy concoctions with a young, hip, stylish flair.

This artist has been around the medium block when it comes to form.

Her background is eclectic and varied, but for the most part she has been a visual artist for the last 25 years. Many locals know her work through the MUSEO gallery where she has been showing watercolors, oils and glass art for 14 years. O’Brien currently has three pieces showing at MUSEO for the Whidbey Island Glass Invitational, which starts today.

She has also worked with steel sculptural forms and locals may recognize her steel pieces from various farmers markets, as well as from past years at Choochokam.

With this new form of wearable art, O’Brien indulged her old and steady habit of remaking something from nothing. It is a fitting match as most of her artwork has some element of found objects to it and even her “day job” is working to restore old houses.

Recycling and lovingly recreating sweaters is a form that suits her soul, said O’Brien.

“With this, I don’t have to be Rembrandt,” she said. And she likes the idea that every old sweater has a story behind it.

The process includes perusing thrift stores for fine wools such as merino, cashmere and lambswool, sticking to sweaters that are soft to the touch. She sends the second-hand sweaters through an agitation cycle in the washing machine which “felts” them and makes them easy to cut and reshape.

She then redesigns the sweater by hand, sometimes adding unique buttons which are also salvaged or found through trade. O’Brien confessed her new found love for her button collection, which she said is dangerously distracting.

“I’d like to hang out and sort buttons all day,” she said.

“The sweaters describe their possibilities and I try to discover their gifts,” she added.

“I have to say that I have had more pure fun making these sweaters than I would have ever thought possible.”

There is a very strong green aspect to her innovative creations, as well, which is important to O’Brien’s connection to the earth.

“The work feels appropriate to me on all levels. No artificial materials, only salvaged buttons and the like. And I do only hand-work, as in my world, sewing machines are to be avoided at all costs — like vacuum cleaners,” she said.

O’Brien said she has been testing the market for these sweaters for less than a year locally through Ragaissance Wear. The consignment clothing shop Threads and Re-Threads at Bayview Corner sells her pieces, and Langley artist and designer Lynn Mizonos has had great success introducing them to clients.

“I’ve made over 100 unique sweaters and the designs keep coming,” said O’Brien.

For Choochokam, O’Brien will have a variety of lighter, soft-colored sweaters to keep the chill off in the cool summer evenings. She will also be a featured artist on the Whidbey Island Open Studio Tour in September.

She will continue to keep her studio open to sweater seekers through the fall.

“I think the thing that makes me an artist is that I get excited by the possibility of things,” she said. “Maybe that’s why I’m an artist of so many different forms; I’m so easily distracted by all those possibilities.”

You can check out Ragaissance Wear at Choochokam from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 14 and 15. Check out the Website at susanobrienart.com.