creating beauty from trash
Re-making with paper and plastic we all have around is a challenge, and the more we can do of it the better. I also think the more fine and beatiful we make it, the more desirable and worthy it is to choose and cherish re-made items. It’s inspiring and humbling to see the craftsmanship that is paid to repurposed materials in places where supplies are harder to come by, and trash piles up due to lack of infrastructure.
Plastic bags
If you can crochet, you can make shopping bags into numerous things like a sturdier long-lasting shopping bag, (see another bag example) or even shoes! You can also weave plastic bags into rugs, with a homemade loom (wow). Of course, we’re better off refusing the bags in the first place!
But compared to the cheerful and quick examples linked above, this West African bag is amazing. These bags are made from finely woven repurposed plastic bags. Really lovely. (picture taken and posted by msjacoby on flickr)
Junk Mail galore
I saw these magazine bowls last summer.
The patina website shows some vases for sale, and mentions they are from vietnam, I think the bowls and boxes I saw were from vietnam too (you can click to zoom in, i think that’s vietnamese??) hopefully fair trade. there is a high-resolution image here so you can check it out
I tried to make a bowl, but I ended up with three coasters. I saw a tutorial about this on craftster by cbass on craftster, but they looked a bit chunkier than the ones in the photo here.
However, the craftster tutorial says you should fold the paper from corner to corner, which means the edges show, and i think they must be thicker in the middle, and this is why the turns do not look as smooth as the Vietnamese ones. And the rolls are also wider.
If anyone knows of more tips and tutorials for this it would be great to see them!
Now that I’ve tried it, I can appreciate how much time must have gone into these lovely objects.
April 25th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
This is a great post - thank you! I’m always looking for ways to recycle/reuse those plastic bags that have small holes in them, or the handles have broken.
April 25th, 2006 at 11:49 pm
The Museum of American Folk Art here in NYC has an absolutely incredible circular rug crocheted from Wonder Bread bags in their collection. Last time I saw it, it was at their gallery at 65th and Columbus, but they may have moved it to the museum or taken it off display. Their website is: http://www.folkartmuseum.org
April 26th, 2006 at 5:54 am
i’ve made bunches of the magazine bowls. i took my cue from the craftster tute & then did some mods to do various things on my own…
you can fold from the corner or from the long edge, whichever you prefer. if you cut the page in half hot-dog-style (long ways for those who didn’t have my kindergarten teacher), then the strips will be long but still pretty flat. if you want to fold from the corner, you can iron the strips or set them under heavy books for awhile to flatten them.
i usually tear out colorful pages while watching tv & then do a marathon strip making session - i’ll make 200 strips all at once & then do the actual assembly later. all three steps are great tv watching activies or talking on the phone activities if you have a headset to make it hands free!
i use them to hold makeup brushes, pens, pencils, craft stuff, jewelry, receipts, and whatever other junk starts to pile up on my desk. i’ve been toying with the idea of *not* sealing them with glue or mod-podge & then potting up some seedlings or plants. i think it’d be a great way to give plants without having to buy or carrying those heavy (& sometimes expensive) terra cotta pots. i don’t know about their biodegradability, but they’re good for transport at the very least!
April 26th, 2006 at 6:26 am
[...] Whipup.net has an entry with links to more bags: i hadn’t seen this one. And woven rug! Crocheted sandals! [...]
November 14th, 2006 at 3:08 am
I actually have a tutorial for these on my flickr. Here’s my attempt:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefanie1/sets/1577206/