ReCreational Art Makes Upcycled Art

Hi! My name is Rose and I am a re-useaholic.

After graduating high school I went abroad for over a decade and then came back home to marry the boy next door. After working in the corperate surroundings and getting burnt out I then took a job working in a coffee shop as a barrista. I absolutely loved it! The aroma of the exotic blends that I served, the fabulous people that I served, came to know and am still friends with, the unique opportunity that I was given to step outside of the box and learn new things is a memory that I hold dear and near.  Working in the cafe was fun and at the end of the day when I would sweep the floor there would be a small mound of coffee beans and although I knew we couldn't serve them again, I just felt it a waste to toss them in the trash. So I rinsed them off, dried them out and saved them. They looked like natural organic beads to me, so I bought a Dremel and drilled little holes in them and made coffee bean jewelry that, luckily, the owner allowed me to sell in the shop.

Also we had a plethora of Burlap bags that the coffee beans came in and although the owner donated them to several elementary schools (that used them for the kids to do races in) and a local church (that used them to decorate a playroom) there were many bags to go around. So I started taking them home and that's how my Burlap Covered Boxes came along, which I also sold in the Coffee shop. I have made other goodies from 'throw-aways' at the coffee shop: some purses crafted from plastic caps, and how about a lamp shade made from used tea bags!

I quickly learned about Etsy.com from some of my customers at the coffee shop. They suggested that I think big, they thought that I should get out there and sell my creations to a larger audience, they encouraged me to take step outside of my comfort zone and after a while I decided to take the plunge and put my work out there!

I have always been a fan of creating as little waste as possible, teaching my Boy Scouts how to be thrifty.  Challenging them to see how much waste could be minimized with a little effort opened my eyes even more! We would come up with crazy ways to save and reuse items like straws and cupcake liners. We would learn that not taking utensils on a camp out not only forced us to think outside of the box and use a Ziploc bag as a storage container, then a  bowl and then a place to store trash to take home to throw away - but we even saved the water and soap that would have been used for clean up! I stretched that idea much more in my personal life so, for example, when I rinsed those coffee beans I would save the water and use it to rinse the rags with and then mop the floors with. Sometimes I could get pretty extreme with my thriftiness! lol. Even now I get a chuckle when I see my scouts eating an orange on a camp out and then using the halved rind as a bowl for his Raman noodles! My son, at 19, will still do upcyclable things like cut open the empty cereal box and use it as a sketch pad or painters palette or cut it half way down and use it as drawer dividers!

One day I remembered about a 5 gallon pail that my dad, avid yard saler and treasure collector, had picked up at an estate sale for a couple of dollars. I dug it out and began playing. I would take apart the broken necklaces and create new pieces of jewelry. 

Sometimes I would need to make a trip to a local craft store to pick up items needed for finishing touches like clasps and what-nots, but all in all it felt really good to recreate new pieces from what someone considered 'junk'. My ReCreationalArt shop on Etsy is a place for me to post these fun pieces that have been given a new life for other ladies to enjoy! Like the Bracelets and Necklaces made from computer transistors!

Soon after I decided that men should have a place to shop, too, seeing as I had come across several accessories for men (mainly with the donation of my mother-in-laws old jewelry box full of her husbands old tie bars and cuff links). So I opened a new shop: GentlemansEmporium on Etsy and have had so much fun researching the history and ever changing fashion of men's accessories and have a place to post these beautiful heirlooms that I had acquired and that my Dad still finds for me through estate sales and flea markets!

My new endeavor is my PennyBoperoo shop that I am working on. This is a place for me to be more whimsical. I love playing with felt and this is where I post my felty creations. I still try my best to minimize waste and am able to create pieces with scrap cuttings and much with felt that my Dad (and now I!) find at yard sales. I also use old stained T-shirts that have cute designs to use as focal points in many of those creations.

Thank you Rose so much for sharing with us your upcycled treasures!  I am a firm believer in recycling and upcycling everything you possibly can and your art is such a wonderful example of putting that into practice.  I personally love your Geek Chic Collection, your Burlap covered boxes, and your Coffee Bean work!!  You can also find more on Rose's blog.

Next week's featured Guest Blogger is Paige from Little White Chapel on Etsy and her blog Final Clothes-Out.  She'll share a crafty tutorial with us.


Edit:  Oops.  I hadn't had my coffee yet.  Paige from Little White Chapel will be guest blogging her crafty tutorial in two weeks.  Next week, Laura from I'm So Vintage on Etsy and her blog of the same name will be blogging about her secret garden & sharing some tips with us.

Upcycling Electrical Wire to Make Copper Chain Maille

I always get a mix of reactions from people when I share with them that about 90% of the copper I work with is actually upcycled electrical wire: confused, mystified, excited, etc. Basically, electricians usually have some wire leftover after a job and I've been able to get my hands on some of it from time to time. What that means, however, is that I have to strip the protective plastic coating in order to get to the gorgeous copper wire hiding underneath it. The wire usually ranges in gauge sizes between 15 and 18 and they are entwined in each other so even after you have the wire stripped, it still needs to be separated. Stripping wire is a project, but so worth it. If you are given the opportunity and want to give it a try, here are a few pointers. Be sure to read through all instructions and cautions before you attempt to strip wire yourself.



What you'll need:
-length of electrical wire
-utility knife
-eye protection
-a cutting board, cork board, mat or a bench or work table that can get scratched up if the utility knife slips



How to do it:
-Wearing your eye protection, place your electrical wire on your cutting surface and click open your utility knife. The knife doesn't have to be out very far (in fact, it shouldn't be), just a couple of clicks should do it.
-Start at one end of your wire and cut into it with your knife, making a slice about 2" long. Put down your knife and start to peel the plastic back. Right now, you're not trying to cut all the way through the plastic coating. You are simply taking off the very outermost sheer plastic shell. Continue to cut and peel until the outer layer is completely off.
-Repeat the process, this time cutting through the thick plastic that protects the copper. The trick is to cut deep enough to split the coating, but not so deep that you mar the copper wire underneath. Stop cutting about an inch away from the end of the wire, you should be able to pull this off fairly easily.
-Now, you can either untwist the different gauges or leave them entwined until you're ready to use them (that's what I usually do).



CAUTIONS:
Take great care not to cut anywhere near your fingers. I usually keep one hand holding down the wire on the opposite side of the direction the knife is cutting.

Take your time and go slow. Rushing leads to injury when you're working with a utility knife.

I know I said it before, but I'll say it again: wear eye protection.

Work with short cuts at a time. It's easier to manage and there's less chance of injuring yourself with smaller cuts.

If you take a break or walk away for any reason, close your knife!!

If you get tired, stop and come back to it later. After stripping wire for an hour you are bound to get tired and that's when mistakes happen.


*If you do strip some wire for yourself , I'd love to see what you make! Share links in the comments below.*

Make a Difference

In honor of Earth Day coming up in a few days (April 22), I'd like to talk about a grassroots campaign called Take Back the Filter. My friend Cat over at The Green Cat, posted about it recently. The purpose of the campaign is to get the US Brita company to start a take-back program for their filters. While the original European Brita GmbH company has created a take-back recycling program for its filter cartridges, Clorox (the US Brita company) has no such program in place for re-using or recycling Brita cartridges. This means million of plastic cartridges get dumped in landfills or incinerated each year.

The campaign is requesting that Clorox:
1. Redesign its Brita filter cartridges so that the plastic housing can be refilled rather than discarded each time the filter is changed.
2. Provide a take-back program, such as the one that exists in Europe, so that used cartridges can be returned to the company for recycling.
3. Create a system for the cartridges to be dismantled and the components recycled/reused domestically rather than landfilled, incinerated, or shipped overseas.

Please take a moment to go check out the official Take Back the Filter web page to learn more about it and find out how you can help (sign the petition, I did). This is truly a grassroots effort that can inspire some major environmental change, but it needs your help.

Make a difference in our world. Thank you.