Alyice on January 31st, 2008

Is It Art or Is It Trash?

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Have you ever wondered what happens to all that trash you throw out? It ends up in landfills and becomes toxic waste. And although our country has improved in its efforts to recycle there is still so much more we can do. That’s why I applaud artists who take materials that would ordinarily fill up our landfills and turn them into art that can be displayed in our homes or used for another purpose, like jewelry, furniture, and landscaping.

Today found art, also known as “trash art” or “junk art”, is making a comeback and I couldn’t be more thrilled because that means publishers will be publishing books on found art techniques and consumers will be more willing to purchase these one-of-a-kind creations.

Speaking of books, I just received Junk To Jewelry by Brenda Schweder and can’t wait to try my hand at the watch ribbon bracelet on page 30 (my daughter has a busted watch that was once her deceased Nana’s and she wears it!), the drawer pull charm bracelet on page 28, or the junk drawer miscellany watch on page 44. They are by far my three favorite jewelry pieces in the entire book.

Junk To Jewelry is a rare combination of childhood craft ideas and eccentric trash art. In 96 pages you will discover 31 projects. Each project is given one page for instructions and a materials list and one page for a close-up of the completed piece. There are also two pages of information designed to help newbies understand things like knots, crimps, looping, swings, and how to use pliers and beading wire.

I do wish, however, that there would have been instructions for some of the pieces in the gallery section. I guess I’ll just have to do a little trial and error creating because I really want to make one of the yard stick bracelet by Susan Dyer on page 88 and the tea ball necklace by Carla Sikorski on page 90 (which reminds me of my Russian ancestry).

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Carla Sikorski says:

Hi-Thanks for the positive comment on your blog about Brenda’s book and my tea strainer piece. Basically, I just used Fireline to sew the seed beads onto the ball. I did a small peyote strip around it and glued it on. The bottom is fringe. /Thanks again and good luck on your projects!
Posted at 8:15 pm March 11th, 2008