The new project (part 2)

Those of you who know me know that I can't stand throwing things away. But also I can't stand when people throw away things that can still be useful to someone else. I think it's a sign of laziness. We live in such a disposal society where everything is fast and easy. If you don't like something, throw it out. If something needs a little work, replace it. It's afforable because little 6 year old Chinese kids are making more for your consumption! Sometime in the past year I have become a little bit of a dumpster diver. I try to keep things out of the landfill that have some life left to them. Lately this means I'm dragging furniture and appliances that were left behind by tenants where I live. It's really not hard to bring your old clothes or old appliances to the Salvation Army or the shelter or even give it to the New Haven Furniture Coop. But we're all too busy to care. It's not difficult to fix things. Where I live especially makes me angry. Tenants and employees throw out perfectly fine working vacuum cleaners, dressers, clothes, tools, appliances...everything. If it's dirty I pull it out and clean it. If it's busted, I unbust it. If it's perfectly fine I put it on freecycle or bring it to Salvation Army. With the amount of waste around here I could probably make a full time job out of this reclaiming materials. This reuse, renew, recycle thing is filtering into my crafts.

I started with making license plate photo albums like this one...

There is minimal waste left over when I am done putting these together. (Just the stuff left behind from cutting the rivets.)

But then I constructed this last week.


About a quarter of each license plate was left over. I held on to it incase I could use the extra pieces. At first I thought I would make key chains with left over letters or numbers. But instead I used the waste to make license plate star JR.

Now the waste is only about one inch per plate. I could probably make another mini star. Maybe next week.

But for now both stars are together at last. Baby Moma and Jr found a new home.



Or maybe Jr will reside in the kitchen.



I have some dumpster diving to do...