Fashion & accessories
I've seen some lovely examples of upcycled jewellery recently, with some new and inventive techniques that have really restored my faith in the artform. Much as I understand that computer circuit boards need to be disposed of responsibly, I'm really not sure that the place I want them 'deposited' is around my neck, so it's good to see some examples of upcycling that make use of other materials that need a new role!
My favourite idea has got to be the necklace made out of laddered stockings (top right) which you can find out how to make, here.
Can you guess what the other items are made of? Follow the jump to find out
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Home & Garden
In the admittedly unlikely event that you have an old birdcage lying around, there are some really rather wonderful ways you can upcycle this symbol of avian oppression, turning it into something quite beautiful. I've noticed this lighting trend cropping up in a few places recently, and it got me wondering how complicated it would be to make one of my own. So I looked around a few how-to sites and found absolutely dozens of ideas, each one unique, but most pretty straightforward to assemble.
Here are two very different ideas for turning birdcages into lamps: the first uses the cage as a base unit for the lamp itself, whilst the second has had its inner bits removed and replaced with a string of LED lights; a fantastically simple idea!
Follow the jump for more ideas and some great examples of birdcage lamps!
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Recycling
This is one of the cutest forms of recycling I think I've ever seen and seems like the most obvious bright idea in the world now somebody else has had it: it's a snowglobe made from a jar. This one used to contain baby food, but this is also a great idea for using up those pesky pasta sauce jars that seem to get everywhere!
The 'snowman' in this one is made from polymer clay; tutorial here, but Craft Zine also featured this awesome glitter snowstorm today, using a pre-made Star Wars figurine. [Via Crafty Crafty]
Fashion & accessories
If your motivation when it comes to exercise is anything like mine, then you will probably have a yoga mat or two lying about the house not doing a whole lot except gathering dust. So Merle O'Brien's idea to convert these into a much more worthy item - a clutch - makes perfect sense to me.
Hailing from Chicago, O'Brien brings yoga mats back to life in the form of these zipper purses - they retail for between $15 and $120 and you can find them at olovesm.com
[via ]
Recycling
As ways of getting to work go, using the underground is a pretty eco-friendly option, even if 'friendly' is not a word I'd use to describe your average fellow commuter!
Lest we forget this fact, the Tube has introduced a range of 'green' products now available online. They include this smart little 'envelope angel', a sticky label dispenser decorated with a map of Angel station. Pop them on an old jiffy bag or envelope, and hey presto, you can re-use. You could always do this with your own bits of scrap paper, of course, but I admit this is rather neat.
£5.86 at the London Transport Museum Shop.
[Via Going Underground]
Recycling
Gone are the days when 'recycling' meant nothing more than taking a few empties to the bottle bank: today, designers and crafty types are working magic with everything from lolly sticks to cat fur. But can you guess what this cute little bolero top is made from?
[Via Crafty Crafty]
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Recycling
It goes without saying that Christmas can be a bit of a wasteful time, but when you look at the statistics behind that hunch, the reality is as depressing as a bare and wilting Chrismas tree on twelfth night. Did you know, for example, that we waste 260,000 unopened packs of cheese in this country (a travesty if ever I heard one!) and that 5.1 million whole potatoes go uncooked?
The credit crunch will probably have reduced the amount of food bought and forgotten to a certain extent, but one thing that is unlikely to have changed is our use of wrapping paper. And unless your entire family and circle of friends decided to go for one of the artful ways of wrapping with re-usable materials, the odds are you'll now have quite a lot of festive paper on your hands. What can you do with this pretty but rather pointless mountain of dead tree?
Follow the jump for some ideas.
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