REUSE, USE UP, MAKE DO

For all their  good intentions,  upcyclists can enlarge their footprint in  the process of repurposing an object normally consigned to to the trash bin. Take my plan to reuse tomato tins, for example. I can cover them in fabric, which is biodegradable, but which must be treated in order to remain clean. That seems  to be, ecologically, the lesser of evils.  Then there is spray painting, which releases fluorocarbons into the atmophere and  leaves  leaves behind an unusable container. It is with that in mind that I will not repeat this project once I use up the blue and green chalkboard spray paint I purchased.  I have found a recipe for homemade   chalkboard paint  and that is what I will use next time along with I will buy  paint packaged in a reusable container. For the moment, this is what I am doing with the material on hand. 

Repurposed cookie tins. 

Upcycled tomato tins.

NOte: I am having trouble with Blogger's editing function. The text was not meant to be in caps, but after having had an entry disappear twice, this will have to do. Sorry.

UPCYCLING

Beer bottle caps made into  pins and magnets.

                                                               Fabric covered tomato tomato tins.

Most of  us want to keep the  landfills in our communities from reaching capacity. Wherever and whenever possible, we recycle paper, glass and metal objects. Some of us go beyond mere recycling to  reinvent  objects First World citizens once threw away. We do what people of  conscience have always done  out of the conviction that  to be  wasteful is immoral and impractical. We follow a tradition that inspired quilters to make useful visually enchanting bedding out of  old clothing--the same tradition that  led women who lived through the Depression  to make beautiful dresses and linens out of feedsacks.
My own contribution to the upcycling movement is minor. It includes turning food tins into receptacles for pencils, pens, sewing implements, small gadgets, plants . I use either  paint, fabric or paper to cover the tins. The result can be pleasant.

I cannot say that I find my first attempt at making pins and magnets out of beer bottle caps was either pleasant nor admirable. Judge for yourself. I find the process fiddly and the result mediocre. Perhaps it is a question of persisting with the craft until I get better at it. Right now have supposedly upsycled Stella Artois  bottle caps I tortured with tin snips and a ball peen hammer before I gussied them up with a French stamp,  printed Redoute roses and glitter glue. The world was just fine without  them.