Call for entries: GreenCraft Magazine
February 18, 2009 by Cyndi Lavin
Filed under Call For Entries & Submissions, Mixed Media, Non-Wearables, Recycled Art, Wearable Art
Finding creative uses for old items is nothing new to artists, but the spirit of preserving the planet is more important than ever before and GreenCraft Magazine is here to honor and inspire those who find artistic applications for normally discarded resources.
GreenCraft Magazine will provide ideas for repurposing trash to treasure by showcasing projects where waste is repurposed into ecologically chic creations.
To be considered for our Publication, please submit your recycled, reused and repurposed items to GreenCraft Magazine no later than April 14, 2009.
I don’t know why — but I am turned off by the modern “Green” movement. I think because everyone is acting like this is something new, it isn’t, our parents did it during the great depression & WWII
.. worse part of it is I’ve been interested in recycling, reusing, reinventing things since the 1960’s. Heck, most of my herbs are in reused bottles.
I know, I am just a grouchy old matron, right? (-: Here, she goes again. A middle-age rant! LOL
What is wrong people, just save money. Frugality is a virtue! Recycling is part of being a good house wife. Before you buy the newest things go visit the Salvation Army store – don’t throw things out, think about reusing.
One of the neatest things I ever saw.. is reusing CDS by tatting a beaded star to go around them.
My idea concerned hard disks – for either sun reflectors or Christmas ornaments ..with beads — and/or crochet or tatting.
My husband took apart about 10 + old hard disks and give me the magnets and the disks. Shiny as mirrors.. the picture I saw was just CDs but the hard disks are lot shinier! Still haven’t done the decorating I plan to do with them.
A lot of “Green” ideas is just reusing stuff. Things don’t have to match or look classy. Can’t stand walking into a house that looks like it was owned by Martha Steward!!! And dear, departed mom was a better crafts person than MS ever will be !
I use old cat box filler plastic boxes (my ‘Scoop- Away’ box is right next to my left foot as I type this.) to place my recycled paper in before I take out. (I am going to spray paint them with a product that swears it will stick to any surface, this spring, so they look a little more civilized!) What is so amazing about that, Cyndi?
What’s totally amazing to me is how each generation (our included) thinks that it’s the first to come up with stuff. I “love” one of the new knitting books…the tag line is “not your grandma’s knitting”, like there’s anything at all wrong with her knitting! No, as a matter of fact, she did it far better than most of the children who’ve re-discovered it, but act like they invented it! LOL!!
My husband and I always joke that kids who walk past us always seem amazed we are holding hands! (Like they invented romance?) Same thing with crafts of all kinds. People have been a making jewelry since oh.. neolithic times, even earlier. They have found beads in cro-magnon graves in Provence, France.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,982478,00.html
(second last paragraph.first page – there may be more, just didn’t read the whole thing.)
My mother’s knitting was something to behold – can you imagine knitting a sweater without a pattern ? I told you of her beading, already, Cyndi. I don’t understand that tag line, either. I wish my knitting WAS like my grandma’s! My grandmother could not read or write .. but she had a craft library in her head. I can’t do half of what she did without patterns.
And Mom was a practical woman(grandma was also, though I hardly knew her.) . Knew how to stretch dollars into infinity. She had to.. she came from the poorest part of Italia right after WWI, and, then lived through the depression as a newly wed (1934) only to see WWII rear its ugly head with a husband & two children, both pre-teen – (I wasn’t born until ‘51.)
What has happened is that a lot of us have lived our entire lives without ever feeling real need of any kind. A lot of kids, even adults, think need is not owning an IPOD. WE have gotten fat and happy.(sometimes both, sometimes, literally.)
The point is that reality just broke down the doors of our houses, time to get real, once again. Not everything has to match. Go to the used stores – if something is worn or damaged, use crafts to fix it up. Use craft to make your house more livable and more beautiful. That is what our ancestors did. Use your beads to add some color to things – cover an old table with home made beaded lace, etc.
If you are clever you can make a cave a beautiful home. Be creative, really creative. Look at things, old things with new eyes.
Throw out the garbage but make sure there is no use for what you throw out. The universe may be nearly infinite but the Earth is not.
There is Kathy’s frugal tips for the week. (-:
!!!!
LOL!! Please feel free to share your frugal tips (or to rant!) anytime you want
I live in a terrific little destination antiques town. I am always amazed to hear people walking thru stores saying “What, that’s an antique – we threw those out!” I’m sure da Vinci threw out his sketches just as quickly as Grandma threw out her old ‘plastic’ jewelry, etc etc — but, thank God, there are people who value all of it! I applaud your publication!
And I suspect that people will continue to fall in love, make art, hold hands, re-invent the world with awe and abandon – regardless of whether they may be the first people to do so!
Isn’t it great that everything old seems to be new again? I feel like if I just live long enough, everything I’ve saved will be useful somehow LOL!