From Trash to Treasure: Making Unique Gifts from Junk

Creating art should not about going to Hobbycraft and buying lots of tat, in order to make something nice. Real creativity is about turning found items or thrift shop finds into something new. If you’re feeling creative, here are some lovely inspiring ideas. Whether you do this for a hobby or create a cottage industry!

If making your own junk art:

• Don’t remove sand, pebbles, shells or driftwood from beaches (these prevent coastal erosion, the latter two often home to tiny marine creatures). Don’t remove fallen leaves either, they are likely home to tiny insects.
• Be sure raw materials are free from lead paint, old pallets free from rusty nails etc. Also keep glue away from children and pets. For plant pots, read of toxic plants to avoid near pets and avoid displaying indoor plants to gardens, to stop birds flying into windows.
• Also leave items like wildlife homes to the experts (for instance, never use upcycled tin or bright colours to make birdhouses, these can overheat and attract predators)

Junk Mail Art (Cornish art from old magazines)

Junk Mail Art offers beautiful and unique art collage prints and greetings cards, featuring places in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. A lovely way to pretty up a wall, or send a card to someone you love. Custom commissions are welcomed.

And although FSC-certified paper means it has not come from rainforests, it still means growing fast-growing plantations of young trees (usually with pesticides) on land that could be used for old-growth slow-growing trees, that support birds and native wildlife.

Although old newspapers can be ripped up and placed in compost bins, magazines need to go in recycling bins, due to inks that would not break down.

Upcycled Plastic Roses (creative inspiration)

These recycled plastic bottle roses are so pretty! Each petal is hand-cut and sandblasted, then sculpted around a stem made from stainless steel. Place them in her upcycled coca-cola bottle vase!

Sarah also makes creative goods from upcycled cans of cola and tonic!

Always fully remove lids and pop inside or pull ring-pulls back over holes before recycling cans (and pinch tops shut), to avoid wildlife getting trapped.

Upcycled Carrier Bag Flowers (creative inspiration)

Ruth Moilliet is a sculptor who makes beautiful flowers, made from recycled plastic waste. The ‘flower petals’ are made from heat-pressed recycled plastic carrier, food and postal bags, displayed on a stainless steel rim. Display in a shady spot, as colours may fade over time.

For wall display only, keep away from children and pets.

Upcycled Friendly Robots (creative inspiration)

ThinkUp Upcycled Stuff! is a fun indie brand was created by a couple in Italy, who upcycle junk into truly original and fun creations. Showing that using up trash can be a great source of creativity, as well as being good for the planet.

Keep away from small children & pets. A few items contain batteries, so locate your nearest recycling points (they are choking hazards).

Some of these items are electrical, but include cables to CE standards. Made in Italy, so check instructions for different voltages and plugs.

But really this post is for show – how talented are this couple?

Poetry, romance, design and technology. All together, and respecting the environment. Stefano & Lucia

Look what two people can create with various recovered metals, old iron pipes and upcycled biscuit tins. Is it wrong to start to fall in love with a few robots, made from recycled metal?

This small copper robot is made from all the bits and bobs leftover from the artist’s workbench. Not a toy.

Zero waste pottery

Staffordshire (and in particular Stoke-on-Trent) is of course known for its pottery. These handmade clay wonky bowls are made by hand.

Oxford Clay has a great e-book on 30 ways to make your pottery greener. It includes which ingredients to use and avoid, eco-friendly tools and recipes (including one without oxides).

Its own pottery is made with clay that’s fired with clean energy, and uses vegan tools and ingredients. This potter creates ‘green’ colours by recycling copper from broken electronics, and ‘blue colours’ by recycling broken glass and bottles from around the city of Oxford!

The six towns of Stoke-on-Trent

Stoke-on-Trent is made up of six towns, Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke-upon-Trent, and Tunstall. Over time, they grew together, but each kept its own character. What joined them most closely was pottery.

The area had what potters needed nearby. There was clay for shaping ware, coal for firing kilns, and water routes for moving goods. Because transport matters as much as raw material, the Trent and Mersey Canal changed everything. Pots could leave the area more easily, and supplies could come in with less trouble.

As demand grew in Britain and abroad, workshops became factories. Streets filled with ovens, workshops, and yards. Families often had some link to the trade, whether in moulding, painting, firing, packing, or selling. That is why the area became known as The Potteries.

Out walking? Follow the Countryside Code to keep all creatures safe. Keep dogs away from steep banks, mushrooms (and other toxic plants/trees) and on leads during nesting season (and near barnyard friends and wild ponies).

Locals from Stoke-on-Trent

Robbie Williams grew up here (his parents ran a pub), as did Motorhead’s Lemmy (the Ace of Spades).

After 15 years of taking drink and drugs, Lemmy asked for a blood transfusion. But doctors who ran tests said his body was so toxic, that fresh blood may have killed him!

Slash (guitarist with band Guns’n’Roses) spent his childhood here, before his family emigrated. He recalled that when touring in England, visiting relatives ‘downed every drop of cider in our dressing room. Our booze would have killed anyone but us!’

Another local was Captain Edward Smith, who was in charge of the Titanic when it sank, and his body was never found. Many people criticised the 1997 blockbuster, as it depicted him and his crew as reckless, going too fast through ice-berg waters.

In fact, the conditions meant that icebergs were impossible to spot until near the end, and survivors said he was frantically directing crew, and helping passengers to escape right until the end. One onlooker even reported that he drowned, trying to save a child.

The sacred beauty of created things

Art is How God Loves Us is a radiant exploration of art as a spiritual gateway. In a personal book, the author (a trained oboist, writer and creative coach) beautifully illustrates how a spiritual perspective on art, guides us towards both our Creator and our most authentic selves.

When you hear beautiful music or stand before a work of art, have you ever felt a stirring within, a sense of something more?

That’s the premise of this book – through music, visual art and nature. Beauty and brokenness alike can become laces of divine connection. Whether standing before van Gogh’s olive trees or listening to Brahms in a moment of doub.

Art is not a measure of talent. But a way for God to speak, whether that’s through poetic language or a beautiful painting.

The book includes reflective exercise and a study guide. For anyone longing to reconnect with joy, beauty and Divine presence. And a call to live as God’s art in the world.

Dr Merideth Hite Estevez is a teacher and musician who holds workshops for others to find creative recovery. She has performed with top orchestras and holds two degrees in playing the oboe. She lives with her family (her husband is Rev.Dr. Edwin Estevez) in Michigan, USA.

Here is an excerpt from her poem Spark, which appears in the book:

It doesn’t interest me if you believe
in the God of my understanding or yours.
I want to know if you’ve stood weeping
before a painting,
if you’ve found the world of a novel more palatable
than this one.
I want to know if you’ve woken in the night
to the answer,
if rush of word or image or interval
doused the flames of overthinking
while you washed the dishes.