Another DIY / repurposing idea that’s for the birds:
Why not turn an old paint can or coffee can into a birdfeeder?
(Of course, it doesn’t have to be as elaborate as the examples pictured!)
For a brief tutorial, see this Lowe’s Creative Ideas post.
![DIY / repurposing idea du jour:
Old boot screwed onto a tree or a fence = new bird house.
For additional bird house, feeder, and other bird-related posts, browse through this subset of the Unconsumption archive.
[Photo spotted on Facebook here, thanks to friend Jim Mitchem. Source apparently is Livesay Photography. (Kudos to photographers who add watermarks to their photos!)]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/47ce0672717594a3ee5f0ba862bd9912/tumblr_mhag1wVdeP1qzv12bo1_400.jpg)
DIY / repurposing idea du jour:
Old boot screwed onto a tree or a fence = new bird house.
For additional bird house, feeder, and other bird-related posts, browse through this subset of the Unconsumption archive.
[Photo spotted on Facebook here, thanks to friend Jim Mitchem. Source apparently is Livesay Photography. (Kudos to photographers who add watermarks to their photos!)]
A fun gallery of repurposing inspiration: Creative Ways to Repurpose and Reuse Old Stuff » Design You Trust
Love this simple holiday decorating / repurposing idea:
Fill a crate with jars, candles, and greenery and/or pine cones.
(via Kaleidoscope of Colors)
Nelson “Kio” Mukiika has a machine shop of sorts in the Kasese district of western Uganda. I say “of sorts” because he does not have access to basic measuring tools. Nevertheless, Mukiika is able to disassemble old bikes and re-weld them together into creations of his own design: Three-wheeled hand-powered bicycles. …
Mukiika can produce the trikes for about $170, well out of reach for the average Ugandan. (More than a third of the population live on a little over $1 a day.) The funding is provided by CanUgan. You can volunteer your time, form a support group, or make a donation to the organization here.
(via CanUgan x Mukiika: Turning Old Bicycles into Hand-Powered Trikes for the Disabled - Core77)
Pecas has created “Fase #3” using a new material called Demodé. It exploits and rescues wasted textile from factories in Santiago, Chile, before being used by the consumer.
via Fase #3 : Bernardita Marambio B.
You can get a sense of the underlying material process here.
Since its start in 2005, Sea Bags has spawned a number of imitations, but unlike its competitors Sea Bags still uses only retired sails for its durable, handmade totes and accessories.
Now the Portland, Maine-based brand has partnered with fellow East Coast company, Woolrich, marrying its weathered nylon with the Pennsylvania heritage brand’s venerable wools to create a small collection of large tote bags, dopp kits and iPad cases in three plaid variations (Forest, Harvest and Lodge).
Totes come in various combinations of wool bodies with sail interiors and sail shells lined with wool, as well as a few styles comprising nylon blocked with leather on the outside and Woolrich plaid on the inside.
Like the repurposed sails, the Woolrich fabric and leather come from dead stock supply procured by Sea Bags, so it’s a limited edition in the truest sense—when they run out of scraps, the line is finished.
(via Sea Bags and Woolrich)
Wellies have become as much a part of festival culture as the music, beer and straw hats. And, just like festival tents, they tend to get left behind in the muddy field at the end of the weekend, forgotten, sodden and anonymous.
So one guy decided to collect them up and do something good with them. Steffan Lemke-Elms set up Festival Reboot, a company that collects, cleans and reuses these unwanted wellington boots….
Once cleaned, the tops get chopped off leaving a clog like shoe at the bottom and a strip of welly material…. The rubbery material gets upcycled in either a beer holder, a notebook or a bracelet.. Steffan sells these in order to raise money to send the bottom part (the cleaned, paired Welly Clogs) out to the slums in Nairobi and Nakuru in Kenya.
(via Do The Green Thing: Wellies are for life, not just for Glastonbury)
Long ago on Unconsumption we pointed out an impressive shelf made of old issues of National Geographic. That pops again in this rather interesting item:
While 20% of magazines are being recycled, there is a teensy tiny fraction of magazines that are actually being upcycled and repurposed, mostly by eco-friendly/unemployed crafters. ….
When it comes to individual titles, there’s only one magazine that “owns the category,” as they say. There’s National Geographic and then there’s everyone else. Take a quick look on Etsy and you’ll find envelopes, stickers, notebooks, and yards of garlands, all repurposed from Nat Geos of both yesteryear and today.
Over the years National Geographic has won a National Magazine Award in probably every award category for which it is eligible, including Magazine of the Year, which it won last year. So even though it has absolutely no need for nonawards of my own conjuring, it will always remain the top spot-holder of the non-category, “Most Repurposed.”
See lots of examples at: ALL MY EYES: The Afterlife of a Magazine
Accompanying a growing awareness of the wastefulness underlying the modern global economy, a new approach to art has flourished in recent years, one dealing with the repurposing and utilization of materials discarded or viewed as useless. Written by street art commentator Tristan Manco, the new book “Raw + Material = Art” delves into these techniques and philosophies by exploring the works of 38 artists using low-tech, low-cost media and methods. The selected artists provoke thought on both subject and medium, and continue to push what’s possible by working at “the raw edge of contemporary art.”
(via Raw Material = Art)
Don’t you love that this use for paintbrushes not only spruces up the outside of a vase (or an empty jar or can), but still enables you to use the paintbrushes?
It’s a clever way to store art or office supplies such as brushes, pencils, pens, and rubber bands.
(via DudeCraft)
![Ana Maria of Anamu here! .. [T]oday I’m dressing up my luggage with a re-purposed travel tag. …
I somehow ended up with a collection of free plastic travel card holders while living in London but instead of tossing them, I figured that I’d put the plastic sleeves to use as new and improved travel accessories!
If you don’t have a travel card holder like the one pictured below, dig around for old conference badges (you know, the kind you wear around your neck or clip onto your shirt) or even old wallet photo inserts. Basically, anything that has a clear plastic sleeve with the ability to glue paper on the back side will most likely do the trick. Here’s how I did it (and yes, that’s a cosmetic sponge - works great with paper mache glue!)
More here: Poppytalk: DIY: Re-purposed Luggage Tag
And I have to say: I am drawn here to the idea that there might be something useful to do with plastic conference badges. Those things drive me crazy.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2ou5ihExH1qzv12bo1_400.jpg)
Ana Maria of Anamu here! .. [T]oday I’m dressing up my luggage with a re-purposed travel tag. …
I somehow ended up with a collection of free plastic travel card holders while living in London but instead of tossing them, I figured that I’d put the plastic sleeves to use as new and improved travel accessories!
If you don’t have a travel card holder like the one pictured below, dig around for old conference badges (you know, the kind you wear around your neck or clip onto your shirt) or even old wallet photo inserts. Basically, anything that has a clear plastic sleeve with the ability to glue paper on the back side will most likely do the trick. Here’s how I did it (and yes, that’s a cosmetic sponge - works great with paper mache glue!)
More here: Poppytalk: DIY: Re-purposed Luggage Tag
And I have to say: I am drawn here to the idea that there might be something useful to do with plastic conference badges. Those things drive me crazy.
