Get Creative with Upcycling

Piece by, Salvaged Silver Vintage Spoon Jewelry

We don't need to buy more new stuff, exhausting our resources and cramming more baggage into our landfills.  We can learn to upcycle.  

From within Romantic Ruins shop, downtown Nanaimo, B.C.

We all have our own talents and things we are inspired by. Maybe sewing is your thing and you can put together older clothing into something unique.  Or maybe you enjoy building stuff and can take older pieces and transform them into something with better purpose.  When creativity is ignited, the task at hand evokes a type of calm focus that rests the running mind.  The intrinsic value in this extends to other parts of our lives.  Appreciation and gratitude take center stage and our perception is one of contentment. 

Last year I picked up a beautiful hardwood, sturdy table with not one leaf, but two (great for my large family suppers).  It was only $30.  

$30 Thrift find we've started burning a design into.

My husband and I sanded it down and started burning a design into its surface.  This will become a family heirloom, passed down through the generations to come.  I love setting out meals, board games and working on homework, art projects and my own writing on it.  Since, I've moved onto my cutting boards and wooden spoons.

Wood Burned Cutting Board

The point is, so many simple things can be made into special and extravagant ones with a little creativity.  

Check out these fine souls who have found most creative ways to upcycle material objects into use, rather than have them linger around collecting dust or filling up landfills. 

Meg Gorosh

Meg Gorosh

Here's a real gem of a soul.  When her father passed away she held onto a box of his ties, wondering what she could possibly do with them.  When her yoga studio put on a fundraiser called, 'Grow Your Own Yoga' she knew he would have been thrilled to contribute to such a great cause: The David Susuki Foundation.  

Ties upcycled into Headbands

She started transforming those ties into unique and lovely headbands that can be worn casually or to dress up with.  They were a success for the fundraiser as well as an intrinsic outlet that led her into a meditative stage while creating.  




Salvaged Silver Vintage Spoon Jewelry
-Laurel Gonneau

Birkshire 1887 Cuff Bracelet

You know that set of silverware beauties collecting dust atop your kitchen cabinet?  You don't want to use them, but you also can't just give them up. Maybe they're a family heirloom or their beauty brings you joy to see and run your hands across every once in awhile.

Laurel's the one to bring these to.  She takes heirloom silverware and transforms them into elegant, feminine and most appealing jewelery you can wear.

"Friends bring me their heirlooms and they are so happy to see the final results and be able to wear them."

 

1899 Sterling sugar spoon wrap ring

  
She sees her job, not as taking credit for the original intricate details, but instead, focusing on re-inventing its purpose.  

"The quest for silverware is so rewarding...the internet, yard sales, antique stores.  Vintage silver is everywhere."   

A woman with artistic charm.  Be sure to check her stuff out:  
https://www.pinterest.com/fogwitch/salvaged-silver-spoon-jewelry-my-creations/  
https://www.facebook.com/salvagedsilver/  

Romantic Ruins
-Alice Munro

Beautiful Antique couch @ Romantic Ruin Downtown Nanaimo, B.C.

A shop filled with vintage pieces, some rescued and refurbished, others completely original, still standing solid from the days when stuff was made to last through generations.

Walking into her store, one is suddenly transported into an atmosphere of romance, tremendous beauty and curiosity to stroll through every antique poised with one another.   Not only furniture, but art pieces (paintings and their original frames), dishes (remember great grandma's beautiful china?), fabrics, toys, with anything and everything fashioned in unique displays.  

Set in the hub of Vanvouver Island, this is the place to go to find something most special and antique.  A place to buy a gift or something for your home (and she'll wrap your stuff in fabric so you don't have to worry about the waste).  

Check out her store, you might even get a chance to meet the ghost residing there.   store@romanticruins.com