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Recycled Crafts

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Recycled Crafts - fun gifts with a conscience

Recycled crafts make great gifts for friends and family, with so many different benefits.

You'll find out how buying crafts using recycled materials is good for so much more than the environment.

Read about some of the most common as well as the more unusual recycled materials used by craftspeople to make unique and funky creations.

You'll also find some great recycled gift ideas for the people you want to treat.

Why recycled crafts?

The benefits of buying recycled crafts

  • Good for the environment
    Creating crafts from recycled items means that the craftsperson is minimising his/her impact on the environment, keeping extra "junk" out of landfills, and using fewer new materials that may be in short supply.

  • Helps promote traditional crafts
    Many traditional crafts are dying out as people opt for cheap mass produced items. By buying handcrafted gifts you can help keep those skills alive.

  • Can help support poorer communities
    In certain regions around the world selling their crafts is the only income some members of the poorer communities can generate. As new materials are too expensive for them, some of the most ingenious uses of recycled materials come from these resourceful craftspeople. Click here to read about the origins of Southern African wire art.

  • Encourages originality and creativity
    Fashioning crafts from recycled materials requires creativity. Whether the craftsperson starts with the materials and finds a suitable product to create from them, or whether he/she starts with the product and has to figure out what recycled items can be used to create it, it requires ingenuity. This can only benefit arts and crafts in general.

  • Each item is unique
    Even when a craftsperson creates several of the same item, chances are that no two will be identical due to the changing nature of the available "junk" to be used. Gifts this unique are likely to be treasured by their new owners, as they are one-of-a-kind and no one else has something exactly the same.

Romantic Recycled Gift Idea

Recycled Tin Rose

Show your love for your wife or girlfriend with an everlasting red rose.

The story behind the roses is that the artist was going through hard times in South Africa a few years back and he dreamed he was searching through rubbish dumps for items. In his dream there were beautiful bright flowers growing out of the rubbish. When he woke up he decided it was a message to develop these roses from old tin cans, which he paints!

Available at Jacaranda Blue.

Recycled Gift Idea for a Man

Recycled Keyboard Cufflinks

Handmade from old keyboard keys and available in classic grey or sharp black keys, these make great gifts for dads, husbands, colleagues or anyone who spends a lot of time at his computer!

Made by Nicola Harper of Geekware who makes it her business to transform obsolete electronic waste into fun and geeky gifts, and available in the UK at Jacaranda Blue.

Recycled Gift Idea for a Crafter/Hobbyist

Recycled Tin Boxes

These boxes are fab for storing crafting essentials such as embellishments, ribbons & fibres, scraps of fabric or even small tools. Buy one for the cardmaker, scrapbooker or beader in your life!

Made in South Africa by African Home Creative, a fair trade accredited organisation, and available at Jacaranda Blue.

Recycled Gift Idea for a Colleague

Recycled Tin Pen Holder

Good for the environment, good for fair trade and looks really good too! Great on a desk or by the telephone, this unusual pen holder is made from recycled aluminium tin cans.

Made in South Africa by African Home Creative, a fair trade accredited organisation, and available at Jacaranda Blue.

Housewarming Recycled Gift Idea

Recycled Bottle Top Magazine Holder

Made from recycled bottle tops and galvanised steel wire this magazine holder makes a real statement but still manages to look completely stylish.

Made in South Africa by IFAT registered company African Home Creative, and available at Jacaranda Blue.

Artist at work on YouTube

Artist Brian Ottoson creates a turtle from recycled materials at the Neat0O Gallerry at Blueberry Patch Studios, Gulfport Fla. www.blueberrypatch.org
Artist at Work
by blueberrypatch | video info

1 rating | 981 views
curated content from YouTube

Brilliant, Interesting or Just Plain Ridiculous?

Your views on buying recycled crafts

Let us know what you think about buying crafts made from recycled materials. You can be as honest as you like!

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Recycled Sculptures on YouTube

Everything this artist creates is made from recycled plastic jugs, bottles and caps. He doesn't use any paint or a brush. The color comes from the bottle caps and his soldering iron is his brush.
Sculptures by Summer - Recycling plastic into Art!
by SculpturesbySummer | video info

24 ratings | 20,901 views
curated content from YouTube

Resources for those wanting to make, buy or sell recycled crafts

The Freecycle Network
The Freecycle Network is a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving and getting stuff for free in their own towns. It's a great way of encouraging reuse/recycling and keeping unnecessary stuff out of landfills.
Folksy
Folksy is a place to buy, sell and learn how to make handmade crafty things. Based in the UK.
Etsy
A place to buy and sell all things handmade. Based in the US but used worldwide.

I'd love to hear from you!

If you have any comments or recommendations, please let me know. This is my first lens, so all feedback helps.

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louise123

Hi, I'm Louise, self-employed mother of two. I live in the UK and make a living selling fair trade gifts & accessories online and at home parties.
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