Eco-friendly fashion has enormous momentum! Everyone these days recycles something and countless people recycle as much as they possible can. Recycling not only includes the gathering of recyclable materials raw and otherwise, but also includes reusing items in new products that may otherwise be thrown away. Next would be purchasing products that have recycled content. This is a recycling loop. One person’s refuse becomes another person’s prized piece of art!
In the world of handcrafted fashion accessories aged metal found at a neighbor’s deconstruction site may be cut into various shapes and sizes and used by artists to make incredible pieces of beautiful jewelry embellished with pearls and gemstones. Broken pieces of colorful glass bottles tumbled in a rock polisher make gorgeous pendants. Bicycle parts, nuts and bolts, bottle caps and more remake their way into our lives in various merchandise. Jeans have a way of becoming jackets, totes and backpacks. Belts become the straps of shoulder bags. Metal cut from coffee cans may become components of earrings. The creativity of recycling by our talented artists is unlimited! Recycling refuse and unwanted objects into beautiful new items that may be worn or used everyday inspires many artists. Looking at a throw away object determining how it can be creatively changed into something useful whether it be jewelry, clothing, household goods or home décor is a fun artistic challenge.
People feel very good about buying their fashion accessories, home furnishings and domestic goods from artist that are being environmentally friendly by reusing materials that would have otherwise been thrown away. Does their creativity inspire you to recycle items you may be thinking of tossing aside? For many it does.
Purchasing items made with secondhand materials is win win situation for both the artist and the consumer. Not only are we preventing the need for future landfills we are also preventing future pollution from the processing of raw materials. Also we are saving energy and conserving our great natural resources such as vegetation, water, mineral deposits and our precious forests.
Environmentally friendly artists not only create custom gemstone jewelry using previously used materials and components, the boxes that jewelry is packaged in are made from recycled paper, the mailing envelopes are made with recycled materials and the bubble wrap is on its second or third time around. Even the packaging the artists supplies arrive at their studios in are recycled and all the invoices are printed on paper that has been recycled!
