recycling and repurposing

In my never ending quest (or maybe now I can admit it is an obsession) for thick wool felt I have found a compromise which is just perfect. I have purchased a fair few wool blankets over the last few weeks and washed them at very high temperatures in the machine, then dried them (some in the tumble dryer, some naturally) and then ironed them. The result is this:I will be selling some of this in my shop as I have way too much of it here for me at the moment. I much prefer the idea of recycling or repurposing old things into new things. Blankets become felt, felt becomes monsters/brooches/softies which then become a much loved (I hope) object.

Speaking of recycling/repurposing - here are a couple of pics of something I treated myself to recently. This mini quilt was made by Syko using linen from a dress which she had bought but never worn:Apart from obviously being a lovely piece of art, it has also made use of an old piece of clothing which for me just has much more appeal. This is the kind of thing people used to do in the days before the throw away society we now live in.

We are all becoming more conscious of what we need to do to save our planet. At home we recycle quite a lot of household waste, we recycle our garden waste too, and we're seriously considering getting a compost bin for the garden to put our veggie peelings and the like in. As a designer/crafter I hope I'm also doing my bit with using repurposed fabrics and findings where I can. I don't really want to quote one of the big supermarket chains here, but in this case it is appropriate and very true that 'every little helps'.