My Etsy Seller of the Week is Kimberly. Her shop Trashy Crafter is amazing. She's written a great guest post for me, so you can find out more about her fabulous project and wonderful jewelry.
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Books are magical, they give you the ability to go on a jungle safari one minute and
a deep see dive with mermaids the next, but what happens when books has gotten
lots of love from years of use? The pages get creased, dog-eared and ripped, the
bend or even start to fall off. That’s where my Mom Helen and I come in, and this is
where the story of Trashy Crafter begins.
a deep see dive with mermaids the next, but what happens when books has gotten
lots of love from years of use? The pages get creased, dog-eared and ripped, the
bend or even start to fall off. That’s where my Mom Helen and I come in, and this is
where the story of Trashy Crafter begins.
My names Kim, and I have pretty much been a crafter since I was old enough to hold
scissors in my hand and not eat the Elmer’s glue. As a little girl I would come home
from school each day, and as long as my homework was done I could create crafts all
afternoon at my Grandmas house until my Mom and Dad came to pick my sister and
I up after work. My Grandma made beautiful crafts and sold at lots of holiday craft
shows, crafting ran in my blood and it was bound to become a part of my life some
way or another.
One day while I was in my senior year of college and my Mom and I went to the local
thrift store. While there we noticed they had these auction bins out front of the store
full of damaged and outdated books. We found out that when books would not sell
at the thrift store because of being damaged or outdated, they auctioned them off,
and if the folks sifting through the auction bin thought could not sell the book or it
was too damaged it was just thrown away.
Needless to say my Mom and I were heartbroken that all those beautifully
illustrated children’s books were just thrown away... so we grabbed about 25 books
each in our arms and took them home. I was really busy with school at the time, so
the books sat in the corner of my room for about 3 months. I was trying to think of
a useful thing to turn the books into when it hit me! I was very lucky to have a 3rd
grade teacher that was very crafty, her name was Mrs. Bryant. She had taught us
how to roll magazines pages into paper beads (I’m sure many of you have done this
in girl scouts or grade school). I made my first few beads and knew from then I was
hooked, the most magical part about it to me is that you not only create beautiful,
colorful unique beads made from something that was going to be thrown into a
landfill, but you know what book or item it was made from!
Everyone has stories, and connects with them so well, the reason we continue to
create recycled book beads, map beads and sheet music beads is that when people
purchase a set at a local craft show or online they have a story behind what they
wear.... Perhaps they went on a road trip across the country, and that map bead
bracelet they wear reminds them of the fun they had, or they had a band teacher
that taught them to play an instrument, so they give them a sheet music bracelet as
a token of appreciation... or even a gift for a mom or teacher that read you a book as
a child that connected with you and stayed in your memory to this day. As humans
we all connect universally with stories, and it’s a beautiful thing to throw away, so
my Mom and I plan on fighting the good fight and continuing to turn old books into
beautiful, wearable works of art.
Our Process:
My Mom Helen and I gather the books from a lot of different places, sometimes we
find them in cardboard boxes outside of library’s, in thrift stores on the clearance
shelf or in the bins, and even get books, maps or sheet music donated from folks
that love and support our mission. Once we gather all of the books we measure and
hand cut the book pages into long narrow triangle strips and roll them one at a time
onto lollipop sticks. Once they are on there we coat each bead 3-5 times depending
on the thickness of the paper. Once that is done we spray them with a matte finish
and then we start to make them into the finished jewelry. We purchase damaged
necklaces and bracelets from the local thrift store and strip them apart to repurpose
the beads. We create the jewelry with a mixture of the paper book page beads we
made along with the repurposed beads. Once that is finished, we hand cut recycled
cardboard bracelet holders and place the book labeling on to each set so folks know
what book their bracelets were made from.
Kimberly has generously offered a Harry Potter bracelet. One very lucky winner will receive this great prize!
If you like Kimberly's shop and the giveaway, please show your appreciation by liking her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TrashyCrafter
This giveaway is international. I will contact the winner by email or on twitter. If I don't receive a reply within 60 hours I let rafflecopter draw someone else. Good luck!
Ever since I was a kid I was reading and writing short stories. The passion never died off. I took English all the way through school, majored in English Literature and Creative Writing. Became an editor. I have 4000+ books in my personal collection, which doesn't seem to stop growing. I love books. I hoard them, which is why my book blog is called "The Bibliotaphe Closet!" Am I careful with them? You betcha. Not a wrinkle. Not a fold!!! Thanks for the giveaways, Librarian Lavender!
ReplyDeletei adore books, can never get enough. though i have finally started using a kindle for ease - i still read and buy regular books. when we were little, mom took us every saturday to the library and we would take as many as we could carry and be ready to go back by tuesday or wednesday of the next week. my sister and i are still both huge bookies
ReplyDeleteFor me they are treasures and must be well respected. i would have been heartbroken as well at teh ideas to see that stack destroyed ( in my country after a "convention" what hasn't been sold is not put at a dimished price or offered no they destroy it and that break my heart
ReplyDeleteI treasure my books, even more so now that I had to leave many of the behind when I moved to Germany. I take very, very good care of them. It would kill me to mistreat a book.
ReplyDeleteBooks mean life views to me.
ReplyDeleteI don't let anyone borrow a precious book. I know - evil.
ReplyDeleteYes I look after my books. I send to charity shops when book shelf overflowing.
ReplyDeletebooks mean another world to me that you get sucked in while reading, I always take good care of them :)
ReplyDeleteI love books so much and I really do try to take care of them. I think one of the greatest components of my dream home is having a bookcase with all my favorite books.
ReplyDeleteWow, what a great and unique way to recycle old books, it's brilliant!
ReplyDeleteFab giveaway too :-))
We read to our kids every.single.night and have since they were born. We teach them that books were once alive (wood) and that their stories should be cherished.
ReplyDeleteBesos, Sarah
Journeys of The Zoo
I'm very protective of my books. I think it's wonderful that the books are reused in such a lovely and beautiful way. I use old books for my artwork.
ReplyDeleteBooks mean world to me, I can survive any kind of apocalypse with books, books are my love books are my life.
ReplyDelete