Echo-friendly Giving, Recycled Toys and More

On a recent family visit, my sister and I discovered a photo of the two of us at 2 and 5 under the Christmas tree surrounded by newly unwrapped toys. Each of us held a special treasure in the photo. I held a cardboard paper towel roll up to my eye like a telescope and she posed adorned in recycled ribbons and bows from the gifts. This was the fifties, long before recycling was cool. I’d like to claim that we were just natural trendsetters, but I confess that in the early eighties when my son was little, our home was filled with molded plastic houses, cars and slides. We gave little thought to how these eventually ended up in the landfills.

Somewhere between that magical Christmas morning of recycling and my desire to give my son plenty of opportunity for creative play, I’d forgotten all the rainy days my friends and I spent cutting windows and doors into cardboard refrigerator boxes and stacking television cartons to make apartments houses. Or the way we collected old thread spools, hammering nails around the top to make our own little knitting devices. I’d forgotten that imagination is most active when the raw materials are available without instructions for the finished product.

It’s exciting to see the hot trend for this holiday season is eco-friendly toys. I’ve found a few that are both environmentally and socially responsible. Sprig Toys in Colorado makes eco-friendly “Story Builders” that inspire creative play and strong values. Mary Meyer’ “Fuzz that Was” stuffed toy pets are made out of old recycled water bottles. The Green Toy Company, based in California makes toy cookware, gardening tools, sand toys and trucks (including a Recycling Truck) out of recycled milk bottles.

While it seems early to be thinking about the holidays, if you are going to give responsibly, you need time to plan ahead. The marketplace is abundant with products that have had another life in a different form. If, however, you are crafty, now’s the time to start looking around for what products you tend to throw away and how you can upcycle those into fabulous gifts.

Do you have ideas for eco-friendly gift projects you’ve made or plan to make that you’d like to share with us? If you have found an artist or product line that uses recycled materials please post your recommendation here-we’d love to spread the word and promote your projects or treasured finds.

Procrastination or Inspiration?

This morning, in an attempt to procrastinate a few minutes prior to beginning a project I’d been resisting, I checked my inbox and found an email from my friend and mentor, Barbara Winter,  complimenting a post by Todd Henry of Accidental Creative. Henry encouraged members of his community “to spend some time this week in unnecessary creating”. He goes on to say that  “One of the ways we grow, uncover long-lost interests and curiosities and develop new skills is through unnecessary creating. It’s important that we not neglect our personal creating for the sake of our create-on-demand role. In fact, it’s been my experience that the more we neglect our personal creative exploration the more it affects our ability to create when we have to.” I found this the perfect reason to procrastinate awhile longer and go down to the beach for a little unnecessary sand doodling with my toes. And what an accidental creative experience it was. Lost in my “pedi-art”, I forgot about my dog, Lucy until I heard her crunching yet another oyster shell. Knowing if she swallowed it, we would be in for another sleepless night with a sick dog, I demanded she drop it. Normally, she clenches her jaw tightly and refuses to let me have a look, quickly swallowing her treasure before I can rob her of the delicacy. But today, she let me have her sandy prize and as I dug to bury this disgusting morsel before another dog found it, I spotted a lovely aqua piece of glass  Rubbing my tumbled treasure on the way back to the house, I remembered an artist I know who makes jewelry from found sea glass, and another who uses recycled glass and I knew I had to do a story about artists who make their living using recycled and found objects.  (link to recycled art)  Thank you, Todd and Barbara for permission to spend some time for “accidental inspiration.”