April is here. It has begun.

This is April and every year in April, I like to share ideas about how to rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle, re-invent, redesign, re-craft, recover, restore, rebuild, revamp, reclaim, or repurpose something in order to save it from the trash, and ultimately to save our planet.  Which of course, leads to respect: respect for our planet, respect for trash as art, and respect for what you and I as artists can achieve.   This all leads up to Earth Day on April 22, or as I prefer to call it, bEARTHday.

Later today I will share something I recycled, but for now, let me give you a brief overview of a few items I have made in the past.

I got an excellent response when I shared these repurposed keys I turned into brooches.

Although I have learned to NOT use black plastic as the background, I made this

and these among others last year.  I hope to create a few more this year, too.

These I turned into hooks will NOT be on my agenda this year!  I nearly killed my hands trying to stamp and bend these keys.  However, they were fun an experiment I chose to make once!

One thing I love to make during April is at least one assemblage.  For this piece I deconstructed an old cordless telephone.  I also used gifted tissue.

We all have those ugly wire hangers no one wants.  Even the thrift stores don't want them.  I looked for a way to use a few of mine, and came up with a bird cage.  I recycled two hangers, a stick from my yard, a piece of twine that had been used to tie down some wood I purchased, and a chipped plate from my Grandmother's dishes.

I also made this using one wire hanger

and tons of tiny scraps of hand dyed or hand painted fabric.

I also like to recycle silverware.  I turned this spoon into a bird's nest using a small plastic egg, bits of leftover vintage sheet music, and bits of sewing thread  and dyed shredded paper.

I've even been known to "make" a bit of jewelry, like this one, using the leftover spring from a clothespin the wind tore apart on the clothes line.

Of course, I do bits of sewing, and paper crafting, too.  I hope to see you this month as I create 22 days worth of art leading up to bEARTHday.