Tina is the truest recycler I have ever met! Now, my grandma grew up during The Great Depression, and she did her fair share of mending old blankets and reusing pillow cases, turning shabby old underwear into rags... but I have never seen such scientific ingenuity when it comes to re-using TRASH! Any plastic container, including the lid, aluminum soda cans, milk cartons, cereal boxes, aluminum foil, detergent jugs, shredded newspaper, and basically anything imperishable that I haven't mentioned can be reborn! Leave it to Tina to discover a use for it. Her creative new line of
Up-Cycled Jewelry is just one of the venue's she has used to redefine her once-used household objects. And they have turned out to be so perfect! The earrings are lightweight, unique, whimsical and colorful. I have a pair that I wear at least once a week, when I want to feel casual and yet blingy at the same time.
The other day, I was walking by Tina's work station. I assumed she had gone to Hobby Lobby and purchased all the perfect sized jewelry containers to hold her various beads, hooks and hoops. But, at a closer look she told me that each of these containers were once the bottoms of juice or soda bottles, salad or deli containers. I was amazed that it all came out so ORGANIZED! I never imagined using random plastic containers to organize your creative particulars could be so neat and clean and visually pleasant! And not to mention the old violin case she displays her tools and what not's in. Ingenious! I'm pretty sure Tina's life mantra has something to do with finding a good use for every particle she owns and continually stretching each resource to it's limits and beyond. She has an amazing gift for doing what she loves to do. There's a verse above her sewing machine that says it completely, "Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." And that she does!
-Gretchen Ann
