Psst....
I am going to let you in on a little secret. I am an Upcycling Snob. Have you ever heard of such a thing? It is really quite absurd isn't it? Could there be a bigger oxymoron than being stuck up about playing with trash? It's ridicules and yet it is true.
Here is one example.
It is my theory that you can upcycle anything and I mean anything into a piece of jewelry. This in itself may not seem too snobby but having said that I also tend to be mostly underwhelmed by most upcycled jewelry projects.
See.....Snob-O-Rama!!!!
Right?
I am not proud of this trait I am merely admitting to this character flaw, but since I have this idea, I have mostly stayed away from the impulse to make upcycled jewelry regarding it somehow beneath my superior upcycling talents.
Well I am turning 50 in about a month, which I have pretty much mentioned in every post for the last several months so if you are sick of hearing about it well.....
all I can say is............
you have got another month.
It's kind of a big deal to be turning 50 and in between the sobbing and the shredding of the invitations to join the AARP, I am planning a birthday party. The theme of which is......
wait for it......
Wait for it.......
Ok there isn't really a theme.
But I am working on some upcycled decorations and I have decided to wear my paper mache shoes, and a dress that I am working on that is made out of old T-shirts. So I needed to finish the outfit with some jewelry.
So just between you and me I guess the theme is Upcycled. I am only admitting this to you my cyber friends and fellow upcyclers as I believe that you might understand my penchant to wear trash to my 50th Birthday Party.
Sadly my real-life friends are mostly predisposed to wearing actual clothing, shoes without glue holding them together and jewelry made from something that didn't originate from the bathroom trashcan. They would never consider making a punch bowl out of old plastic bottles or making decorations from, well again something that served its original purpose in the privy.
What can I say. My friends are boring.
I mean normal.
Please don't tell them. I think that I have them pretty well convinced that I am lucid most of the time.
Anyway as I mentioned before I believe myself to be an upcycling superstar and I assumed that making some jewelry would be a snap. I could just go to my trashcan. Slap some earring hooks on a banana peel, wrap a plastic bag around my wrist and I would be set.
Ok that is not completely true. But I did plan on making a lovely bracelet out of some toilet paper tubes. Now if you know anything about cautionary tails and my previous blog posts it will not surprise you to find out that my first attempt at the TP cuff bracelet turned out looking like a third graders mother's day craft project.
It served it's purpose in humbling me from some of my snob-hobbery.
Think Mom will love it anyway?
:-)
The biggest problem (other than the way it looks :-) is that it is too small. I used one slit toilet paper tube which for your information, pay attention you may need to know this in your next trivia tournament I am pretty sure I heard that trivial pursuit is coming out with a "measurements in your bathroom addition," only measures 5 1/2".
Did you just have the urge to mark this post with a red pencil? Yes, well if there was one impression I made on my English teachers it was how good I was at writing run-on sentences.
Oh, but I am veering off topic.
Anyway I have a nice metal cuff bracelet that fits well and it measures 7" around. So the first problem was how to make the bracelet 1 1/2" larger. As for the aesthetics's of the piece well sometimes I am luckier than others. Oh and I am good at copying other peoples ideas which makes me something of a charlatan. However, I rarely loose any sleep over my duplicitous behavior, having no real crafting conscience.
I got the idea for my second design from this tutorial.
And now I am really quite pleased with myself.
I mean my new design......
No lets be honest I am pretty pleased with myself.
So much so that I can feel my ego inflating back to its normal "Queen of the Lab" size.
I liked it so much that I made more.
Maybe Mom won't have to wear the hideous blue mess after all. I know she loves me and all but unless one of her grandchildren makes her a macaroni necklace to go with it the "look" doesn't really work does it?
Here is the tutorial.
You are probably wondering why you had to suffer through this whole post just to get here?
Happy Upcycling,
