Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Straws

I have been collecting drinking straws for a while now (I wash and dry them first so they aren't icky!) with the view to making things with them and also to document my own consumption. Collecting, rather than throwing away made me aware of exactly how much I use and throw away. I was inspired by the necklaces Lauren Manoogian makes with their geometry and colours and decided to try necklace made of straws.

The Mr. likes his Yakult but never uses the straws, so I had 5 packets of 5 straws to use for this necklace. Its not recycling in the strictest sense (eg: these are not used straws) but up-cycling something that would just be thrown out unused or languish in a drawer somewhere until being thrown out in 5 years time.

After a few experiments, I found the light grey crochet thread to be the best for thickness as well as colour. Threads of other colours made the straws look dirty, as the plastic is quite thin!

Its a really light necklace and comfortable to wear unlike a ceramic or glass bead necklace would be of a similar size.



2 comments:

  1. This is SUCH a lovely idea. You would think by using straws that it would look cheap, but it's SO elegant and clean. I simply love it. I'm thinking red and white striped ones in pom pom shapes for a great Christmas tree garland?... :-)

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  2. Thanks, I think the necklace turned out really well. Go for pom poms, that would be fun!

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