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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The Art of the Chipped and Broken

"The tried and true virtues of resourcefulness and frugality 
have emerged once more... 
Vintage items have come into fashion.
The recycling and reuse of day to day items 
are more popular than ever."

-Atchinson, Abigail. "The Great Expression." Darling Magazine. 
16 Aug. 2012. Web. 25 Sept. 2012.


It's the chipped pitcher sitting on the dresser. Or the peeling paint on the bedside table. Or the twine string, close-pins, and photos that hang in lieu of a headboard. 
It's the shattered bits of an old china plate, rearranged into an art-collage. It's your grandmother's ladder-back chair given a coat of poppy-red paint. Its an old t-shirt cut and fashioned into a beautiful scarf. 

It's not called "poor." It's not called "shabby." It's not called "making do" or "doing without." And, even in our time of green-energy awareness, its not even called "recycling." 

It's called upcycling, the craft of taking the old, the used, and the forgotten and rendering it something beautiful, making it new again, transforming it to a higher state. Even as we look to our past, digging through dusty antique and consignment stores, our movement isn't considered backward or downward (even though our stuttering, confused economy's movement clearly is so). We are moving up. We are taking the remnants of what we've been given and making beauty from hopelessness and loss. 

These options are not only saving us money
but are turning our generation into a relational one. 
A creative one. 
A generation that will be remembered
for something other than being broke. 
-same source

I highly recommend Abigail Atchinson's article, as it explains and praises this new creative movement sweeping through social media and boutiques and raiding the antique stores. All hail the art of spendthrift!

Some of my own contributions:







Please feel free to view more at my Etsy shop The Yellow Notebook

Some of my favorite shops featuring handmade and antique crafts:
Have a happy Tuesday, everyone! Thanks for reading once again, 

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