new beads to play with that could have ended up in landfill

My neighbour works at the tip.

Last week a truck arrived from Myer with a whole heap of things that were slightly damaged so wasteful Myer decided to just dump them in landfill.  Amongst the stuff my neighbour found 2 bags of costume jewellery.

I looked through the bags and there was a collection of necklaces, earrings and other bits and pieces that were slightly damaged.  Rather than donating these to an op shop, art department at a primary school or giving them to some other crafty kid they were all thrown out. Yep. Big department stores love adding stuff to landfill.  He sees this happening every week & has even found plasma TV's that work perfectly but were thrown out because of a little dint. 

Yay for my lovely neighbour who saved these bags of jewellery and passed them on to me.  I pulled them apart to sort out the beads as you can see in the photos.  I'll have to make a few brooches and earrings with these now and feel happy that they did not end up in landfill!

Kalliopi_handmade @ the sustainable living festival

I had a stall at the Design + Maker's Market at the Sustainable Living Festival, Melbourne yesterday.  Here are a few photos of the stuff I was selling.  More photos in my facebook group.

I got a few nice comments about my book art so think i might need to start making some more of those!

I donated $2 from each sale to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal 2009 xx

yay for little greek yiayia's in op shops..

a little while back i was in a little op shop and overhead the sales lady talking in Greek. 

I was looking through the beads, buttons and jewellry at the front counter and started talking to her in Greek too. She got so excited that I could speak Greek that she ended up saying that I could have all the beads and jewellry in the bowl on the counter for $2.. yep $2!! 

These photos show you what I got for $2. Lots of new (sustainable) projects ahead i think! Upcycle! Upcycle! Just in time for my upcoming stall at the Sustainable Living Festival with Craft Cartel.

But I do feel slightly guilty for only spending $2 in an op shop... I think I'll have to take her a present!