Handmade Recycled Paper Bowl and The Sustainable Souls Project

Hastypearl

Welcome, All!

It’s a great day to have you along, as I am presenting my Handmade Recycled Paper Bowl, as my May Art for

The Sustainable Souls Project.

The theme this month is, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle.

I’ve had my engines revved for this one, and the only problem was which art project was I going to do ?!

In the end…it was the Trees that woo’d me.

What do I mean?

The trees !

Every tree that we cut down, so that we can buy a new pad of “post it” notes, gave me the inspiration to make this bowl.

In his article 2011 article Paper Chase, by Sam Martin, he states that “nearly 4 billion trees worldwide are cut down each year for paper, representing 35 percent of the harvested trees.” We can be assured that those numbers have risen.

You can also read a more recent article at Quora.com.

It’s staggering in all of its implications.

After we read, then we can Act.

It might not seem like much on a scale of one, but if we All think about the Trees, it’s easy to apply steps around our homes and offices, to take care about our personal consumptions.

Thankfully trees are being planted all over the world, to replace the resources that are used or lost in fires, so all is not lost. Read this great and hopefully encouraging to you, article on reforestation practices from the United Sates Department of Agriculture Forest Service.

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Handmade Recycled Paper Bowl

In my Handmade Recycled Paper Bowl, I simply went to my paper shredder for materials.

Well, and some coffee and tea grounds, as well !

I’ll be posting the “How To Steps” that I used to make the bowl at a later time, so for now, it’s just about getting it in our brains, ways that we can conserve our precious resources…the Trees.

Again, its terribly humble, but I use the fronts and backs of every sheet of paper that comes through our doors, before it goes into the recycling bin.

Why not?

Not only does it save Trees, but it also saves money for buying unnecessary supplies.

I reuse paper for note taking, and newspapers and even flattened cereal boxes, for shipping Hastypearl sold items.

Gold Threaded Mended Fractures

The process of saving and reusing, brought me to the whole practice of Kintsugi Art,

which is simply, the art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted with gold, silver or platinum.

Ironically, I had already used Gold Thread,

to repair the fractures that developed in my Recycled Paper Bowl, as I removed it from its base.

I love how one thing leads to another : )

Coffee Stained Recycled Soaked in Coffee

I found so many beautiful quotes as I read. The following had no authors names to honor…I wish that they had.

“In Japan, broken objects are often repaired with Gold. The Flaw is seen as a unique piece of the objects history, which adds beauty. Consider this when You are broken.”

“It isn’t prettier because it was broken, it’s prettier because it was mended.”

As I mended and mended, I left the Gold strings long and they began to fill up the interior of the bowl.

THAT, is when the bowl, became a Vessel.

I thought about humanizing that word, Vessel.

WE can be Vessels.

Each one of us will hold different gifts and each one of us will pour out, differently.

What a wonderful Lifework to find out what is inside of us, and how we can pour it out for others.

“One small crack doesn’t mean that you are broken,

it means that you were put to the test and didn’t fall apart.” Linda Poindexter

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Thanks so much for stopping by! I always love that you do.

Its a beautiful thing, to see how many people from so many wonderful countries, read

Hastypearl. It makes me smile to picture Us all as Vessels…with all of our cracks,

but still pouring and pouring out the good that is inside of us…together!

Please check back Often…

Best, Laura aka Hastypearl