RETRASH - a book review

If you know me, you'd probably know that I am loathed to do a number of things: drive, exercise, do interviews, and do book reviews. Oh, and I hate to leave the house too, but let us talk about my serious neuroses some other post.

So, you may have fallen off your chair when you saw "a book review" in my blog title. It's a lot easier to fall off the chair if you're sitting on a therapy ball, by the way.

But, yes! You read right - no need to keep rubbing your eyes or wonder if the mushrooms you ate last night were hallucinogenic - this is really a book review. It's a pretty short book review, but it is an actual one.

I recently won an e-version of an usual but über cool book.

The book, written by Nathan Devine, is cleverly titled, retrash: Upcycle, Repurpose, Reuse, Recycle. As Nathan says in the forward, "This book represents a small part of the solution to our growing problem of waste..." and features the work of indie artists and crafters who created stunning new things out of old materials that would otherwise have cluttered landfills.

Divided into twelve chapters - fabric/fashion, timber, electronics, linoleum, paper/cardboard, kitchenware, billboards, metal, glass, mixed materials, jewelry, plastic - each section is full of gorgeous color photos along with the artists' descriptions of how they came to make what they do, what inspires them, and more. Their Etsy addresses are given in case anyone wanted to order their products, which I know you will find irresistible. Or, if you're the creative sort yourself, their creations will spark your own ideas of what to do with the materials around you that would usually be thrown out. 

an example of the extraordinary art in the book

However it moves you, and I promise it will, you will leave this book never looking looking at trash, or art, the same way again.

To get a discount coupon and for info on how to order the book, go to the retrash Facebook page. It would make a great gift for those on your list who are environmentally-minded or have an artistic soul. And, you know, the holidays are coming up!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams