Perhaps prompted by viewing a preview of the perfectly peachy picture, “Hugo,” on Christmas Eve, that night I dreamed a solution to some of our household’s clutter. In the film there is a desk built entirely of books. (I recently saw an actual front desk made of books at The Last Book Store on Fifth Street near Hope in Downtown Los Angeles.) Perhaps there is hope yet for reducing, or at least making useful, my plethora of previously perused publications.
In my dream I made a living room side table by stacking magazines in two parallel towers on top of a wooden base. I topped the towers with a sheet of glass, drilled holes through it all and bound the whole thing together with heavy gauge rope and PVC pipe with fiber-optics running through it. I may need to dip the whole table in resin for stability which would necessitate designing and building an enormous dipping bath. Probably, the recycled dream table would cost a mere $500 to $5000 to construct, depending on the cost of building that resin dip.
David Rudolph is a friend and fabulous fabricator of fantasy furniture formerly of Los Angeles now living in Santa Fe. I may approach him with this idea and see if he thinks it feasible.
When one of our daughters graduated from Los Angeles County High School for the arts, I saw a similar and scintillating repurposing of would-be waste. The ceremony was held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at he Music Center. One of the visual arts students paraded (slowly) across the stage to secure his diploma wearing a pair of flip-flops which neither flipped nor flopped. The student had made his shoes by stacking and gluing magazines together to a somewhat precarious height, then he used a jigsaw to cut these vertigo-inducing platforms to flip-flop shape and secured them to existing rubber thongs. He was an apparition floating on these stilt-like slippers with his long white graduation gown poofing around him with each deliberate step.
I adore the idea of re-visioning would-be waste into useful items. I’ve seen baskets, place mats, and even children's furniture fashioned in Nepal of colorful candy wrappers that would have been otherwise discarded.
When I think of the amount of trash generated by “convenience” it makes me want to weep. Wrapping individual items, mostly in non-biodegradable plastic, costs us so much it is mind-boggling. How do we begin to comprehend the cost to the earth? How can we pre-cycle even more by buying in bulk or in minimal packaging, recycle what’s left over and/or re-visioning the waste into useful items instead of relegating it to the land-fill?
Another dream I had in 1970 was based on Einstein’s recognition that matter can neither be created nor destroyed but can only change form. In that dream, a nightmare, really, the entire world was made of plastic.... plastic grass, plastic trees, plastic buildings and plastic people. This is not a dream I want to come true. If we insist on making products of materials that won’t biodegrade, I’m afraid the dream will become a reality.
One of my holiday gifts to the family this year is late in being manifested. A super-hero cape for the glorious granddaughter took precedence, but within the week I will complete the sewing of fine mesh produce bags for the daughters and our own household. These nifty organza bags will be in graduated sizes with draw-strings, so we can purchase veggies, fruit and bulk items without using plastic bags. They are long-lasting and washable! My aim is to be plastic free by the end of this brand spankin’ New Year!!
Happy Healthy 2012 to you, filled with love, light and lots of laughter.
May your happiest dreams come true!
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