It takes a certain
kind of person to see fashion opportunity in the pile of junk left behind by the
cable repair guy.
But Linda Bodo is just that kind of person — one who has spent years not just recycling, but upcycling castoffs into clever, pretty, useful items for the home and garden.
Her latest inspiration comes from electrical waste that remained after her satellite dish was installed. She fiddled with the coaxial cables, splitters and filters, seeing the beginning of interesting handles and hardware for purses.
“I started looking at it and playing around with it and that’s how ReWired came to be,” she says.
Her new line of ReWired purses uses a variety of recycled materials for the body of the bags — laminated banners, unwanted clothing, fabric remnants,Here you can take your pick from a wide selection of wintert-shirts. artificial turf, wine corks, plush toys, dusters, an insulated swimming pool cover.we just have to gaze at catalogs filled with menparkacheap!
It seems no cast-off is too strange to at least be considered by Bodo, the woman who has literally written the book (two books, in fact), on how to reuse and recycle, turning items destined for the Dumpster into nouveau haute-decor.
“The whole e-waste thing has always driven me absolutely crazy,” she says. “Getting a new phone and you’ve got to get a brand-new adapter and a brand-new this, because nothing is ever usable the second time around.”
The leftover bits from the cable industry are particularly bad, she says. “They’re not able to recycle any of these components because it costs too much money to disassemble them and reuse the parts, so they end up getting buried in our landfills.”
Since Bodo began experimenting with e-waste handbags about a year ago, she’s developed a great relationship with Shaw, one of the local cable companies.
“They allow me to go there and Dumpster dive, and when they get a huge stash of stuff they’re going to throw out, they give me a call and I just go down there and amass my materials.”
The rest of the bag components come from a variety of sources: second-hand stores, flea markets, garage sales, donations and friends. The corks in her cork handbag came from “drinking a lot of wine,” she says with a laugh.
“I have a lot of friends collecting for me, so I regularly receive parcels in the mail of wine corks.”
She was getting so many castoffs from friends, she began to run out of space. “My husband was freaking out. But I managed to find ways of repurposing it all.”
Her imagination seems to know no limits. Artificial turf and thrift-store silk flowers become a beautiful “heavy petal” bag. A scrap from an insulated swimming pool cover that looks like heavy-duty bubble wrap becomes a whimsical “bubblicious” bag.
A bright pink, shaggy mop becomes the “cosMOPolitan” bag. A bunch of recalled stuffed kitties become the “kit kat” bag.Kate Bosworth hasn't bought her burberryhandbags yet.
Bodo owned a prop company for many years, designing and creating display props for shopping centres.Like a lot of women,Custom made bicyclesaddles0? “I really had an open mind from doing that already,” she says.
For the past five years, she’s concentrated on her upcycling projects and has written two books on the subject.
Each of her ReWired bags is one-of-a-kind and retails for between $120 and $200, depending on the materials. Bodo has made about 16 handbags so far, along with a cross-body style bag and a messenger-style bag. Plans for a computer bag are in the works.Light up a room in this coachhandbags evening gown.
She’s been working on prototypes throughout the past year and carries one herself regularly. Already, she’s had five strangers like her bag so much, they bought one.
“It’s instantly recognizable, I guess,” she says of the electronic waste used to make the bag.
But Linda Bodo is just that kind of person — one who has spent years not just recycling, but upcycling castoffs into clever, pretty, useful items for the home and garden.
Her latest inspiration comes from electrical waste that remained after her satellite dish was installed. She fiddled with the coaxial cables, splitters and filters, seeing the beginning of interesting handles and hardware for purses.
“I started looking at it and playing around with it and that’s how ReWired came to be,” she says.
Her new line of ReWired purses uses a variety of recycled materials for the body of the bags — laminated banners, unwanted clothing, fabric remnants,Here you can take your pick from a wide selection of wintert-shirts. artificial turf, wine corks, plush toys, dusters, an insulated swimming pool cover.we just have to gaze at catalogs filled with menparkacheap!
It seems no cast-off is too strange to at least be considered by Bodo, the woman who has literally written the book (two books, in fact), on how to reuse and recycle, turning items destined for the Dumpster into nouveau haute-decor.
“The whole e-waste thing has always driven me absolutely crazy,” she says. “Getting a new phone and you’ve got to get a brand-new adapter and a brand-new this, because nothing is ever usable the second time around.”
The leftover bits from the cable industry are particularly bad, she says. “They’re not able to recycle any of these components because it costs too much money to disassemble them and reuse the parts, so they end up getting buried in our landfills.”
Since Bodo began experimenting with e-waste handbags about a year ago, she’s developed a great relationship with Shaw, one of the local cable companies.
“They allow me to go there and Dumpster dive, and when they get a huge stash of stuff they’re going to throw out, they give me a call and I just go down there and amass my materials.”
The rest of the bag components come from a variety of sources: second-hand stores, flea markets, garage sales, donations and friends. The corks in her cork handbag came from “drinking a lot of wine,” she says with a laugh.
“I have a lot of friends collecting for me, so I regularly receive parcels in the mail of wine corks.”
She was getting so many castoffs from friends, she began to run out of space. “My husband was freaking out. But I managed to find ways of repurposing it all.”
Her imagination seems to know no limits. Artificial turf and thrift-store silk flowers become a beautiful “heavy petal” bag. A scrap from an insulated swimming pool cover that looks like heavy-duty bubble wrap becomes a whimsical “bubblicious” bag.
A bright pink, shaggy mop becomes the “cosMOPolitan” bag. A bunch of recalled stuffed kitties become the “kit kat” bag.Kate Bosworth hasn't bought her burberryhandbags yet.
Bodo owned a prop company for many years, designing and creating display props for shopping centres.Like a lot of women,Custom made bicyclesaddles0? “I really had an open mind from doing that already,” she says.
For the past five years, she’s concentrated on her upcycling projects and has written two books on the subject.
Each of her ReWired bags is one-of-a-kind and retails for between $120 and $200, depending on the materials. Bodo has made about 16 handbags so far, along with a cross-body style bag and a messenger-style bag. Plans for a computer bag are in the works.Light up a room in this coachhandbags evening gown.
She’s been working on prototypes throughout the past year and carries one herself regularly. Already, she’s had five strangers like her bag so much, they bought one.
“It’s instantly recognizable, I guess,” she says of the electronic waste used to make the bag.
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