The first Upcycled Item I made.
What would you do if you had to make something using one material?
I’ve taken this to every workspace since creating it because it’s the best reminder I have of a moment where I thought the project was a waste of time but it turned out to be one of my favourite memories. A couple of years back I applied for a visual merchandiser role. One of those longshot applications right after graduation that I did because it was a dream company I would have loved to work for. After the interview they sent over an assignment to complete, the instructions were very simple.
Create a functional object using one material (use of glue, tape or paint was unlimited). I remember reading over the email wondering where to even start. I paced around my apartment, did a few quick searches and eventually went down to walk along Robson Street to gather my thoughts. Window display after window display and I still wasn’t feeling that confident about what to do.
By the time I got back home I had decided on paper, it was an easy material to work with and something I knew best. Paper mache was something I always did well with for projects so I figured it was the best option on short notice. I took a couple of sheets and began cutting up pieces to play around with. First obstacle was, paper may be a tad flimsy for this…
So I looked around for an old box, some type of sturdy cardboard and started to shred that instead. At some point the idea of pencil holder came to mind and I started thinking about the shape and overall look. It was simple enough to make a cylinder shape, cut out the circle bottom and wrap a sheet around it, slap on some paint and call it day type thing. I remember reaching for a slightly thicker piece of cardboard that was a bit harder to cut through. It was definitely from an older box that had been lying around for sometime because the corners had wear and tear.
To make my life easier, I tried to peel it apart, thinking it would be easier to cut at half the thickness. But after doing so, I was surprisingly interested by the texture that had caused. There was all type of rigids created because of the way the two sheets of cardboard had been secured together. My first thought was I can paint this to look like tree bark and that was where the idea of the hollowed out log came to mind. I kept tearing pieces apart and re-gluing them together with the torn sides facing outwards until I had enough pieces to cover around the circular base I had.
I glued them in and once the main stubs so to speak were in place, I began cutting them down to different heights and adding on shredded pieces, connecting parts together as needed to gain structural integrity. Once it was strong enough to hold a full set of pencils, I cut out some longer thin lengths that I later painted as vines. I needed to wrap something around the base to secure the strength so I decided to add on the vine and ivy leaves detailing.
It didn’t land me the job but it was really fun learning experience! Plus it’s holding up surprisingly well considering how many times I moved it around. It’s a great reminder that nothing is as it appears at first glance. Even if something throws you for a loop, you can always make the best of it as long as you choose to look for the good in everything.