An interview with WinkleWorks founder Beth Weiner
and The Greener Room's Melissa Moschitto
and The Greener Room's Melissa Moschitto
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| Earrings crafted from discarded gift cards. |
Greener Room: So, Beth, how did this all come to be?
Beth Weiner: I've been a recycler forever and a re-user for almost as long. I just think that when something can no longer be used for its original purpose there has to be something else to do with it. So I have hat boxes (my storage system of choice and necessity) filled with empty spools, old ribbons, buttons, bottle caps, wine corks, handles, clothes that can't be handed down, broken jewelry and other flotsam and jetsam of life.
GR: I'm a (documented) hoarder too! Though I haven't been quite as industrious or creative as you.
BW: The idea for the earrings came to me when I was looking for a certain color earring and saw the gift cards at Trader Joe's and said that was the color I wanted. So I bought a card, cashed it out and kept it and made my first pair of earrings. I remembered I had a stack of used gift cards left over from my son's birthday and I started punching plastic with a frenzy.
GR: So did that inspire you to transform other things found in your home?
BW: I had made a jean purse in college that I dug out and started using again.
GR: Retro! Love it.
BW: The cashiers at Trader Joe's (hmmmm, am I detecting a leitmotif?) liked them and I made a few for them. But then I still had the legs left. As I was pondering what to do with them, I realized I needed a birthday gift for my sister-in-law; so I bought her favorite bottle of wine and custom embroidered a tote. From there it was an easy step to the bunch-of-grapes design.
GR: Tell me more about what materials you've re-envisioned and repurposed.
BW: For the items I am selling at the Planet Connections Theater Festivity I have used gift cards and old jeans and a paper/cloth shopping bag whose handles broke. Why?...because I had them.
GR: Is this all self-generated material?! Or do you get help?
BW: I am lucky enough to live in an apartment building with tenants who throw away great stuff...to my recycler's eyes at least. I came upon someone's old medicine cabinet and saw it immediately and clearly as the perfect display cabinet.
GR: What's next?
BW: I don't know yet...it is the convergence of need, what I have and inspiration...and the good fortune of having a son with a room full of tools and a husband patient enough to teach me how to use them.
Thanks Beth! We are inspired! Readers - you could be the lucky winner of a WinkleWorks Wine Tote! How? Attend our June 8 event with The Climate Project! Reserve your FREE ticket or just come to the Gene Frankel Theatre (24 Bond St) at 6PM and you'll be in the running for this very fun door prize.
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