Eye Opener: Photo Essay

Have you ever heard the expression 'One person's junk is another person's treasure?' Well, that quote defines the hobby of junking to a tee. When it comes to junking individuals collect items that are old and of no use to others; next the individual creates something from the old item that may be used to serve a new purpose in their home. Junking is a creative way for people to re-purpose and reuse things as well as a great and fun way to make a home more unique to fit the personality of the family living inside it. Junking also benefits the environment! It saves an item from being disposed of when it may no longer be used or serve its intended purpose. This reduces the amount of waste produced and accumulated in addition to reducing the amount of manufacturing that is 'necessary' to create new goods and items for individuals to use.


Junking is what my project represents. The photos I took represent items and pieces I found displayed around my homes, both, in Duluth as well as back home. My mother and I love to craft and create unique pieces and my parents' home definitely resembles just that. I should let you know that my parents live in a log home and the theme displayed throughout it is a 'western' theme; so a number of the pieces I discovered are related to that. In addition, I can not take the credit for creating these items myself. A majority were made by family members or family friends, however, since they have been collected over a large span of years my mother was unable to remember who made what. I will admit that before this project I had never put too much thought into what these pieces really mean, to us and to our environment, and that's leaving a legacy of sustaining our world. 


Mirror - Made from an old horse breast collar used for horse carriages.

      

Giraffe Memo Holder - Made from a stick, Dixie cup and clothes pin.

      

Picture Frame  - Decorated with old barbed wire.

  

Clock - An old clock that was fixed and decorated with old rope.

      

Pan Cooler/Wall Decoration  - Made from old wine bottle corks.

   

Necklace - from spare washer fastener and scrapbook paper (that's my mom modeling hers!).

      

Miniature Hook Rack - welded together from old horse shoes.

   

Fireplace - from rocks collected from our farm's fields.

   

House Decoration - from horse bells worn by horses when they would pull sleighs.

   

Rail Bars - made from old cementing rods.

   

House Decoration - from spare rope (sorry it's a little hard to see, it covers the space between the logs and the wall).

   

Plate Mat - from scrap pieces of leather woven together (that's my Thanksgiving meal on it!).

   

Sewing Pin Holder - from an animal hoof, scrap pieces of felt, and old jewelry box.

   

Wall Decoration - from an old cabinet door.

Lamp - post made from an old flute (this is the one I mentioned in a previous post).

      

Side Table/Storage Bin - from an old suitcase.

      

Also does anyone know how to get rid of extra spaces that occur in-between paragraphs and pictures!