Origami and some creativity saved these Earl Grey tea bag wrappers from the recycling bin and made them functional again.
We are constantly surrounded by paper. It is in our mailboxes, surrounding our dry food items, and pretty much everywhere. It is all too easy to toss unwanted or used papers into a wastepaper basket or recycling bin (a more valid ecological choice), but it would be even better if one or more uses could be gotten out of something before it is recycled. Israeli crafter Ruti Ben Dror, who has a love for reusing pre-existing materials and color-matching, has found a use for her used tea bag wrappers and other paper scraps in the form of origami. Her origami creations are not merely decorative, however, and are highly sturdy and functional.
Describing her love for the craft, Ben Dror writes that “in recent years I have been drawn to the magic of folding recycled paper and creating various works of art with them.”
“This kind of art combines my passion for shaping and color-matching with my love for nature”, she continues, “while attempting to preserve and reuse pre-existing materials.”
Ben Dror’s Etsy shop displays masterful origami bowls, magnets and swans made from as many as a couple hundred individual pieces of paper that have been painstakingly chosen for their color or design. Scraps from old maps or Earl Grey tea bag wrappers are purposefully folded together to create visual harmony, or different colored papers are combined in order to create geometric patterns and designs.
The papers are bolstered by glue and a cardboard base, so they form a durable and sturdy structure. Ben Dror suggests that they be used to store small items.
Check out more of Ruti Ben Dror’s upcycled origami items at her Etsy shop, Ruti’s Roots.
Read about other upcycled paper designs::
A Wastepaper Basket Made From Wasted Paper
10 Upcycled Paper Cypress Trees to Be Built as Part of Interfaith Ecological Celebration
Liat Yaniv’s Colorful Newspaper World and Upcycled Paper Dolls
Author: Karen Chernick
Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
