Tel Aviv based designer, Limor Matityahoo, has been involved with crafts for as long as she can remember. Among her many skills, Limor is a textile designer, a makeup artist, a cake decorator, and an interactive product manager. Most recently her curiosity, playfulness and skill have brought her to upcycled and recycled crafts made from plastic bags. And we’re very glad that they did.
Limor taught herself how to use this versatile and (too) omnipresent material a few months ago, explaining that when a workshop that she was supposed to attend on how to make a bag from fused grocery bags got cancelled she took matters into her own hands. She taught herself how to make plarn (plastic yarn) and also began experimenting with fused plastic sheets.
In Limor’s own words, “I believe recycled products must be both innovative and well designed. I am absolutely in love with recycling plastic, knitting it, fusing it, and I cannot even express how happy I am to start from scratch in each project – I feel the sky is the (ECOby) Limitz when it comes to creating designer-recycling products from plastic bags! I hope to be involved in designing eco-friendly projects and products, all from grocery bags and plarn. The technique is amazing, the possibilities are endless.”
Limor’s upcycled plastic bag creations are all part of her Eco by LIMITZ line, which she sells on Etsy. The Eco by LIMITZ line includes the upcycled plastic bag clutch purse above (made out of the plastic bags used during delivery of the Haaretz newspaper), the upcycled plastic bag fish mobile to the right, and the little owl finger puppet below.
Limor also manages the Hebrew forum of Israeli Etsy sellers, having built an online index for Israeli artists to present their works locally. The forum makes it easier for Israeli consumers to shop handmade and shop local, both of which are better for the environment.
Read about other designers who work with plastic bags::
Bag It Up: Inbal Limor Recycles Plastic Bags Into High Art
Recycling Plastic Bags Into… Beautiful Handbags
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.
If you make something from plastic bags, send us in the result!
If you make something from plastic bags, send us in the result!
i really like these ideas and i hope to learn them and more ideas too cause i always have a quantities of these bags and always wondered what to do with them
What a great way to reuse plastic bags. This is really turning trash into treasure.
Everything is so cute!
Thanks Karen, the article is great. The informaiton in this stories showed considerable exercise of the imagination.:)
And I want to say this is really a nice blog!
Great idea! I would love to learn how to fuse plastic and work with plarn. I love the featured items. They are so different, yet so cool. I like how you used what looks to be only recycled items in the clutch. The idea of crocheting the applique from plastic is so neat. Good job!