“The future belongs to those who understand that doing more with less is compassionate, prosperous, and enduring, and thus more intelligent, even competitive.” – Paul Hawken
We don’t like to waste anything and sometimes the challenge to use only scraps can lead to weird and unusual things like those you see in this post. Instead of showing a tutorial we decided to suggest you challenge yourself to use up your scraps. Air plants are great for this because they are so versatile!
The large chunks of wood you see as the base of some of these pieces are from our raised garden project we did recently. All the other materials were more less scraps and leftovers from various projects you have seen on this site to Halloween costumes going back several years – nothing much gets wasted at our house.
Some of the other materials were things we collected from mother nature like the red seeds, Abrus precatorius, known commonly as Jequirity, Crab’s Eye, or Rosary Pea (photo below). There is an abundance of these seeds where we live but haven’t quite figured out how we want to use them. The air plants used were a native variety that came right out of a tree here in Florida.
Challenge yourself to use your scraps and you might be surprised with the things you end up with as it forces you to be inventive. Many times that works much better than having an abundance of materials where you get overwhelmed over what to use and how to use them.
Another good tip we always like to give is, don’t over-think it! Just start throwing things together until you see a shape you like. It’s truly the only time you end up with something that is truly unique and unusual.
We will leave you with one more photo of a smaller piece created from cholla wood, chicken wire scraps, and a key with a simple single bead. Air plants are so awesome for these type of projects but make sure you only attach them directly to wood that is untreated. The chemicals in treated wood can be bad for air plants.
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New to all this what gauge wire is best to use for this type of project ?
Hey Stan!
Since we used all scraps for these it’s hard to remember which gauge we used…. We literally used scraps that were just lying around. It was a very heavy gauge because it had to support some weight. The heavier the better.