Are you searching for a method to supplement your income? Why not attempt to sell your artwork? Beautiful ArtArt may be made from repurposed materials, and there is a sizable market for upcycled goods. This post will show you how to produce and sell upcycled art items inspired by nature. These projects are ideal for small company owners looking to create a side business or add some handcrafted things to their store. So be creative and start creating gorgeous ArtArt right now!
Why Should You Use Recycled Materials in Art Projects?
Upcycled artifacts come in various shapes and sizes, which may be utilized to create stunning artwork. Paper, cardboard boxes, old clothing and fabric scraps, junk mail or envelopes, plastic bottles and containers, soda cans, aluminum foil, and so on are just a few examples.
The wonderful aspect is that practically any art project can be made using recycled materials. Paintings, sculptures, jewelry, accessories, home design items, and more are possible. When it comes to design tasks, the choices are unlimited!
Here are four reasons why it’s a smart idea to develop and sell creative creations out of repurposed materials:
- It’s good for the environment: Using recycled materials in your designs helps the environment by minimizing the quantity of rubbish in landfills. This is very useful when dealing with polymers that take 450 years to disintegrate!
- It’s incredibly budget-friendly: You may save money and the environment by recycling old goods rather than buying new ones that will most likely end up in the landfill after you are done with them.
- It’s one-of-a-kind and eye-catching: Upcycled items are beautiful and unique, making them simple to sell online or at craft fairs and markets. Make sure your things have price tags on them so customers know how much they cost.
- It’s entertaining: When you build something new out of old items, you’ll be shocked at what you can come up with when inspiration hits. If you have children, it is a fun method to encourage them to be environmentally sensitive.
Upcycled Art Projects: 25 Inspirations
Several successful small enterprises and individual artists make money from their work while simultaneously raising awareness about consumerism and the impending environmental issue. However, few firms fulfill a useful function while allowing you to accomplish something you like; hence, it should be a refreshing change of pace. Finally, you can start your own company, so start searching for places to sell handcrafted products in your area.
Are you ready to establish your own art project company? To get you started, here are 25 recycling ideas.
1. Make Butterflies out of Tin Cans
In the first project, you’ll construct elegant butterfly sculptures out of tin cans that would otherwise be thrown away. You may make polished butterfly jewelry pins or garden wall decorations out of tin cans if you’re handy with hand tools and have a small workshop. You can also use a handful of these handmade insects to create a hanging wall sign with a wood backdrop that will be a great conversation starter.
Do you need some motivation? Then have a look at ArtArt Now and Then’s the blog.
2. Use bottle caps to create portraits
Bottlecap art is popular for many reasons: it’s simple and entertaining and often stunning results. They’re also fairly common, and you’ll find them in landfills all over. They may be used to make various things, including floor tiling, but our particular favorite is pixel mosaic art. You’ve seen the Marilyn Monroe image created out of colored beer bottle caps, but you can make various patterns.
You may get some inspiration from Taza. Co’s page.
3. Use Old Crayons to Create ArtArt
Crayons are no longer exclusively for youngsters and instructors. Adult painters who want to make dripping wall paintings may use a heat gun or hot plate to give them a new lease of life. These repurposed crayon paintings are lovely and might be marketed as fine art. Use melted ones on an old dictionary page for a magnificent one-of-a-kind effect.
4. Create memory quilts out of old t-shirts.
Repurposing old clothing into new items is a terrific method to decrease waste and provide emotional ArtArt. Memory quilting can be done with upcycled shirts, and a beautiful bedspread can be made with only a few fabric scraps. Sports-themed quilts may also be used to create fresh memories for children and teenagers. If you’re not sure how to quilt, there are many internet lessons available.
5. Turn Upcycled Magazines into Collages
It’s a shame, but 85 million tons of paper waste is sent to the trash dump every year. Old mags we throw away are a part of this waste, but they are also a great source of colorful, interesting paper to use in your art projects. Another excellent way to reuse this paper and keep it out of the dumpster is to cut out images or words to design collages. You can also make three-dimensional sculptures by cutting pages into thin strips and gluing them together. If you’re feeling really adventurous, you can even try crocheting with old magazine pages.
6. Teach Kids How to Make Plastic Bottle Planters
Plastic bottles are everywhere, and they’re a waste concern because of their durability. Luckily, there are all sorts of creative ways you can use these plastic containers for arts and crafts projects that let kids get involved. One clever idea is to cut the bottoms off small plastic water bottles, paint them, fill them with dirt and seeds, then turn the bottoms into little planter pots that you can place on a table or hang in your garden. Kids love making these plastic bottle planters, and it’s a great way to teach them about recycling and gardening at the same time.
7. Make DIY Sea Glass Lamps
If you’re looking for a unique and stunning art project, try turning sea glass into colorful lamps. You can find all sorts of beautiful colors at the beach, and it only takes a little bit of creativity and a few supplies to turn them into something extraordinary. From toadstool-designed sea glass night lights to lamp bases filled with LED lights that backlight thin pieces of sea glass that’s in there too, there are many jumping-off points to refer to online. If you don’t have any sea glass on hand, you can reuse marbles or small stones.
8. Create sculptures for hubcaps
You can construct anything from flowers to quirky animal sculptures out of rubbish hubcaps found on the side of the road. You can typically bring your creations to life using discarded hubcaps, a drill, a hacksaw, spraypaint, and wire. A metal fence with brightly painted hubcaps adds a splash of color to your yard.
9. Create wearables from trash
There are a plethora of inventive methods to transform trash into wearable art. For example, you can construct a shirt out of an old sheet or a bag out of an old t-shirt. Upcycled books, toys (kids adore this one! ), computer components, and melted plastic straws may all be used to produce recycled jewelry.
12. Use Hot Glue to Recycle Old Vases
Hot glue can be used to construct various lovely things, and upcycling antique vases is a terrific way to put them to use. You may use them to make lamps, candle holders, or just some lovely home décor that contains flowers (or repurposed flowers!). The greatest thing is that these crafts don’t need any specific skills or equipment; all you need is a vase, a glue gun, some paint, and a little ingenuity.
12. Recycle and repurpose old skateboards
Skateboarding lovers are likely to appreciate unique items built from old, broken skateboards, such as shelving, jewelry, guitar picks, and BBQ grills. To change these boards into something unique, all you need is some paint and a little bit of imagination. Because the eye-catching patterns on the boards are so lovely, you may not even need paint if you’re building rings out of them.
Check out this video on how to manufacture skateboard rings or how to make guitar picks out of used skateboard material.here.
13. Recycled Haute Couture Design
High fashion made from recycled materials is a huge business, but they all had to start somewhere, right? Why not recycle your old clothing to produce high-fashion items if you’re a fashionista with old clothes lying around? Upcycling materials from around the home or from a nearby dump may be used to create a Haute fashion. Old army blankets, parachutes, old pairs of trousers, and old band t-shirts are among the materials you may utilize. Because there is a market for this design, you may often locate recycled fashion fairs and displays that are wonderful places to sell your items.
14. Reuse and Recycle Old CDs
CDs may be a thing of the past, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be used as decorative items. Old CDs may be upcycled into various fun crafts, including sun catchers, decorations, and even mirrors. The greatest part is that these projects don’t need a lot of money; you can frequently recycle CDs into a beautiful design for nothing or near to nothing.
15. Transform an old car into a work of art
If you have an old automobile in your garage gathering dust, why not put it to good use and transform it into a work of art? You’ll need some paint (or chalkboard paint) and some imagination. With this project, you may let your creativity run wild and create any form of art you like. The greatest thing is that you won’t have to worry about making a mistake since that old jalopy won’t be moving anytime soon.
16. Repurpose Old Tires into Funky Furniture
Tires may seem like they are just for cars, but did you know that they can also be used to make funky and stylish furniture? For example, you can paint them and turn them into a chair, table, lamp, and even a sofa. The best part is that this type of furniture is pretty sturdy and will last a long time. If you are looking for something a little more low-key, you can also use old tires to make garden tables, planters, and even holiday yard decorations. Even the tires themselves can be carved decoratively and painted. You can get donated old tires from the community or collect them from landfills.
17. Put a Cork in It
From USB drives to coasters, there are all sorts of things you can make with wine corks. You can also turn them into magnets and pins or even just use them to decorate some of your other projects (like the vases we mentioned earlier). You can dye them, paint them or just leave them as they are.
Kids will have hours of fun with these DIY stamps (it’s knife intensive, so be sure to cut out the details for the younger kids before letting them use them).
18. Make Soda Can Designs
Soda cans are another fantastic item to upcycle, and there are all sorts of exciting projects you can make by reusing the aluminum in them. You can make animals, flowers, coasters, mirrors, or even just some abstract designs. The best thing is that this type of art is pretty straightforward to do and doesn’t require a lot of supplies.
19. Do a DIY Light Bulb Terrarium or Aquarium
Old light bulbs may seem like a lost cause, but did you know that they actually make great terrariums and aquariums? This art project is an easy one, and all you have to do is take the old light bulb apart and add things like air plants to the terrarium or a beta fish to the mini-aquarium.
20. Embellish with Discarded Copper Wiring
Copper wiring has a distinctive color and texture, and it’s extremely versatile. It lends itself well to recycled art projects, and you can use it to make jewelry, wall hangings, or even just sculpture pieces. For instance, search and find some thick copper wiring, and you can expand on #19 to make lovely hanging planters out of light bulbs. You can also use regular wire and some paint to make faux sea coral arrangements.
21. Use Old Books to Make Chic Art
Books may be great for your brain, but they can also be used to make some really chic-looking pieces. For example, you can turn them into book art sculptures or even just use pages from them as wallpaper. The good news is that you probably have lots of books lying around the house already, so you can toss a few in a pile for making some inexpensive artwork later.
22. Make Wreaths for the Holidays
Instead of using holly and pine fir, you can use things like maps, plastic bottles and even old magazines and postcards to make holiday wreaths. To put a unique recycled spin on this familiar wall adornment, you can also use jeans or sweaters to make them. Doing so is a great way to give your home some festive flair, and you can use things like candy wrappers or gift wrapping paper instead of traditional ribbons if you’d like.
Another idea is to make heart-shaped wreaths with upcycled black roses all around with some recycled skeletons and bats sprinkled in that can work for either Valentine’s Day or Halloween (just switch red accents out for orange).
For inspiration, look at the unique wreaths on JessMadeDesign here, or you could try your hand at making an upcycled Christmas wreath that is similar to this:
23. Use Mixed Media
Mixed media upcycling artists use a collection of found items to generate ideas for their art pieces. It is a way to show how the environment can affect your art, and you can use old book pages, lace, feathers, flip-flops, and other things you can find in the trash heap to make awe-inspiring pieces.
24. Become an Artivist
Artivists (Activist + artists) like Banksy use their artwork to bring awareness to social and political issues. Artivist Alejandro Duran uses his artwork to bring awareness to the massive problems that pollution brings and to help save the earth. For his photo series, “Washed Up,” the artivist collected plastic rubbish that he collected along the shorelines of Sian Ka’an, a UNESCO World Heritage located on the Caribbean coast of Mexico.
You can watch Alejandro Duran discuss “Washed Up” on Ted Talk by clicking here.
25. Tackle an Ambitious Upcycling Project
After you’ve gotten used to making a few upcycled projects, you can start tackling more ambitious ones like park projects. For those, you can pitch projects where you make things like sculptures, benches and tables to city officials. Alternatively, you can market this service from a gallery on your website. This type of project is more complicated than the ones we’ve mentioned above, but it’s definitely worth doing if you have the time and energy.
How to Sell Art Projects that Use Upcycled Materials
Once you’ve moved from dabbling in crafts to creating fine art, you can start selling your pieces and making money. There are many resources when it comes to where to sell art online. The best thing about selling upcycled creations is that it’s easier to find an audience for them, especially if they are eco-friendly and support a good cause. People love buying things made from repurposed items because they want to be part of this movement that is helping the earth.
A good place to sell your recycled creations is at craft fairs, flea markets, or on Etsy, which has a large following of people who are passionate about eco-friendly items. So, make sure to look into how to start a small business on Etsy as well as how to sell on Amazon Handmade. It’s also best if you have a website where potential clients can search and see examples of all the different types of work you’ve done in this medium and how much they cost, but you can also join a like-minded community such as the r/upcycling forum on Reddit.
If you’re looking for more artistic inspiration and tips to help build your business as an artistic professional, check out the tutorials at CreativeLive. You’ll find everything from how to put together marketing plans that work wonders for your brand or photography workshops where they show you how to take better pictures in any situation.
Have fun and let your imagination run wild as you create art projects that are truly unique and more beautiful than anything else out there!
Image: Depositphotos
