Gifts

My first homemade wine was made from surplus grapes kindly given away by a neighbour. Although it was a little too tart- and eventually got repurposed into the finest red wine vinegar this world ever hath seen- it fermented well and taught me enough to inspire a few more batches.

Handmade seed packets featuring original watercolour vegetable illustrations, painted, scanned, and printed onto paper before being folded into a collection of small packets filled with seeds. A gift made with love for a balcony garden.

We had some olive oil go rancid, and instead of it going to waste I transformed it into handmade soap instead. Despite what people say, rancid oil makes a fine soap. I experimented with a few of recipes, but the best by far is oat, lavender and calendula, made with calendula petals grown in my allotment.

I built two abacuses (abaci) - I made one initially, but then wanted to make a second, minuature version. I used scrap bits of wood and instead of buying beads, I made some using leftover fimo clay (a hand me down from a friend).

Notebooklets

I keep all the scrap paper and spam mail that comes through my letterbox and give it a second life by repurposing it into notepads for shopping lists. The paper is cut to size with a hand guillotine, then bound at the top with Mod Podge to create flexible, easy-to-tear pages. I cover each pad with more rescued materials: scraps of fabric from old tights, leftover paper, or even a leaf from my monstera plant.

CD Mosaics

I transformed old CDs into tiles for house number signs and a balcony table. They are cut into pieces, painted with acrylics, and baked in the oven, they become surprisingly sturdy and weatherproof.