Two weeks ago, we challenged you, the GOOD community, help us create a crowdsourced Picture Show about something repurposed. We received tons submissions that celebrated the second lives objects could have. Flip through the slideshow to see the creative ways GOOD readers found to repurpose the products everyday products (and some less common ones).
Unfortunately, we couldn't include every entry. We selected a handful of the best that represented a healthy mix. Have a look. All the captions are by the photographers.
Now we need your help: Vote on your favorite submission by selecting the photographer's name above through March 7. The winning entry will be announced shortly after, featured on our homepage, and printed in the next issue of GOOD. We’ll also send a GOOD T-shirt and a free subscription (or gift subscription) to the winner.
As a theater student, we are often faced with little or no budget when it comes to putting on a show. And for anyone who knows about lighting equipment, it can be very expensive. So we were faced with the dilemma of having to put on a show, with absolutely no lights. Then our lighting design professor came up with a brilliant idea. Why not make the lights ourselves? So we, as a class, proceeded to create lights out of a few store bought supplies and some old coffee cans. The end result were some amazing spotlights for 1/10 of the price!
By Beatrice Collins
This eye-catching candle holder is the happy marriage of various lamp parts and other rusty relics. A few twists and turn of wire add some decorative flourishes.
By Beth Evans-Ramos
This is a fire pit that I made from an old washing machine drum - I just welded some legs on.
By Eric Trine
I'm always looking for ways to make my Scottish garden seem warmer than it is. Potted geraniums instantly transport me to the Mediterranean, and this old olive oil can adds to the fiction with its sunny colour and tapas associations.
By Erly Sheilds
I'm a college professor with a broken arm. My wife, Claire took an old Harris Tweed jacket and repurposed it into a bespoke tweed sling. Now I can be distinguished, not disabled.
By Garth Johnson
Upcycling makes my world go ‘round. Saving the planet by repurposing trash and recyclables has become a cottage industry for me. From empty tampon boxes to discarded road maps, not much in my world goes to waste.
By Ivy Lane
This is one of several tables that I make reusing items. This table top is recycled diamond plate off a SF Fire Truck. The table shaft is a 3.8l Jag engine that had a blown piston. And the base is scrap steel and the feet are valve lifters from the Jag engine. I am a metal artist who loves reusing, I often say, "give me something and I will make art of it."
By John Wilson
A nearby warehouse gave me a retired pallet that was still in good condition. With only a few tweaks, I modified it into a coffee table! The gaps ended up being really handy for letting computer wires hang through.
By Jon Schelander
Perkins+Will repurposed a derelict 1930's Public Health Service hospital into the Presidio Landmark — a beautiful new residential complex in San Francisco's national park. This rehabilitation and adaptive reuse project achieved LEED Gold, making it a model for sustainable historic preservation.
By Kelly Eastman
We collect old dryers and washers for reuse. This spring will be the third year for the drum beds. We use the outside shells for compost bins.
ArtRanchStudio.com
By Kim Iberg
Behold the glass bottle. Though originally designed for ergonomic purposes of holding, drinking, and pouring beverages, their beautifully curved lines hold sheer elegance that is rarely appreciated during or after consumption. Instead of being thrown into the pile to be melted down and blown into more glass bottles or an insulation composite (which would not only be a missed opportunity, but also totally boring), they have been graciously resurrected into vessels of light.
By Lauren Lee
Simple Storage: Pair the right boxes with the right shelves for a good system. I fasten two beer boxes together to make these "just right" containers in my art studio.
Lee Shiney
A creative use for old soda bottles as a jewelry holder. No need to recycle, just rinse and display your favorite pieces of jewelry!
By Lisa Drogin
Coming across neat items, most often when you aren't looking for them are almost always the best finds. I came across this terrific looking spool walking past a remodel project near the promenade in Santa Monica. With just under a foot of wire left on it, it was sent out for a journey to the local landfill. Rescuing the spool, I brought it home, cleaned it up and in my garage it remained until I finally needed something to organize my tangled rope.
By Mark Santa Ines
Every tea bag and piece of cardboard in this landscape was saved, dried, and delivered by the artist's family, friends, friends-of-friends, coworkers, and even strangers from around the world. Rubbish Topographies is not meant to represent a pile of guilt, but is a quantitative testimony to how people will mind and care for their waste when there is an opportunity to reuse it. As such, Rubbish Topographies is a tea-bag tally-chart of individual commitment to, conscientiousness of, and generosity with their waste.
By Max Liboiron
This table repurposes three wooden tennis rackets into a low level coffee table, it also works well as laptop station! The form is meant to capture the dynamism and energy that I felt as a former tennis player.
By Sneha Cyriax
I just recently purchased an iMac and needed to set up a small workstation in my room. I was eager to get the iMac up and running, but I needed a desktop to put the computer on. Since everything was closed (it was hours past midnight), I had no choice but to scrounge my house to find something that would substitute as a desktop until the morning. I ended up using two of my brothers old snowboards, placing them on top of an old keyboard stand I had sitting in my closet. I like it so much I don't think I'll be needing a desktop table from Ikea anytime soon.
By Stephan Arias
I don't play tennis. My roommate doesn't play tennis. But in our garage was this beautiful old racket, collecting dust as it was forgotten by the previous tenant. I altered it slightly to display my favorite earrings and necklaces. Creative reuse of objects is a testament to creativity development. Breathing new life into an old object inspires the way I view the world.
I do this in my photography and in my current project, developing a creative reuse center in Northern California.
By Tibora Bea
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| Submissions: Take a Picture of Something Repurposed by Hillary Newman |
Two weeks ago, we challenged you, the GOOD community, help us create a crowdsourced Picture Show about something repurposed. We received tons submissions that celebrated the second lives objects could have. Flip through the slideshow to see the creative ways GOOD readers found to repurpose the products everyday products (and some less common ones).
Unfortunately, we couldn't include every entry. We selected a handful of the best that represented a healthy mix. Have a look. All the captions are by the photographers.
Now we need your help: Vote on your favorite submission by selecting the photographer's name above through March 7. The winning entry will be announced shortly after, featured on our homepage, and printed in the next issue of GOOD. We’ll also send a GOOD T-shirt and a free subscription (or gift subscription) to the winner.
As a theater student, we are often faced with little or no budget when it comes to putting on a show. And for anyone who knows about lighting equipment, it can be very expensive. So we were faced with the dilemma of having to put on a show, with absolutely no lights. Then our lighting design professor came up with a brilliant idea. Why not make the lights ourselves? So we, as a class, proceeded to create lights out of a few store bought supplies and some old coffee cans. The end result were some amazing spotlights for 1/10 of the price!
By Beatrice Collins
This eye-catching candle holder is the happy marriage of various lamp parts and other rusty relics. A few twists and turn of wire add some decorative flourishes.
By Beth Evans-Ramos
This is a fire pit that I made from an old washing machine drum - I just welded some legs on.
By Eric Trine
I'm always looking for ways to make my Scottish garden seem warmer than it is. Potted geraniums instantly transport me to the Mediterranean, and this old olive oil can adds to the fiction with its sunny colour and tapas associations.
By Erly Sheilds
I'm a college professor with a broken arm. My wife, Claire took an old Harris Tweed jacket and repurposed it into a bespoke tweed sling. Now I can be distinguished, not disabled.
By Garth Johnson
Upcycling makes my world go ‘round. Saving the planet by repurposing trash and recyclables has become a cottage industry for me. From empty tampon boxes to discarded road maps, not much in my world goes to waste.
By Ivy Lane
This is one of several tables that I make reusing items. This table top is recycled diamond plate off a SF Fire Truck. The table shaft is a 3.8l Jag engine that had a blown piston. And the base is scrap steel and the feet are valve lifters from the Jag engine. I am a metal artist who loves reusing, I often say, "give me something and I will make art of it."
By John Wilson
A nearby warehouse gave me a retired pallet that was still in good condition. With only a few tweaks, I modified it into a coffee table! The gaps ended up being really handy for letting computer wires hang through.
By Jon Schelander
Perkins+Will repurposed a derelict 1930's Public Health Service hospital into the Presidio Landmark — a beautiful new residential complex in San Francisco's national park. This rehabilitation and adaptive reuse project achieved LEED Gold, making it a model for sustainable historic preservation.
By Kelly Eastman
We collect old dryers and washers for reuse. This spring will be the third year for the drum beds. We use the outside shells for compost bins.
ArtRanchStudio.com
By Kim Iberg
Behold the glass bottle. Though originally designed for ergonomic purposes of holding, drinking, and pouring beverages, their beautifully curved lines hold sheer elegance that is rarely appreciated during or after consumption. Instead of being thrown into the pile to be melted down and blown into more glass bottles or an insulation composite (which would not only be a missed opportunity, but also totally boring), they have been graciously resurrected into vessels of light.
By Lauren Lee
Simple Storage: Pair the right boxes with the right shelves for a good system. I fasten two beer boxes together to make these "just right" containers in my art studio.
Lee Shiney
A creative use for old soda bottles as a jewelry holder. No need to recycle, just rinse and display your favorite pieces of jewelry!
By Lisa Drogin
Coming across neat items, most often when you aren't looking for them are almost always the best finds. I came across this terrific looking spool walking past a remodel project near the promenade in Santa Monica. With just under a foot of wire left on it, it was sent out for a journey to the local landfill. Rescuing the spool, I brought it home, cleaned it up and in my garage it remained until I finally needed something to organize my tangled rope.
By Mark Santa Ines
Every tea bag and piece of cardboard in this landscape was saved, dried, and delivered by the artist's family, friends, friends-of-friends, coworkers, and even strangers from around the world. Rubbish Topographies is not meant to represent a pile of guilt, but is a quantitative testimony to how people will mind and care for their waste when there is an opportunity to reuse it. As such, Rubbish Topographies is a tea-bag tally-chart of individual commitment to, conscientiousness of, and generosity with their waste.
By Max Liboiron
This table repurposes three wooden tennis rackets into a low level coffee table, it also works well as laptop station! The form is meant to capture the dynamism and energy that I felt as a former tennis player.
By Sneha Cyriax
I just recently purchased an iMac and needed to set up a small workstation in my room. I was eager to get the iMac up and running, but I needed a desktop to put the computer on. Since everything was closed (it was hours past midnight), I had no choice but to scrounge my house to find something that would substitute as a desktop until the morning. I ended up using two of my brothers old snowboards, placing them on top of an old keyboard stand I had sitting in my closet. I like it so much I don't think I'll be needing a desktop table from Ikea anytime soon.
By Stephan Arias
I don't play tennis. My roommate doesn't play tennis. But in our garage was this beautiful old racket, collecting dust as it was forgotten by the previous tenant. I altered it slightly to display my favorite earrings and necklaces. Creative reuse of objects is a testament to creativity development. Breathing new life into an old object inspires the way I view the world.
I do this in my photography and in my current project, developing a creative reuse center in Northern California.
By Tibora Bea
