Eco-Crafts for Friends

Eco-Crafts for Friends explores the intersection of environmental and relational sustainability through gift giving. Over 6 months in 2021, I made crafts out of the plastic wrappers, old fabrics and other recycled materials that accumulated in my home over the height of the pandemic and gave them as gifts to friends and family. In that challenging time of loss, uncertainty, and isolation, my aim was to keep myself grounded with hands-on creative practices while tending to the fragmented relationships around me. Some gifts I made include scrap paper thank you cards, patchwork coasters and pot holders, scrunchies, plastic crochet planters, and propagated house plants.

More broadly, through this project I hope to encourage community care as a mode of self-care, to highlight the importance of nurturing that which nurtures you, and to show the generative possibilities of simple acts of generosity and that abundance can be found in unlikely places.

See the documentary zine, Gifts Received Gifts Given, online.

Read the full project statement.