Spare Parts for Art (for Let's Play) + WOYWW

...or how I am a packrat who keeps odd bits.

Odd bits can be fun to collect. For years, I rode mass transit from place to place, and in between I used to walk a good bit. I found this to be a healthy choice, one I'd never regret. But not only for the exercise and the fresh air, but for what I used to see scattered everywhere.

Sidewalks and paths can be strewn with other people's flotsam and cast off objects. Also, some bits have a tendency to fall out of car engines, to be left behind to rust. I collect such things because they fascinate me. I once saw new flotsam nearly every time that I went out.

Rubber bits. Metal bits, some rusted and some not. The occasional bead or coin.

This month's Let's Play challenge is especially challenging for someone like me LOL. After all, one collects, yet may never use. Carolyn Dube's idea is that we need to look at our creative items for something we thought that we just love too much to use and then either "use it or lose it." I thought that this was a great idea, even while I was a bit nervous about it.

So. I do not know why I LOVE my itsy-bitsy metal bits and pieces. A little scrap heap is all it really might look to be to the average person rummaging through my creative space. Am I a magpie at heart? A true packrat? I had to find out. After all, the challenge this time is "Use it or lose it"!

Today's project is incomplete. I admit that it's only a work in progress. I hope to have more time to finish it later on this month, once I've had my visit with company and can relax and creatively play for a change.

But first, please meet my messy and playful new project.

Some of the bits used

I realized had been with me

for nearly a decade!

"Use it or lose it!"

 A closer look at what's stuck in my foil bundle.

Gears, washers, bolts and screws make my heart smile.

One great grandparent was 

a blacksmith--so did I inherit his love of metal things?

:)

The final project hopefully should be finished later in the month. It is all about storage or places to put things, along with the last of the lovely metal bits and parts.

The main body of the tiny piece of table top furniture I am about to make has been drawn from another "Use it or lose it" stash, my cigar boxes. We're talking at least 8 years on that collection. The 2 small wooden drawers I've had since (I think) 2007, give or take a few months. These will be inserted into another structure. I am currently awaiting the arrival of the foam core which I ordered for it. The theme, to match my previous paper storage caddy, is, of course, to be Steampunk.

I've never done anything quite like this before, so it is a real departure from the usual for me.

Who knew that spring cleaning, organizing and storage could be so much fun?

:)

Happy Playful Wednesday, everybody!