Dumpster Diving

A book artist always has to be on the lookout for interesting items to use for handmade books. Rusted nails found on Mad River beach were used as part of a wooden structure to hold a small case bound book. A broken wooden spatula—rescued from my mom's cutlery drawer—serves as a brayer and burnisher for heat transfer images. Plastic netting from bags of onion create great designs on gelatin prints. While walking with my dog last week I happened to see these plastic Pepsi trays in a dumpster. I thought the openwork pattern might be handy to create patterns on sun-dyed paper or fabric, for embossing handmade paper, or for creating patterns on gelatin prints. I had to have one. It wasn't easy because the dumpster came up to my shoulders but I was able to wrestle one out without falling into the dumpster.

The possibilities are endless. My son, an accomplished dumpster diver himself, created this lovely design. Why didn't I think of that? The mathematics is probably what attracted me to it in the first place. If all else fails, it would make a nice breakfast tray.