ThriftWitch: Magical Transformations

As I confessed in my original ThrftWitch post, I am an inveterate hoarder. This stems from my desire to find ways of re-using, repairing, re-making things. This woman's treasure is often someone else's trash! The downside of this is of course that more often than not I have more ideas than time to put them into practice - which can make for an untidy house. The upside is the sense of achievement gained when something is transformed from useless waste into something that is either useful or beautiful - or both.

Here are a few of my favourite transformations:

This first piece is a mirror I made from some driftwood I found whilst beach combing. The weathered wood was joined together in a criss-cross pattern by nails that had a wonderful patina from their time in the sea. I saw its potential immediately and used it as a frame for a mirror, finished off with a scattering of seashells and some twisted wire to hang it. It was one of the first things I made and it's still one of my favourites.

These are tea-light holders I made from old jars and they are used to denote the five elements (Earth, Air, Fire Water and Spirit) whenever our local Pagan group gets together for a ritual. They are particularly useful when we're working outdoors as they keep the candle flames from being extinguished by the wind! In this case I knew what I wanted and looked around to find suitable candidates for the job. They are simple, but I'm surprised how good they look as a group, and they have certainly had a lot of use. In fact they have been such a success I'm thinking about making some for my Etsy shop soon.



This final item is where the real 'Witchery' comes in. It's a sun catcher that throws beautiful rainbows around my bedroom, and it was made with magical intent. Just after T and I had split up, I took some bottles and jars to the local recycling centre. As I went to tip them into the skip, I saw the broken stem of a lead-crystal wineglass already in there - and of course my magpie instincts kicked in and I 'rescued' it. I was feeling pretty much thrown on the scrap heap myself at the time, and I loved the idea of taking this fragile, discarded piece of broken crystal and giving it a new start. With the magical intention of forging a new start for myself and making something beautiful to symbolise hope, I transformed it into a sun catcher. First I encased the jagged ends in thick foil to neaten them and avoid cut fingers. Then I wrapped jewellery wire around the crystal so it could be hung, and added some extra dangly bits using beads and findings from my 'broken jewellery' stash, and a smaller crystal from a broken chandelier that was waiting around to be re-used.

Now every time the sun catcher scatters rainbows on my bedroom wall it makes me smile. The crystal and I have both had a fresh start, a second chance at life. And we are determined to enjoy it.