Take the Icky and Make it Chic
Discover the secret no one else can find
What exactly do I mean by Icky? Anything that strikes one as distasteful, old-fashioned, worn out, or un-trendy could fall into this category.
Landfills and thrift stores are full of these icky items.
And just so you’ll know, your closet may also be hiding a few of these.
How I take the icky and make it chic
My first rule is to find something ordinary and icky and then upcycle it into something beautiful!
Since I love textiles, threads, yarn, and trim, I work with these elements.
Thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales, donation centers, etc. are treasure troves of every kind of textile one can imagine.
Start with anything
In the above photo, you’ll find the items that I used to create the floral fiber art that is the cover photo for this article.
Scraps of old scarves, bits of lace, fancy fabrics, and unwanted pieces of yarn, embroidery floss, beads, and sequins made up my inspiration pile.
Discover the secret within the icky
You have to admit, that’s a pretty icky-looking pile of ordinary stuff.
But the question you should be asking is, what secret is it hiding?
In my case, I was sure it was hiding a flower of some sort, one with beautiful hues of Autumn color and just a hint of glitz.
Discover the secret no one else can find
I bet that when you looked at the pile of icky stuff; you didn’t see the flower that I saw. BUT, you might have seen a landscape, a bird, fallen leaves, or some other well-hidden secret.
There is a secret that only YOU can find.
If you were to put that same pile of stuff in front of 100 people, they would create a hundred different beautiful pieces.
Now it's your turn.
Grab a pile of ordinary stuff and create something new. It may not necessarily be CHIC, but it will be wonderful.
Writer’s takeaway
As writers, don’t we all start with a pile of ordinary stuff that is just plain icky? Notes, research, disjointed thoughts, and an unseen destination.
But then, we look for the secret within that pile and a story begins to reveal itself, one that only we could tell.