Laundry Lint Art

Most of the stuff that comes out of the lint trap is grey and gross; every now and again it's a landscape of colour, and crafters wonder how it could be used.

I've just moved into a new house. This house is more than twice the size of our old house; I'm writing this from my office, which is a far cry from what I used to call my office (what most people call the bedroom). Since it's so much bigger we've had to do a lot of buying to cover the extra space. Things such as bath towels, hand towels, and bedsheets for the new spare bedroom. Now that the washer is hooked up I've been putting them all in for their first scrubbing, and when I opened up the dryer I found the lint trap packed full of a very interesting substance: my hands were full of soft, purple sunset.

I was reminded of the art made by innovative women using dryer lint, the stuff that most people just scrape off and toss into the garbage without a second thought. They'd buy towels in the colours they wanted, wash and dry them, and use the lint to make landscapes or other pictures. These would then be sealed using a spray laquer of some sort, framed, and mounted.

Most people couldn't tell that the soft beauty on the canvas was a waste product. I don't know if anyone still does this any more, or if the ones made in the past have survived, but finding the violet pillow that I did today has made me want to find out.

What innocent, every day item will inspire you today?