Changing the face of waste…with a little Dis & a little Dat

 So many passions. Just sharing one

 It started with a conversation over lunch, with long time friends visiting from Canada.  Cooking is  another passion of mine. And I just love to feed people. So I whipped up a spicy  pumpkin soup and  salad, -all the ingredients, except the  onions and garlic, picked fresh  from my kitchen garden –  served with freshly baked crusty bread. Spicy delicious!

 And so, sharing food, friendship, catching up a little bit after several years, sharing ideas,  the  suggestion to try some planters, now catches me rummaging through garbage, scanning my  surroundings; everywhere I go, asking people if I could have their empty containers, cartons,  bottles, and sometimes pulling up by the roadside to pick up some stray something my eyes spot. But  most interestingly, it has me looking at waste items with a new pair of creative eyes. I wish I could  actually reuse all parts of those troublesome plastic bottles, containers, milk cartons etc., but by  reusing them in my creating process, I am making my own small contribution, by slowing down the disposal process.

So I did some research. I experimented a little bit. And everyday, I retreat to the dusty downstairs of my home, measuring, sifting, mixing up – music on the radio or in my head, singing along, and doing my thing. And as hubby says –and I really can’t stand clichés–but when I am there, in my space, I am truly , in the whole sense of the words, “as happy as pig in shit.” When I look at an empty water bottle; I see a palm flourishing in it. I look at a juice carton, and I see a cactus standing tall and thorny or toothbrushes leaning up against each other. I look at an old wash basin and I see succulents spreading out and taking roots. I look at this and I see that. Take dis and make dat. Hence the name..Dis & Dat Creations.

You won’t believe how excited I get when I unmold my creations, seeing my work take form or break form, as the case might be. Even when they break, I find a use for them. And no two pieces are the same, even when I use similar molds, every one is different. And I like it just so.

Then I gave away lots of free samples. I gave, gave, gave. Someone once said to me, “One day you go give away your arse and shit through your mouth.” Sometimes I worry it might come true, but it’s all part of what makes me who I am. And I give to people whom I figure will appreciate my creations – people who will Get It. I will call it my kind-spirited advertising strategy.

My first little reward came last Saturday, the 16th May, when I took the decision to showcase some of my creations, at the Bazaar, part of the Chocolate Festival events at the  Dodgy Dock Restaurant,  True Blue Bay Resort, True Blue, St George’s Grenada. No, it didn’t come with lots of sales or big orders or anything like that, but with some very positive and encouraging comments. And not from many, but from the ones who get it. And that’s enough right now. It can only get better.

I am writing this sitting on my bench under the Neem tree – Neem flowers falling in the cocoa plant beside me, falling on me and an idea settles with it, right on my lap. I look at the flat dry beans from that very stubborn weed in the garden and just so ideas flowing for so.