Browsing by Author "Laari-Lehtinen, Minna"

Concerns of natural resources lead us to think and to act in a more ecological way if we want to take part in sustainable development and consuming. Due to influence of the sustainable development, the concepts of sustainable craft and recycled craft are being associated with craft. There is either no or very little research available about sustainable craft or recycled craft. My interest is in non-commercial recycled craft that utilizes recycled materials. This thesis is focusing on finding out what is understood to be recycled craft (in the boards of Pinterest – an internet webpage that describes well our time) among the users of Pinterest. The aim of this study is to find out what kind of products are being produced as recycled craft, and which materials and techniques are used in the process of recycled craft. This study was executed as qualitative study, where the research data consisted of pictures from the Pinterest website boards. Boards were selected from the Finnish Pinterest boards called: ”Kierrätyskäsityö”, ”Kierrätyskäsityöt” and ”Kierrätyskäsitöitä”. A discretionary sampling was used to select the boards to provide a diverse picture of the recycled craft. The pictures were observed using analysis of visual images until the data started to repeat itself. The data was analysed with content analysis. The conclusion of this study is that recycled craft is very rich and broad field of craft, in which recycled materials are being used without prejudice and in various ways. The Pinterest boards showed that the recycled craft is highly versatile and can be classified by the way they are prepared, the materials and the techniques that are used, and the product categories that are made. According to the research data on the way of preparing the craft, recycled craft can be classified as remaking/reusing old materials, repairing, hobby crafts and personalizing/tuning old materials. In recycled craft, hard and soft materials were used and variety of craft techniques were utilized. Also variety of products were prepared as recycled craft. Based on this study it was observed that there is a connection between sustainable craft and recycled craft even though not all recycled craft is sustainable craft.