Last summer Kathy Gratto suffered a knee injury that put her out of work and kept her at home. But even though she’s unable to get out as much, no one can say that she’s been idle.
“I’ve got to keep busy, so that’s what I do – I craft.”
Her Trenton home is filled with subtle signs of her craftsmanship.
The pull-string curtain in the bathroom is actually an old beach-mat, and a shining wall-hanging of a fish above the little sink was fashioned entirely out of melted compact disks.
Even the living room floor, a plain plywood affair, has been given a fresh shine with fifteen dollars-worth of rolling paper that’s been wrinkled, flattened and dipped into a mixture of water and glue before being lain down and topped with soft paints that creates a kind of mosaic in the centre of the room.
“I’ve always had this knack for taking something nasty and turning it pleasing to the eye,” she says. “Maybe it’s because I’ve never had that much money. You had to learn how to pinch a penny.”
But her latest project, which she worked out throughout the fall, that is going to make a big difference in the life of someone perhaps in desperate need of extra warmth and comfort. And all it cost was time, and 700 plastic bags.
Yes, ordinary, every-day plastic grocery bags from Sobeys, Wal-Mart, Needs and anywhere else that provides people with that standard one-use solution for carrying shopping home before being tossed into a bin.
In Kathy’s hands, this trash was material perfectly designed to create a 3 ½ ft.-wide and 6 ft.-long sleeping-mat.
“I thought to myself, it doesn’t cost anyone anything, it’s not out of pocket, and it’s taking care of recycling material which will end up god knows where,” said Gratto about the mat which is currently over at Viola’s Place Homeless Shelter in New Glasgow. “And it’ll be a barrier between the person using it and the ground.”
Using an ordinary hook, Gratto crocheted the plastic together. She lays matching bags down on top of each other, folding them up like a burrito and then cutting them width-wise with a regular pair of scissors. The results are hoops of plastic which she then joins together to create her plastic yarn, or “plarn” as she jokingly calls it.
Even though her project is finished, Gratto is still accepting donations of plastic bags from her congregation at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I’ll still take them,” says Gratto enthusiastically. “The mat project is going to continue.”
Gratto is the latest community member to put their names down to volunteer at Viola’s Place, and she’s hoping to teach anyone interested about how they can turn their pieces of garbage into something that can make a difference.
“I’ve never been homeless, but I’ve been one paycheque away,” said Gratto. “We all get caught up in our own lives, but we ought to think about other people too. And we can also save some space in the landfills, by turning this stuff into something useful.”
