Scavenging

Don’t Chuck That Lucky Charms Box

Arizona artist Frances Biller-Belinky makes baskets from discarded cracker, cereal and stove-top stuffing boxes. Her quirky work has just won a national award from the Handweavers Guild of America, according to local TV station KTAR. Collecting the colorful empty boxes from neighbors and fellow members of the Tucson Handweavers and Spinners Guild, Biller-Belinky uses a paper-cutter — she formerly used a shredder — to divide them into long strips, which she then crafts into baskets that take from a few hours to a few months to complete. 

After learning to weave baskets about ten years ago with bark and grass, the former schoolteacher saw a picture of a cereal-box basket in a book and decided to try it on her own. As she interweaves the strips, she glues them in place, using waxed linen to fortify each basket’s base. Lately she’s begun experimenting with other recycled materials, including corrugated cardboard.