Junk Mail Gems
by Sean Fisher, Cincinnati, Ohio on 02. 2.07
Sometimes a hobby can take on a life of its own. If you are lucky, that hobby turns into a viable business opportunity. Well, consider the creative force behind Junk Mail Gems lucky. What started as a creative outlet for junk mail frustration has now become a line of magnets, beads, wallets and handbags all made from unwanted catalogs, credit card offers and other mailbox invaders. Each piece is hand-made by Junk Mail Gems owner Gretchen in Minneapolis, Minnesota and guaranteed to be one-of-a-kind (styles and colors all depend on what junk mail comes in). Of course, buying items made from junk mail is only one way of making a statement against waste. Be sure to check out our tips on how to stop junk mail before it even hits your mailbox. ::Via gretchen on Hugg
does this person have a web site?
What an interesting and innovative product visually appealing too. love the use of junk mail i'd be very interested in checking one of these out.
YES, she does have a website! Hi, I'm Gretchen from Minnesota... my website is www.JunkMailGems.com
Thanks for looking, and thanks to all of you treehugger visitors who have emailed me! ;-) I've enjoyed "meeting" you all!
That is awesome! I want one.
Mine just arrived this weekend & I love it! It even came packed in shredded junk mail :-) It'll make a great little travel wallet & business card holder.
Do Not Mail Opt-Out Law would be fair to everyone.
The proposed statewide "Do not mail" is an Opt-Out law. Only those not desiring advertising mail need opt-out. Anyone desiring advertising mail can do nothing - and continue to receive it. Why deny those wishing to avoid advertising mail the power to do so?
I do not consider handling unwanted advertising placed against my will on my personal property to be a civic obligation!
The US Supreme Court said in the Rowan case in 1970, ““In today's [1970] complex society we are inescapably captive audiences for many purposes, but a sufficient measure of individual autonomy must survive to permit every householder to exercise control over unwanted mail. To make the householder the exclusive and final judge of what will cross his threshold undoubtedly has the effect of impeding the flow of ideas, information, and arguments that, ideally, he should receive and consider. Today's merchandising methods, the plethora of mass mailings subsidized by low postal rates, and the growth of the sale of large mailing lists as an industry in itself have changed the mailman from a carrier of primarily private communications, as he was in a more leisurely day, and have made him an adjunct of the mass mailer who sends unsolicited and often unwanted mail into every home. It places no strain on the doctrine of judicial notice to observe that whether measured by pieces or pounds, Everyman's mail today is made up overwhelmingly of material he did not seek from persons he does not know. And all too often it is matter he finds offensive.”
Furthermore, the Supreme Court said, “the mailer's right to communicate is circumscribed only by an affirmative act of the addressee giving notice that he wishes no further mailings from that mailer.
To hold less would tend to license a form of trespass and would make hardly more sense than to say that a radio or television viewer may not twist the dial to cut off an offensive or boring communication and thus bar its entering his home. Nothing in the Constitution compels us to listen to or view any unwanted communication, whatever its merit; we see no basis for according the printed word or pictures a different or more preferred status because they are sent by mail.”
We need a nationwide “Do Not Mail” law to create a one-stop, convenient place for homeowners to give senders the aforementioned affirmative notice that we do not want certain kinds of mail sent to our homes.
www.nomorejunkmail.org
Signed,
Ramsey A Fahel
Arvada, CO