Joleen Emery is an American yogi, crafter and founder of the wellness brand Big Raven Yoga. She recognizes that to cultivate a healthy and well-balanced life, people require both physical and mental stimulation. One way to do both is by introducing arts & crafts into their daily routines. Combined with her own personal concerns for the environment, Emery has decided to use her platform to share kits and best practices on how to craft home-decor pieces by up-cycling old printed materials such as books and newspapers.
Emery shares her detailed crafting process on social media and also sells kits to allow her audiences to upcycle their own old newspapers, magazines and books at home. Aside from that, Emery also hosts the Happy Time Craftcast, a podcast where she frequently interviews crafters from all sorts of backgrounds who work with various mediums such as flower crafts and embroidery. All to further inspire her audiences to pick up their own at-home recycling and crafting projects and to share the benefits that crafting has brought to their mental well-being. This is why Joleen Emery’s work is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Responsible Consumption and Production and Good Health and Well-Being.
Some of Emery’s most notable projects include the Flight of Fancy Art which is a hanging mobile inspired by Kinetic Art Mobiles by Alexander Calder. For this particular project, she up-cycled printed material into origami cranes that hang from the mobile, creating a one-of-a-kind, memorable piece. Another piece is her Bookboard Mosaic Traveler’s Notebook, a project to bind and create a journal out of brochures, guides and various printed materials collected during a person’s travels. Emery also encourages people to add blank pages to the journal so that her audience can use those pages to record their travel diary.
The World Wildlife Fund has stated that paper uses up to 40 percent of all wood produced globally. In the US alone, paper production is the second largest cause of air pollution. These statistics show just how important Emery's work is, by not only recycling her own printed materials, but also encouraging others through her social media presence.
Emery’s paper pieces, inspired by renowned artworks, also become conversation starters as she displays them in her retreat centre, the Big Raven Farm, further allowing her to share about how other people can do similar things at home. This creates a ripple effect that, down the road, will certainly help in reducing printed material and paper waste.
Find out more about paper crafts by Joleen Emery and their other initiatives by checking their Instagram on @joleenemery.