P.E.I. artists give new life to discarded materials

Sheila Dalton and John Hallman, co-owners of She Shells by Sheila. They prepare handcrafted shells with designs for home decor and organization. (Photo by Judith Mendiolea)

Kate Clark would step into a hotel room. 

Long days crisscrossing the Maritimes selling farm machinery had passed by. And she did the one thing many avoid after hours on the road: start working again.

“I don't like to watch TV,” she said. “I’d rather sew or crochet or make something with my hands.”

Having grown up on a small farm in N.B., and trained as an auto mechanic, Clark had long valued precision and durability. Over time, her crafts became more ambitious and experimental.

That same energy eventually led her downstairs to a wood-stove-warmed basement filled with repurposed materials: copper pennies, barn wire, silver scraps and even leaves pressed in metal. She began crafting earrings and pendants, coaxing old coins into shimmering life through glass enamelling.

“I say, anybody can buy copper,” Clark said. “So I started searching and found research showing that old pennies actually have a high copper content. I started working with them, experimented a bit, and then I was like, yeah, this will work.”

Today, she uses that copper to make what she calls “wearable art.” Her pieces, organic, textured, and often leaf-shaped, reflect P.E.I.’s landscape and a deeper urge to give discarded things new worth.

“Most of my jewelry, like the berries and stuff, is inspired by nature, the colours, and how things fit together. And also by recycling,” she said.

That instinct to give new life to old materials aligns with a growing national movement. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, the amount of solid waste diverted for recycling or composting rose by 49 per cent between 2002 and 2022. But despite these gains, nearly three-quarters of all solid waste in the country still ends up in landfills.

Clark incorporates handmade glass beads with gemstones, crystals, vintage brass, and both commercial and custom sterling silver findings to create one-of-a-kind pieces under the name Beadelicious Wearable Art. She’s now a member of the P.E.I., N.B. and N.S. Crafts Councils.

She plans to exhibit her work in Toronto and Ottawa in fall 2026.

Her pieces are available through her website, beadelicious.ca, in P.E.I. Crafts Council Gallery, in select Charlottetown shops and at upcoming shows like the Northport Inn in Alberton on July 27.

But Clark’s drive to renew isn’t unique.

Across the Island, artists like Clark are not only creating unique, handmade items—they're part of a quiet resistance to throwaway culture. 

Upcycled art offers environmental, creative and economic benefits. The reuse of materials diverts waste from landfills, conserves resources and generates lower carbon emissions than manufacturing with new materials.

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, just 27 per cent of Canada's solid waste is diverted from landfills. The rest — more than 25 million tonnes each year — is buried, burned or left to decompose, often releasing harmful emissions.

The flower alchemist of Rice Point

At the edge of Rice Point, a table of soft socks and wild bouquets stands quietly beneath a canvas shade. A few steps away, Noemi D’Aragon-Lapointe’s micro flower farm waits to be harvested.

Two years ago, D’Aragon-Lapointe packed up her life in Montreal and moved east to P.E.I. She was looking for calm, a slower rhythm and English lessons for her children and herself.

“I didn’t speak English well,” she said. “So when I started my own flower business, it became both a challenge and an opportunity.”

In Montreal, she worked on urban greening projects. On the Island, she grows edible petals and cut flowers for bouquets, dries pine cones for decoration, and sells eco-prints — a botanical dye process that leaves the outline of petals on fabric. 

“Eco-printing takes many steps. You clean the fabric, fix the colours with mordants, then roll and steam the flowers,” she said. “All winter, I experiment and test things out so I can offer something new in the summer.”

Her stand at the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market, “Les Bouques de Noémi,” is becoming a small but steady presence.

“I sold a couple of my printed socks in an hour and a half,” she said. “People were so generous with compliments, I didn’t expect it.”

No pesticides are used in her garden. Insects are welcome, and her compost is homemade.

“I’d love to live zero-waste,” she said. “I’m not there yet, but I try very hard and reflect it in my business.”

‘Why have more in the landfills?’

Beverley MacKinnon, known to most as Crafty Senior, works with what’s already around her — jars, plastic flowers, scraps of wire and wood.

“I don’t do just one thing. I’m always doing other stuff,” she said.

That “stuff” includes shadow boxes, decorated bottles and table-top scenes: lighthouses, fishing villages and all sorts of decor.

“There is not one thing I do the same,” she said. “Maybe except the lighthouses—but even those are different.”

Her journey began with magazine clippings. “I started seeing ideas in magazines,” she said. “And I thought, I could do that.”

Much of her work comes from repurposed materials.

“Why have more in the landfills,” she asked, “when you can use the product again? The landfills are already full.”

Next on her list: ship-in-a-bottle scenes.

She recently showed at the Victoria Saturday Market and will appear at the Shediac Craft Shop July 19–20, the Northport Inn on July 27 and the Hartland Covered Bridge in N.B., on Aug. 4.

Projects like MacKinnon’s help reduce pressure on landfills and give overlooked materials a second life. According to the federal government, only seven per cent of the nearly five million tonnes of plastic waste generated in Canada is recycled. The rest ends up in landfills, waterways or incinerators, adding to the environmental cost of single-use goods.

Bone, driftwood and a whale-handled wand

Trudy Gilbertson, owner of Cabin Fever Carving, also works with salvaged materials — though hers are harder: antlers, bone and old wood.

“My workshop is the one place I never get tired of being in,” she said. “My pieces are inspired by wildlife and all things marine, especially whales.”

What began as a winter night course in bird carving eventually grew into 35 years of full-time practice rooted in biology and sustainability.

She now creates jewelry, sculptures and wall art using bison, cow and deer bone, antlers and the occasional chair leg or thrifted frame.

“Bone is a byproduct, and antlers are naturally shed,” she said. “Over the years, I’ve started incorporating things like the backs of old chairs. And now I actively search for interesting frames in thrift stores. The frames themselves have started to become part of the piece.”

Gilbertson sells her work at the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market, through local galleries as part of the PEI Crafts Council and online. Prices range from $25 earrings to $600 custom sculptures.

“I once made a whale-handled wand for a Harry Potter-themed wedding,” she said.

From a beach walk to a market table

Under the white canopy of the Charlottetown Sunday Outdoor Market, Sheila Dalton rifles through a basket of oyster shells. Beside her stands her husband, John Halman. Together, they make She Shells by Sheila.

“John helps in practically every stage—from gathering and cleaning the shells to drilling and fixing imperfections.”

The idea came on a walk. After seeing a community art box —take a piece, leave a piece — Dalton realized she didn’t have anything to leave. Then, she spotted a shell.

From there, the art grew: florals, birds, motorcycles, skulls, eagles and crows.

“Some people like florals, some like skulls, some love crows, I try to have enough variety that everyone finds something they love,” she said.

“Every shell is different. I might repeat a theme, but no two ever come out exactly the same.”

She also repurposes thrifted jewelry into accents.

“I reuse old jewelry from thrift stores, I’ll take apart brooches or rhinestones and turn them into accents for the shells.”

Prices are modest: $10 for ornaments, $20 for larger dishes.

“I’m not trying to get rich,” she said. “I do it because I like it, and I can’t just keep making them and piling them in my house.”

Though she doesn’t have a website, Dalton sells through summer markets. She’ll be at the Confederation Landing Sunday Market and in upcoming seasonal shows at The Guild.

Beyond the creative and economic value of their work, upcyclers also contribute to environmental sustainability. 

By working with discarded or salvaged materials, they help reduce demand for virgin resources, cut down on greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the hazardous byproducts of traditional manufacturing, according to Health the Planet, a U.S.-based sustainability initiative.

“With the way the world is going, it just keeps accumulating and accumulating,” Dalton said. “So I think it's really important to try to use what we have. I try to live like that anyway.”