About

Carla Brown with hooked rug she made

For questions about Trashmagination, please email trashmagination@gmail.com.


My name is Carla Brown and I hosted the podcast Trashmagination about the creative reuse of recycled materials. This podcast is no longer being published but you can listen to past issues on this website. Currently I am putting up new videos on the Trashmagination YouTube channel and posting to Instagram and Facebook.

I have been making items from recycled materials since I was a teenager. It started because I wanted to make items in my high school art class that looked different from the other students. I became even more interested when I visited a garbage-free community in British Columbia called Hornby Island.

View my favorite creative reuse designs from my lifetime of experiments on the My Projects page.

Where does the word “Trashmagination” come from?

I came up with the term “trashmagination” when I heard the quote “Trash is the failure of imagination,” from Aaron Kramer from Urban Objects. It summarizes my belief that we can solve a lot of challenges with imagination.

What else is fun to know about me?

  • I have performed in a Japanese drumming or taiko group called Nen Daiko.
  • I am Canadian and American. I grew up in provinces across Canada, and moved to the United States (specifically Virginia) in 1998. I was born in Newfoundland and most of my family now lives in Nova Scotia, so that’s why you’ll hear a lot about rug hooking which is a traditional craft from that province.
  • I have kept a gratitude box since 2013 where I write down why I am grateful every day.