Anna Roebuck, from Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, turns old plastic bags into designer jewellery. "It all started as a bit of an accident. I was teaching a painting on glass course and I wanted to give it a contemporary spin so I started by trying to recycle pop bottles and then my interest in plastics grew as I played around."
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"I liked the translucency of it and its versatility. I started out by trying to make lights and bags out of carrier bags and it just evolved from there." Blue Peter child Anna had ambitions to be a vet as a child but she was also keen 'green'.
 | | Handmade jewellery |
"I think I've always gone down the recycling route, as a child of Blue Peter, creating things from cardboard boxes and bits of found objects. I always kept things and saved things." After art college Anna became a chef before starting a business in recycled paper, working on a project in Mansfield called Youth At Risk and then teaching for five years at Broxtowe College. Green machine But now her life is all bags (as well as swimming, live music and cycling in her spare time). "I shred the bags up using secret machinery. I will lay the design out individually for each piece. Each piece of jewellery is unique."
 | | Anna's jewellery |
Then the bags and other materials are collaged together using heat to bond them. "A lot of people think the jewellery is going to very delicate, that it's going to be glass, but it's not. It's obviously very durable because it is plastic but its appearance is definitely not that of plastic bags." "It's great for things in the bathroom or outdoors as it is waterproof." Anna hopes to design and make some flowers for a plastic garden in the Eden Project. More bags needed! "I have different schools saving plastic bags for me, eco teams, people send them through the post to me... I get them from all over the place."
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Anna says that if she appeared on Mastermind plastic bags would be her specialist subject.
 | | Anna's jewellery |
"I'm always on the look out for nice interesting colours. A lot of the colour and design that comes in my work is actually from the colours of the bags themselves. I'm always short of pink bags and gold bags. I've been known to stop people in the street and try and swap bags." But the artist from Eastwood can never get enough of them. "I need your bags! I always need colourful and interesting bags, so please recycle your plastic carrier bags; save them up and post them to me, I will be happy to reimburse the postage fee... bags2riches, 20a, Mansfield Road, Eastwood, Nottingham NG16 3AQ." | 
