Leftovers are something every crafter has been confronted with after finishing their latest design. Fabric scraps, leather trimmings or just pieces of lace too small to use for your project. Even the thriftiest of creators will often toss these materials away.

But just because they can’t be used for the project you had in mind, doesn’t mean they can’t be used for a completely unrelated design. Ruyi Crochet is one of the designers working exclusively with the materials that others would find no purpose for, creating intricate crochet flowers, patterns, textures and more.

In 2013 Gloria Zhu took up the designer moniker ‘Lady Ruyi’ and began designing handmade lace doilies and decorations from unwanted materials, overstock destined to be discarded, and even the trimmings and leftovers of previous creations. To Lady Ruyi, her crochet needles are the paint brushes she uses to paint delicate and classy lace works on whichever design could use some handmade beautification.

Many of her creations are one-of-a-kind items. Her exclusive promotional TOMS shoes design saw her adorning the shoes’ canvas with beautiful crochet flower patterns. The TOMS shoes brand donates a pair of shoes to the disadvantaged with every sale.

For her TOMS shoes design, Gloria chose to emblazon a crochet creation onto the shoe’s canvas exterior. Her aim was to show off her brand’s idea of elegance: the clean and gorgeous tones she adores.

With her signature crochet techniques (and a few designer tricks) she handcrafted a delicate flower from white-wax rope, embodying the charm of Chinese Blue and White. TOMS shoes proudly displayed her design at their China launch, touring between Beijing and Shanghai.

With a little creativity, there’s a lot of beauty you can mine out of materials others see no use for. Lady Ruyi is just a single example of what one of those creatives can do!

theSquirrelz.com wants to make it easy for those ‘leftover’ materials to get into the hands of talented designers and crafters. That’s why we are searching out these materials ourselves!

When a crafter has finished a project, they’re left with maybe a handful of leftover materials. But when a factory finishes a project, they can be left with literal tons of high-quality materials! When they have no outlet for this overstock, they destroy it. Well, we’re putting a stop to that, with our selection of eco-friendly, high-quality, low-cost materials!

Want to try out some of our eco-materials for yourself? Take a look at our Inspiration Packs and let our curated selections decide your next project for you!

Originally published at thesquirrelz.com on February 9, 2016.