If you go out in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise. For every bear that ever there was, will gather there for certain because—well, because they've all been recycled into rugs.
Artist Augustina Woodgate designs and hand-sews these "Skin Rugs" from donated stuffed animals as a remembrance for the expired plushies' owners.
According to her website,
In Eastern Cultures, the oriental rug centralizes the living space in pattern, operating beyond utility to depict the spiritual and mental world in woven form. Woodgate is particularly drawn to the specific meanings in the arrangement of rug designs, and how different histories of the rug represent stories of the past and ways of tracing archetypes in physical and material forms.
I suppose that's one way to think about it. Then again, despite fully understanding that it is simply an inanimate object, I still can't bear to store my old teddy in a drawer because how would he breathe in there? [Augustina Woodgate via Crackajack via Neatorama]