LaKenzie Powell: Miniatures Out of Up-Cycled and Thrifted Materials

American miniature artist LaKenzie Powell's work is unique and delightful. She carefully crafts her miniatures out of up-cycled or thrifted materials. This allows her to create her own weird and wonderful small-world creations, including a silly tricycle-riding frog, a rabbit enjoying a picnic and a SpongeBob hot air balloon out of things that would have otherwise been discarded into landfills across the globe. This makes her work relevant to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Responsible Consumption and Production.

Powell has shared that to create her miniatures, she either collects odd trinkets and trash she finds lying around or purchases bags of odd small toys at thrift shops. These bags contain an assortment of plastic toys, such as odd Barbie furniture, damaged small pet toys, and even one-off Lego parts.

Once she gets these bits and pieces home, Powell sorts them by colour into see-through drawers that make it easier for her creative process. To create her miniatures, sometimes Powell begins with a clear idea in mind, as was the case for her SpongeBob hot air balloon. Knowing what she wanted to make, Powell went through her drawer to source suitable parts to bring her idea to life. She also painted certain parts which helped translate her idea better.

Other times, such as when she made her piece The Silliest Frog The World Has Ever Seen, Powell lets the individual trinkets she’s found, such as a small plastic frog and a plastic tricycle, guide her imagination into creating her own weird and wonderful world. In The Silliest Frog The World Has Ever Seen, she also uses some modelling clay to help her finish the piece.

The toy industry is worth over USD 40 billion in North America alone. A report published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found that globally, the industry has the highest plastic use intensity amongst consumer goods; with every USD 1 million of toy revenue generating up to 40 tons of plastic. This is why initiatives such as Powell’s, to up-cycle and give life to discarded plastic toys go a long way. Especially considering how the toy industry relies on novelty, as their primary target audience, children tend to purchase more toys after their older toys’ novelty has worn off, a move which generates more plastic waste in the process.

Powell’s ability to share her process with 870,000 TikTok followers will hopefully inspire some of them to do the same. Her viewers are encouraged to find trinkets around the house or from thrift shops to make new miniature toys while making small, meaningful contributions to eliminating plastic waste.  

Find out more about LaKenzie Powell’s miniatures and their other pieces by checking their Instagram @_lakenzo_.