While a bottle cap may be something to throw out after opening a drink for some, this colorful top is a fish eye, owl feather or stripe in the American flag for one Bluff Park woman.

Donna DiGiorgio’s passion for scraps and recycled items started at her family’s lake property when she was a child. They had a spot where they would throw out trash, so DiGiorgio would go back there and collect discarded odds and ends like metal cans and toy parts.

Instead of seeing a trash pile, she envisioned shiny fish eyes, scales, fins, wings and outlines of states. She began gathering all of the different, unique scraps, knowing she could one day piece them together. And years later, the site was still where she found the inspiration and supplies for many of her art projects.

“When I started making art as an adult, I went back to that place,” DiGiorgio says, who started creating art from the scraps three years ago. “I really got in there, cleaning it all up.” She found old Mountain Dew and Coke cans, bottles and soda caps at this “treasure site.”

“The bottle caps became my ink,” she says, “and I colored the fish and owls with them.”

To read more about Donna DiGiorgio’s bottle cap creations, check out the March 2014 issue of Hoover’s Magazine. Find your copy here.