The 'neo straw art' of Minako Tohgin

Minako Tohgin may be the world's best practitioner of "straw art." The Osaka-based artist believes "it will be wonderful if we all realize that recycling resources is interesting and fun," hence she works to create minute recreations of living things out of with old drinking straws. Some of her work appears on NHK's educational programming.

According to her website, Tohgin is a trained cook. She wrote two books about plastic crafts now out-of-print, but she has harnessed the power of the Internet to introduce here work to a whole new generation.

Tohgin's art is for everyone, and she encourages participation with an explaination of how to recreate her work posted on wikiHow, including How to Make Bird Puppets from Plastic Straws, How to Make a Shrimp out of a Plastic Straw and How to Make a Grasshopper from a Plastic Straw. Study up: These all have the potential to be the best party trick ever.

Visit Tohgin's blog at kitchenplasticarts.blogspot.com for more straw art updates. And here is an index of her works.