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Who knew that a pile of recycled bus maps could be transformed into a wintry forest of elegant birch trees? Or that discarded plastic shopping bags could be shredded to look like freshly fallen snow? And who would think of taking eight tiny toy buses, outfitting them with reindeer horns, and launching them into the air, connected to some kind of invisible sleigh?

These imaginative and eco-friendly holiday decorations are the brainchild of two interior design students from the Art Institute of California-Los Angeles, whose visions of a wintry wonderland are on display throughout the holiday season at the Big Blue Bus transit store in downtown Santa Monica, CA.

All the individual displays contain either recycled or natural materials, including old Big Blue Bus maps and bus tokens, pine cones, water bottles, empty food boxes, recycled wood planks, paper towel rolls, discarded tree branches, and bicycle tires.

In addition to the birch forest in the window, the decorations include ornaments made from day passes, wreaths wrapped in recycled paper ribbons, baskets made from plastic bags, and bows and wrapped packages made from Big Blue Bus maps.

““So many people do a double take when they walk by or come into the store,” said Dan Dawson, customer relations manager for the Big Blue Bus. “When you tell them the display is made from paper maps, a little paint, and some fish line, they just can’t believe it!”

Interior design students Dimitra Dorbacopoulos and Margallet Yosef are completing their final year of a four-year bachelor’s degree program at The Art Institute, and were selected for the project because of their exemplary performance in their work, both inside and outside the classrooms. Both students will be graduating this month.

“We hoped that by doing this display, it would set an example to society that the beauty in artwork lies not only in creativity, but in the process as well,” said Dorbacopoulos. By using natural and recycled materials, she said, “We hope that everyone who sees this display will be inspired to be more resourceful and maybe even to utilize materials found all around us to improve the spaces where we live and work.”

Photo by William Mondragon The window display at the Big Blue Bus transit store in Santa Monica, CA, features a forest of birch trees created from recycled bus maps.

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