Shoval Keren finds discarded objects on the street, transforms them into playful design pieces on TikTok and gives each creation to a follower who will love itMiri Ben-David Livi|Shoval Keren is a copywriter and video editor from Hod Hasharon, but she is also an unusually creative woman, as anyone scrolling through her popular TikTok account can see. More than 130,000 people follow her there, and on Instagram, where she posts videos showing the step-by-step transformation of discarded objects and accessories she finds on the street into useful home design pieces.“I’m creative in my DNA,” she said. “I’m always thinking about how to create special DIY from anything that crosses my path. Whether it’s wedding invitations, ideas for hosting accessories, how to surprise my family with a new item or all kinds of ideas we supposedly haven’t seen yet. It became part of my content on social media.”7 View gallery Shoval Keren turned an old spice rack into a Lego-inspired piece(Photo: Shoval Keren)Anyone who knew her in high school was not surprised by the shift her social media accounts have taken in recent months. “I was in the art track in high school, and for the final project everyone had to choose a topic,” she recalled. “I chose the environment, with an emphasis on recycling and remakes. I built a kind of living room from recycled objects. I had a table made from an airplane trolley, I made an entire rug from bottle caps, mirrors made from wheels and all kinds of things like that.“In hindsight, I say it wasn’t the most beautiful thing, but the thought was always there: how to create something new from items that would otherwise go in the trash. That project was very hard for me, but that’s where it started. That’s where this obsession started.”7 View gallery The ball on the street (right), and after the makeover: a planter(Photo: Shoval Keren)7 View gallery The discarded mirror (right), and after the makeover (left)(Photo: Shoval Keren)In the years that followed, she completely abandoned upcycling and DIY, “but it always stayed in my head. I was always thinking about it, but not really doing anything with it,” she said. “Three years ago, I even told a friend that there was a bulky waste pickup on my street and that we should go find things and make something from them, but that also didn’t happen.”A few months ago, that changed. “I decided I really wanted to do it,” she said. “I spoke about it with my partner, May, and because I’m a hoarder and she isn’t, I promised from the start that I would give away the things I created and not keep them at home. That’s how I got her support and set off.”So what is the idea?