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.”
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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.”
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The ball on the street (right), and after the makeover: a planter
(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?
“To take something old with potential that I found on the street, turn it into something new and then give it to someone else,” she said. “I already know when there are bulky waste collection days on my street, and I literally drive around looking for things.”
At first, it began during walks with her dog. “One day I found a basketball and thought to myself, 'Why did someone throw this away? Let’s make something from it. I turned it into a planter. I even thought about putting it back on the street after I finished, to see if someone would take it. Every time I posted one of these projects to my story, I realized people really loved the content and the pieces themselves. Many also started messaging me privately. I thought, if my followers love these things, why not give it to them? That’s where the whole idea of passing it on began.”
In practice, you are combining your creative abilities with your work in video editing.
“That’s true,” she said. “Someone once asked me what’s harder for me: making the project itself or editing the video. I think the harder mental part is actually making the object. In editing, I trust myself. I see myself as a storyteller. Give me random raw materials, and I’ll know how to turn them into something.
“But when I see an object and have a vision for what it could become, that’s where the questions begin: Will I succeed in making it? Will it look like I imagine it? On the other hand, in practice, what takes me more time is editing the video and building the script.”
Passing it on
Followers often send her photos of things they created after being inspired by her, or tag her in their own projects. But sometimes, they also send something else: junk.
“The funniest thing is that they also send me discarded objects,” she said. “Someone wrote to me that she had a vintage toaster and wanted to throw it away, but before that, she asked whether I wanted to do something with it. People send me broken guitars, mini fridges. The truth is, I don’t take everything. When someone offers me an object, I need to feel that instant click, to see what it could become.”
In one of her viral videos, Keren created a striking red Lego-inspired object from a spice rack she already had at home. “Unlike my usual process, where I find objects on the street, with the Lego piece I created something from what I already had at home and was looking for a design solution,” she said. “I looked at the set in terms of shape and asked: how can this become something that is both convenient and beautiful?”
Keren said she is strongly drawn to modern art. “I love taking something that was in the trash and adding the most beautiful thing in the world to it,” she said. “There’s something about that contrast, taking something that was thrown away and turning it into something desirable, photogenic and beautiful. It came out so beautiful that I had to pass it on to someone who loves Lego. I asked my followers and found someone who really knew how to appreciate it, and of course our meeting was documented and posted on its own.”
How do you decide who gets the finished pieces?
“At the end of every video, I say that one follower who comments ‘me’ will receive the creation,” she said. “Then I go through all the comments and choose who to give it to. I need to know that they’re willing to be filmed, and if they’re under 18, their parents should approve. It has really become casting in every sense.”
In another video, she created a decorative mirror whose entire frame was covered in tiny, colorful toy cars. “I found a round mirror on the street, came home and cleaned it thoroughly,” she said. “I got a bag full of small cars, sorted them by color, glued them one by one with a hot glue gun and, honestly, it was really hard to part with it. But as I said in the video, tradition is tradition, and it was passed on with joy and love to Guy, who is also artistically oriented and paints. Together, we decided where to place it.”
In another viral video, she turned a toaster oven she had also found on the street into a small, colorful, illuminated candy cabinet. “I painted it purple, added changing colored lights, and the person who won that piece, full of candy, of course, was a girl named Gili,” she said.
Do you make money from any of this?
“This project is purely mine,” Keren said. “I’ve already received offers for collaborations and commercial projects, but right now that interests me less. I’m not ruling it out in the future, but I don’t want to chase commercial projects just for the sake of making more content. That’s not the goal.
“In the end, what I enjoy most is reaching someone, sitting with them and laughing with them. People see a one-minute video, but I can sit at that person’s home for three hours. For me, that’s the real thing. It also creates a very strong connection with my followers.”