A conservators’ first step is to examine the materials, construction, and cultural context of artifacts. This ensures a full understanding of the objects, allowing us to consider any ethical implications of our work prior to any potential treatment. This is also one of the first ideas that we teach to aspiring conservators. To facilitate this, in early 2020, Bryn Mawr College loaned four toys constructed primarily from colorful flip-flop sandals to the University of Delaware for use in an undergraduate-level course in art conservation. The course centered on learning how to document artifacts, studying materials used in the manufacture of art, and recognizing condition issues. The flip-flop toys provided rich material for investigating each of these areas and challenged students to capture these complicated structures in a report. Furthermore, the students were tasked with putting these artifacts into context. Although they were resourceful in finding references about the artist, it was clear that there was not much available to research. Through the Bryn Mawr Collection online catalogue, they could see that Saarenald T.S. Yaawaisan made the toys, that they were accessioned in 2016, and that Jane Martin had donated them to Bryn Mawr. But who was Yaawaisan? How is he connected to Bryn Mawr? This article will address these questions in more detail and will also put Yaawaisan's work into broader context. It will consider the materials and methods of manufacture as described from a conservation-based point of view and supported by condition observations. It will also compare them to selected other flip-flop art works by African artists and contextualize them in the use of discarded materials for artistic purposes.In searching for more information on Yaawaisan, it became clear that there is not a consensus on how his name is spelled. In the Bryn Mawr Collection, he is identified as Saarenald T.S. Yaawaisan. This is how the authors of this article chose to identify him as well. However, Jane Martin, the donor, writes about him as Mr. Yaawason. He is named Yaawaison in another collection and Yaweisohn in yet another collection. Using the internet as a tool, none of the spellings or other creative spelling variations that the authors tried led to any substantive information on who Yaawaisan is or was. It is unclear if he is still living or how he might be found. Nevertheless, the following information could be pieced together with the existing resources.Saarenald T.S. Yaawaisan was from Fissebue in Lofa County, Liberia, the northwest part of the country. In his early years upcountry, he began constructing toys made of bamboo (Martin 2001). After getting into trouble there and being shackled and put into stocks, he moved to Monrovia, the capital city. He lived amid the military barracks, experiencing homelessness, and managing to survive despite his misfortunes. According to Dr. Jane Martin, Yaawaisan was “a bit of a crazy man, not communicative or talkative, very much a loner but with an unusual creative power that no one could copy—a kind of creative genius” (Martin 2016).From 1984–1989, Dr. Martin was the executive director of the U.S. Educational and Cultural Foundation in Liberia, a binational Fulbright commission in Liberia (Liberian Observer 2020). She first met Yaawaisan on her commute to her office for work. He was sitting on the sidewalk holding a toy truck that he had made while she was stuck in a traffic jam (Fig. 1). Via her driver, Martin asked Yaawaisan to meet her at her office so that she could purchase his toy truck. From then on, Yaawaisan would regularly come to the office with the flip-flop toys that he made. Martin purchased many, and she reports that others also purchased toys from Yaawaisan. In addition to buying his toys, Martin also offered to secure a room for Yaawaisan, but he refused (Martin 2016).Martin last saw Yaawaisan in 2009. She writes that he was working for a “Charlie.” In Liberia, this is a man who collects arts and crafts to sell. She believed that he was working as a “slave or serf.” It seems that Yaawaisan was at that point being forced to produce his flip-flop art for others to profit from. Martin also notes that his toys at that time were elaborate and huge (2016).Over the course of her years living in and visiting Liberia, Martin accumulated a collection of art and artifacts. In 2016, a few years prior to her passing, she donated 149 items from these collections to the Bryn Mawr Collection at Bryn Mawr College, which she had attended for undergraduate (Class of 1953) and graduate studies (MA 1958) (Robbins 2020). Of these, sixteen of the objects were Yaawaisan toys (Fig. 2).1 We identified three other Yaawaisan works in museums outside of the Bryn Mawr Collection: two in Brooklyn and one in Santa Fe. The toy in Santa Fe is a helicopter in the Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA), and like the toys in Bryn Mawr, it was also a gift of Jane Martin. This toy was part of the exhibition Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap, which began at the MOIFA in 1996 and then traveled to several other institutions through 2000 (Seriff 1996b). William Siegmann donated the other two works, a helicopter and a tank, to the Brooklyn Children's Museum (Brooklyn Children's Museum 2020; Art Museum Images from Cartography Associates Library 2003). Siegmann, like Martin, had a long scholarly relationship with Liberia, including winning a Fulbright award in 1984 to conduct research in the country (Art Daily 2011). Siegman and Martin were in Liberia at the same time, documented in a photograph in the Bryn Mawr archives that shows the two of them together with five other people. One can imagine that Siegmann was one of those who purchased directly from Yaawaisan outside of Martin's office.Monrovia is a coastal town and flip-flop sandals regularly wash ashore on the beaches. After moving there, Yaawaisan began collecting these discarded flip-flops from the beaches and incorporating them into his art. “Soon he began adding cast-off scraps from a flip-flop factory on the outskirts of town” (Martin 2016). As demand for his toy sculptures increased, Yaawaisan was forced to buy new flip-flops from local factories to meet the need for additional materials (Tenner 2003). The brand name “APIN’’ is visible on several toy parts, as illustrated by the inscription on the toy helicopter in Figure 3. APIN Footwear Ltd. is a Nigerian shoe manufacturer that began in the late 1950s, quickly becoming popular worldwide. They became a large footwear manufacturer, now producing over a million flip-flops and sandals out of EVA plastic foam every day (APIN 2020). Given the volume of APIN flip-flops that are produced, it is no wonder that they found their way into Yaawaisan's art. However, the company does not have a manufacturing facility in Liberia, so the cast-off scraps and local factories that Martin and Tenner cite as Yaawaisan's sources for materials must come from other factories or other places. Companies like Kumba Beindu and Sons that sold flip-flops at the time did not manufacture them (BBC 2012). Perhaps he purchased sandals from them, but as retailers they would not have scrap material from the production process. Unfortunately, there is no shoe manufacturing in Liberia now, so identifying where Yaawaisan might have obtained these materials is unclear.The flip-flops incorporated into the toys are sometimes readily recognizable because Yaawaisan did little to change the shape of the sandal. This is readily apparent in Toy Airplane 2016.14.37 from Bryn Mawr (Fig. 4). The side walls of the airplane show the soles of the sandals. The three holes where the upper strap would have been secured are even still visible. Most of the time, however, the flip-flop material is cut and shaped into unique parts for each toy. By cutting at an angle, Yaawaisan could reveal more of the different colors of layered soles, increasing the variety of color. The tool marks left on the foam are typically rough and jagged, adding to the dynamic nature of the end structure. Though we do not have written or photographic documentation of Yaawaisan's tools, the residual marks suggest that the foam was cut with a knife. The foam in the toys in the Bryn Mawr Collection show abrasion and wear patterns that are consistent with prior use, suggesting that these are some of Yaawaisan's earlier works from previously worn flip-flops. Martin pointed out that Yaawaisan's toys had become large and elaborate when she last saw him in 2009, but that she preferred his smaller toys (2016). The fact that the Bryn Mawr toys are on the smaller side and show wear patterns support that these are among his earlier works.For the toys that are primarily made from flip-flops, pieces are held together with bits of wood of inconsistent thickness and diameter, showing that they were split by hand and not otherwise manufactured. Given Yaawaisan's experience in woodworking, he would have already had the knowledge and skill to do this. Although the use of wood is sometimes limited to holding the parts together, other times it is a primary constituent in the structure. For example, Toy Tank has a wooden body with the wood readily visible on all sides (Fig. 5). It also has a wooden main gun. The parts are all pinned together with wooden bits, in the same way that the flip-flop materials are pinned.Yaawaisan toys also include other found materials, like bits of nylon ribbon, plastic containers, and rubber bands. Wooden and flip-flop elements remain key components regardless of the other materials included. In examining the works in the Bryn Mawr Collection, this variety of materials is apparent. Eight of the toys are primarily constructed of flip-flops with wooden bits to hold the pieces together. Five of the toys have visible plastic elements. Three of the toys have a notable wooden component. The three works outside of Bryn Mawr are primarily made of flip-flops with wooden pins holding them together.One glance at the Recycled, Re-Seen exhibition companion book shows the broad range of creative endeavors that originate from discarded material. Articles focus on the United States, Latin America, islands in the Caribbean, western Africa, and India. Seriff notes the “ubiquitous intrusion of material modernity in even the remotest corners of the globe,” pointing out that consumerism is not limited to so-called first-world countries (Seriff 1996a). African artists experienced global attention for their work in the 1980s and 1990s as museums and galleries of Africa were interested in showing this kind of art because it was seen as authentically “African” (Grabski 2017).Alongside the colonialist implications of labeling art as “authentically African,” the term “recycling” in art implies a lack of access to other materials in Africa, while articles about “upcycling” view the same practice of transforming found materials as a trendy statement on climate change and materialism in Western art (Sung 2015). Akpang (2013) elucidates this disparity in the terminology that Western authors have used to describe African art made from found materials. Akpang promulgates that the use of term “recycling” implies repurposing waste materials into objects that can be reused, as demonstrated in Roberts's (1996) article about the process of recycling in Senegal and Benin known as System D. System D involves a resourceful repurposing of an item from original use to a different functional, playful, or decorative artifact through reworking the materials, running the gamut from functional trunks and lunchboxes, to grave markers, to artworks (Roberts 1996). Roberts notes that System D is a necessity and a means of survival (1996).In contrast, Grabski (2017) has described sourcing materials from the city as a deliberate choice by trained artists in Dakar. Through careful examination of precedence and deep appreciation of how various materials function and have the capacity to be transformed, artists mine the city's discarded materials as a formal strategy. In her view, it underestimates the African artist to assume that waste materials are being chosen for the simplistic idea that there is a scarcity of art materials or the assumption of necessity. One of the main differences in Roberts's and Grabski's observations is that Roberts offers several examples of craftspeople engaged in the production of functional and commercial items versus Grabski's look at the endeavors of artists who have trained in the art school. This fundamental difference sheds light on the contrasting points of view. It also highlights the tension in the classification of Western upcycling as art versus African recycling as necessity. Apkang (2013) posits that the term “upcycling” should be used in the context of African decorative objects and art because the term implies that artists are transforming waste materials into works of art.Yaawaisan's flip-flop toys are well placed in this African practice of bricolage and transforming waste materials into something new. Although we cannot know if Yaawaisan deliberately and consciously chose waste materials to make a statement about consumerism or influences of industrial culture, his seeming minimal interest in communicating and circumstances of homelessness suggest that perhaps his material choice was one of practicality. Discarded flip-flops were freely available for his taking. However, given that this practice is well documented and ubiquitous across the continent, it is not a stretch to think that Yaawaisan may have seen other artists practice upcycling and chose to emulate them.Flip-flop art might even warrant its own genre within upcycled art. Another work in the MOIFA is an airplane made by an unknown Senegalese artist (Fig. 6). This airplane's body is made from a used plastic jug. A worn flip-flop is shoved through the handle, presumably to serve as the propeller. Discs of flop-flop are pinned to the jug with wooden pieces for wheels, and a large wooden stick juts straight up from the top of the handle (Museum of International Folk Art n.d.). Although the materials are the same and the subject matter is the same, this airplane has a very different character from those Yaawaisan made. This one does not hide its crude assembly or try to transform the materials of its construction. Instead, each part is recognizable for what it is and challenges the imagination to envision the plane. On the other hand, Yaawaisan's airplanes strive to include the parts of a plane and transform the flip-flops into something new. Even in Toy Airplane (Fig. 4), where the side walls are whole flip-flops, they are seamlessly integrated into the toy. Recognizing the flip-flop is a treat to discover.In Zambia, Boyd Kamanga from Mpika is currently making toys from flip-flops (The Bright Future Project, Zambia 2020). Like Yaawaisan, Kamanga has transformed the flip-flop into something new entirely. However, his construction and end effect are different. Kamanga's cuts to shape the flip-flop foam are straight and crisp. He does not cut the foam at an angle or leave rough edges the way that Yaawaisan does. Kamanga also uses metal fastenings, bottle caps, and other found materials. One example of a toy giraffe also shows that Kamanga will paint the surface of the toy to further the surface effects and doesn't rely solely on the color of the flip-flop itself.Another current maker of flip-flop art is a company named Ocean Sole in Nairobi, Kenya. Founded in 2006, they transform flip-flops into toys, primarily in animal shapes (Fig. 7). The company buys flip-flops by the kilogram from pickers who collect them from local landfills and waterways. The flip-flops are scrubbed clean, die cut, and built into a block, then hand carved into the animal shape. For large animals, the flip-flops are glued to a central form made from shipping insulation foam. Rather than individual artist creations, these flip-flop toys are designed to have some uniformity and standardization between the pieces. The surfaces are sanded smooth, creating a consistent, commercial product. The source material is so fully transformed into something new that any trace of its origins as flip-flops is erased with the exception of the bright colors (Ebru TV Kenya 2018).These examples show that just as there are many reasons for choosing waste materials as an artistic medium, specifically electing to transform flip-flops into toys also produces a variety of end results.Saarenald T.S. Yaawaisan produced dynamic and artistic toys made primarily from previously discarded flip-flops. He transformed this found waste products into items that bring joy. Thanks to Jane Martin's relationship both with Yaawaisan and Bryn Mawr College, his art continues to delight. His flip-flop toys represent a small piece of the global phenomenon of transforming found materials into works of art. Though little is known about his life, his memory lives on in the flip-flop toys he created. The generosity of Bryn Mawr in loaning artifacts to the University of Delaware for student use furthers the reach of Yaawasian's art. These understudied objects helped develop UD students’ documentation skills and understanding of collections care, while also learning about unconventional materials. Although Yaawasian likely had no idea how far his toys would reach, his impact is now a lasting one.