Plastic Seconds Upcycled Jewellery Workshop at the London Illustration Fair

I really enjoyed doing a Plastic Seconds Upcycled Jewellery Workshop at The London Illustration Fair at Oxo Tower. Here are some photos of lovely pieces that some of the workshop participants produced :-)

TRAID Upcycled Bobble Hat Workshop at BUST Craftacular!

On 22nd November I headed to East London's York Hall to see all the fabulous stalls selling their wares at this year's BUST Christmas Craftacular, but also to attend an Upcycled Bobble Hat Workshop delivered by the wonderful TRAID team. I arrived with my friend Gisela at the 'Upcycling Academy' area, and with child-like excitement listened to lovely Sarah Klymkiw, head of the TRAID education team, giving us the first instructions. We were provided with a paper bobble hat pattern, which we had to pin on an old jumper from TRAID's super second hand clothing collection, and then cut around it. After a quick visit to the sewing machines, to stitch it all together, it was time to make our pom pom, then thread it at the top of our hat and voila! I had never imagined before what unique and beautiful winter hats one could make from upcycled old jumpers and wondered why I had ever bought one before! I would really encourage you to have a go! :-) The experience of making my own hat gave me such joy! TRAID runs regular upcycling / mending workshops and you can check them out here.

Bobble Hats from old jumpers under construction

My friend Gisela at the sewing machine

My lovely new winter hat half done...

The finished hat made by my own hands! 

Me and my friend proudly posing with our new handmade winter accessory :-)

Kuttlefish - New Online Upcycling Community and Marketplace

Today, April 22nd, is Earth Day 2015! To celebrate this day, marking year-round efforts towards more sustainable ways of inhabiting our planet, I wanted to share a wonderful new online community and marketplace for goods made of reused, recycled and upcycled materials called Kuttlefish. Whether looking for a gift, decorating a house or seeking some DIY upcycling inspiration, Kuttlefish is a super site to visit and get involved with. Each product listed on the Kuttlefish marketplace must contribute to waste reduction, most commonly with recycled, upcycled or reused content. For community members, the Kuttlefish platform also offers social networking capabilities such as mail, discussion forums and idea sharing. It also seems super easy to open a shop on Kuttlefish! There is only 1% commission on all sales for the first 12 months of operation and no other additional fees. Starting from the second year of a shop's operation, there are still no listing fees, but the sales commission goes up a little to only 3% and there is a $0.50 cent 'sold item' fee for every item sold. Kuttlefish offers a great opportunity for upcyclers to share and sell their creations in an easy, affordable way and I really hope it keeps growing. Here are some of my favorite finds available on Kuttlefish, but hop on over and take a look for yourselves!

Recycled Factory Offcut Leather Front Pocket Bag by What Daisy Did

Tropical Colours Statement Necklace with Tassels by Liene Berzina

Recycled Fish Food Sac Bag by coll.part.

Recycled Cotton T-Shirt Braided Necklace by dizajneko.pl

Upcycled Poncho made from Scarves by Substantielles Minimum

Green Tiffany Lampshade by Donna Walker Design

Bird Wall Clock by Upstairs Studio

Scented Beer Bottle Candles by Nina's Unique Reflections

Beer and Soda Cups Whistles by Ioranscruggs

Broadway Armchair from Retired Aluminium Traffic Signs by Eco Artwear

Recycled Chair Back Coat Hanger by Eco Artwear

Plastic Seconds UPCYCLISTED!

I have meant to mention here that sometime last November Plastic Seconds was 'UPCYCLISTED' - i.e. featured in the lovely site that is the Upcyclist and then listed in their upcycling artists directory. Thank you Upcyclist! Well worth taking a look at the Upcyclist website as it showcases lots of great ideas and design in the fields of upcycling/recycling and they also have a community/forum feature via which you can discuss with other visitors to the site.

THE PLASTIC SECONDS PROFILE PAGE ON THE UPCYCLIST DIRECTORY

THE POST ON PLASTIC SECONDS ON THE UPCYCLIST BLOG

Recycled Packaging Experiments

For a little while now I have been trying to think of pretty or funny or clever ways to present my upcycled jewellery in packaging that is also reused. There are quite a lot of things out there which come into very well designed and little cases, like this one in the first photo - if one removes it from the panty liners context and gets over that connection I think it makes a lovely container for a piece of jewellery!

This is a colourful plastic container from a jigsaw puzzle

This is the original packaging into which the tooth picks seen here as earrings came in :-)

2011 Leftovers 11: Contact Lenses Necklaces by Plastic Seconds 2nd installment

Back in September I blogged about a Contact Lenses packaging shoot organised by ethical stylist Lucy Harvey and FutureFrock Magazine and posted some behind the scenes photos from the day of the shoot at Green Lens Studios. Here I wanted to post a few more photos from my first meeting in a caf with the super lovely Lucy Harvey when she handed over to me the contact lenses packaging bits she had been collecting and then of the process of me creating the necklaces I made out of them. Also here is the final image of the Contact Lenses Plastic Seconds necklaces and the headpiece created by KC Lake Millinary which was published in the UPCYCLIST!

Bits on my desk...

Bits on my desk coming together....