Plastic Seconds

Sunday

Plastic Seconds Jewellery Vs Antiform Clothing

Featured Items (click on the image to view in Polyvore): Antiform Oversized T in Yellow Stripe, Antiform Epic Trousers in Gold, Plastic Seconds Ice Cream Spoons Necklace, Antiform Box Jumper in Peach Disco, Plastic Seconds Pink Jigsaw Puzzle Necklace, Antiform Box Jumper in Denim, Plastic Seconds Multicolour Biro Lids Necklace

I have loved UK brand Antiform for sometime now. Their bold, bright, easy to wear and flattering pieces are right down my street design-wise and they are made 100% from reclaimed fabric in the UK. Their latest Collection 8 Spring/Summer newsletter popped into my inbox recently and I got so excited again - their new Epic Trousers are to die for! - that I could not help creating a little style board matching some of their new designs with Plastic Seconds necklaces! I think they look super fun together and complement each other really well. Go ahead and take a look at the Antiform online shop and I promise you will not be disappointed!

Saturday

Plastic Seconds at The Clothes Club Fundraising Event + Win Tickets!

I am really excited to be taking part in a fundraising event, organised by The Clothes Club, on Thursday 21st of May at the Dalston Roof Park. It is a wonderful opportunity to come along and swap neglected pieces from your wardrobe with some new ones, while having drinks on a roof garden and listening to DJs! There are also great raffle prizes to be won, including a limited edition Plastic Seconds necklace! By attending you will be helping The Clothes Club raise money for Art Against Knives and ChildHope. Art Against Knives support, through their creative workshops and projects, young individuals with a past in crime who need experience and opportunity to access education employment and training https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYuRZyI0uZ8. ChildHope, via TRAID, provide birth certificates for children of garment workers. In Bangladesh, many garment workers are extremely poor women who are single mothers. They have usually migrated from rural areas looking for work and opportunities for themselves and their children. With high demand for cheap labour in the garment industry, many of these women work sewing clothes in factories. Birth certificates are crucial so their children can get access to education and medical care http://www.traid.org.uk/were-supporting-the-children-of-garment-workers/ I will be there selling Plastic Seconds funky jewellery and will be donating all my takings to the above charities. You can buy your tickets and read more details about how the evening will unfold here. I have a pair of tickets to give away, so head over to @plasticseconds on Instagram for your chance to win them! I will be selecting a winner at random on Saturday 16th of May :-)

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

Wednesday

'Sue Kreitzman World' Exhibition at Cult Mountain

Earlier this spring I had the huge pleasure of meeting super inspiring woman and artist Sue Kreitzman - one of the stars in Sue Bourne's documentary Fabulous Fashionistas (a cutting edge documentary featuring six women with an average age of 80, who are determined to look fabulous, have fun and redefine old age) on Channel 4 - at the closing night of her exhibition 'Sue Kreitzman World, an Extravaganza of Sculpture, Fashion and Creativity' at Cult Mountain. Sue Kreitzman's jewellery and sculpture are creations which superbly excite my imagination and inspire me. At the closing night of the exhibition the lovely performance artist / fashion designer Anne Sophie Cochevelou was also performing one of her delightfully bizarre and ritualistic performances. Anne Sophie makes equally inspiring jewellery, often utilising body parts from Barbie dolls - scroll down to the bottom of the post to see! :-)

Me and Sue Kreitzman

Me and the loverly Ann Sophie Cochevelou

Sue Kreitzman introductory talk before we watch a screening of 'Fabulous Fashionistas'

Saturday

Swap in The City Uk feat Plastic Seconds Competition

Recently Swap in the City Uk run a Competition via Twitter and Facebook for a lucky winner to grab a Plastic Seconds Biro Lids Necklace! Here is our lucky winner Jo Squire @Jojomololo, we think she looks fab!

Friday

Interview with Maria Papadimitriou, Designer of Plastic Seconds, by Swap in the City UK

Take a look at this post/interview on the Swap in the City UK blog in which I answer questions on fashion, sustainability and some of the design process/inspiration behind Plastic Seconds :-)

Monday

Cheeky Handmades Fab Sewing Workshop!

It has been a long held desire of mine to learn to use my sewing machine as I obviously want to become more and more able to create more things by myself from upcycled fabric, or alter and mend clothes from charity shops or make some of my own clothes! I believe we are heading towards an era when it will be a very good idea for all of us to be proficient in sewing; increasingly making our own clothes is also one of the best ways to be fabulous in an affordable, creative and caring-for-this-earth-and-this-world way. A couple of years ago I met at a marketing workshop the amazing Jennie Caminada of Cheeky Handmades and since then I had the intention to learn with her. About a month ago this intention finally manifested and I attended one of her sewing workshops, during which I learned both to use my lovely sewing machine and make a cushion cover! We also did this in a 'new economy' kind of way, in that I created for her a special Plastic Seconds one-off collection in exchange for the teaching I received, which was beautiful! Below are some pics of the pieces I made for her and the super funky and friendly workshop space in Jennie's house. I really enjoyed the atmosphere in this space, but Jennie is passionate about sewing and delivers great classes and she is now trying to raise funds to create a larger beautiful studio / teaching space in her garden. This studio will help Jennie make more classes available to more people, but she also intends to turn it into a local community space by allowing other local businesses and teachers to use it when she is not using it. You can read more about the project in this Cheeky Handmades newsletter. Here is her Indigogo fundraising page if you would like to share or help this super cool potential workshop space come alive!

Check out Jennie's super cute colourful sewing machines!

My first cuhion cover! SO happy with it!

Jennie wearing one of the bespoke Plastic Seconds necklaces I created for her

Plastic Seconds 'Shamaness' shoot illustrated for Cent Magazine

I recently collaborated with the lovely photographer Nyla Sammons and make-up artist Babs Forman to create an experimental fashion shoot to which I gave the title 'Shamaness'. I have been meaning for sometime now to start exploring more the territory of styling and photography and there will be more work of this nature to show in the near future :-) I styled this shoot with Plastic Seconds jewellery and one-off props and backgrounds I created. I focused on the theme of an imaginary female Shamaness wanting to emphasise the need for the awakening of the feminine in our world. Having read quite a bit on Shamanism recently, I am feeling excited about the ways in which this ancient wisdom can be used in our contemporary lives to enrich them and to improve our relationship with ourselves and our planet. I was subsequently asked by Cent Magazine to create illustrations with my illustrating alter ego Slowly The Eggs to accompany this shoot - the result followed the magazine's JUXTAPOSED theme for November and you can see it published here!

'Shamaness'
Illustrated by Slowly The Eggs
Photography: Nyla Sammons Photography
Styling/Set Design/Props: Maria Papadimitriou designer of Plastic Seconds
Jewellery: Plastic Seconds
Make Up: Babs Forman Hair & Make Up Artist
Model: Hannah Pressman