News — Upcycling

This weekend we popped along to check out the Festival of Thrift in Redcar. What an amazing event! Over 120 stalls, entertainment, workshops & events running all day. I’d highly recommend it. It was fantastic to see so many people there, all with an appreciation of upcycling and sustainability. Harry and I spoke to many of the stall holders, all lovely people with great individual styles.     We saw reinvented furniture, altered clothes, cigarbox guitars (yes, Harry had to have one of those!) and even some great art installations. Kudos to the organisers, we were walking round like kiddies at...

Initially bought as a valentine’s gift, all this poor bear knew was love and affection. Sadly, relationships don’t always pass the test of time and Valentino was one of the first casualties. Tossed in the trash during a lovers’ quarrel his little cotton heart broke, and so did his mind. He quickly became feral and now roams the streets in a crazed desperation to find love once more. Valentino has a mouth and claws sculpted from epoxy clay, which is set hard like plastic. All of our Abandoned Toys are created from discarded toys and parts destined for landfill and...

I regularly find discarded dolls and teddy bears, most often after going unsold at a car boot sale. I always pick them up and after a while I had a growing collection. Rather than stripping them apart for salvage, like I do with other finds (like bags & shoes), I began to contemplate what would have become of these Abandoned Toys and imagined them walking the streets and adapting to survive their new habitat. How would these innocent playthings cope out on the streets? What would they need to change about themselves in order to face this new cold harsh...

It’s that time of year again and we’re beginning to feel festive! I was taking the tree out of the box when inspiration struck. Why have a normal tree when we have mannequins in the house! Et voila!