No cane, no gain

I'm not going to go on and on about it, but how cool is the Goodlife Centre? This place is close to where I live and offers classes and workshops on fixing and making things. While some similar outfits focus on crafting and sewing, this place is more about hammering and drilling. Their latest newsletter arrived today, and tells me we can all get busy learning:

how to make a wood stool
how to make tassels
how to do carpentry
how to upholster a footstool
how to make a lampshade AND
how to cane a chair seat

In particular I like the idea of caning because, judging from the picture above, it offers an innovative use for golf tees. I am not really a fan of golf myself, and this to me looks like a very sensible application for equipment associated with one of the world's most frustrating sports!

This might give you a charge

Some people are Guardian Readers. Some people are Daily Mail Readers. Some are Telegraph Readers. But I can't define myself by any of these newspapers, and increasingly like so many others I seem to get most of my news online. However, there is one exception. I am totally devoted to the North Devon Journal. I read it with fascination. People get into fights in Barnstaple, charities devoted to saving battery chickens hold fundraisers, sporting heroes from Instow bring home trophies from faraway Exeter. Without the North Devon Journal, all of this would happen... and I would not even know about it!

Anyway, I digress. What does this have to do with creative reuse of resources, you may ask? The advertisement pictured here appeared in the last issue, and it sums up what upcycling is all about.

If you happen to live in London, there's a brilliant charity run by Islington Council called Bright Sparks that helps young and unemployed people gain skills in electronics. You can take your broken fan / DVD player / kettle / clock radio to them and for a fiver they'll diagnose the problem. If they can fix your item easily, you don't pay anything more. If more time and materials are required, you cover that cost. Or if you just want to be rid of old electrical stuff, you can donate it to them to refurbish and sell in their shop. They fixed a switch on a metal lamp I inherited from my grandmother, and I feel it was well worth it to give them £5 in exchange for a future free from electric currents running through my body each time I switch the thing on and off.

Jeepers creepers

Louise Kamara's ReVision range of limited edition jewellery debuts at the Barbican Art Gallery shop soon. What's in store? Well, each piece is handmade in London from discarded sunglasses and prescription lenses intercepted en route to landfill. The collection was inspired by New York's downtown scene in the 1970s, reflecting the era's taste for bold design statements in the face of economic crisis.

Forward march

What kind of woman does not like shoes? A very rare and unusual one, that's who.

Most of us go through multiple pairs a year, but let's be frank: toe toppers in leather, suede, nylon and rubber are built to be sturdy. After we tire of old ones, where do they go? Pretty much the landfill. It's a dark, damp place, and I am not so sure that shoes even like it there.

Enter I Can Make Shoes. This N16 outfit is determined to facilitate the strutting of stuff. Learn to make shoes, learn to make sandals or... learn to upcycle your shoedrobe! It's a £50 workshop, but I feel it's probably a bargain at any price. Don't miss the opportunity to transform golden oldies into Cinderella slippers.

Drink up!

The Hotel Ville d'Hiver in the Gironde region of France has many eco credentials, but it's coolest claim to fame might be that it is itself a grand exercise in upcycling.

Its central building is a water plant that opened in 1884 and operated for a century until 1984, when it became the property of Arcachon town council in return for a symbolic fee of one franc.

Though it was ravaged by fire in 1990 and spent several years in a derelict state, it rose up from the ashes last year to be reborn as a luxurious, inventive and atmospheric hotel.

Its former life as a water facility is best viewed from the side of the pool - which was in fact sliced out of the original underground reservoir. Many of its features - including the funnel-shaped Victorian water pipes and smoothly curving ceilings - are in evidence. As you languish here in fluid serenity, these are reminders of its hardworking liquid past.

(Thanks to super shooter Vaughan for the photos, which he took while I was busy snooping around the grounds...)

All's fair

This Sunday I worked on a stall at Spitalfields market selling t-shirts for my friend Gerry, who silkscreens onto fair-trade tops in a studio in Hackney. I gave him a hand at his stall in the Sunday Upmarket too, and passed by the Eco-Design Fair on the way.

Being on the clock, I couldn't stop in - but today my friends Giff and Wendy have told me it's their mate Louise who organises it. I was checking out the Eco-Design Fair website and came across something too good not to share.

"This Spring, Eco-Design Fair teamed up with Regenersis – The UK’s biggest mobile phone recycling company, to run a design competition during Love London Green Festival 2009. Designers were invited to create an original and innovative product suitable for any sort of domestic use; from a piece of jewellery to an item of furniture, using old mobile handsets as raw material."

Anna Kompaniets snagged a runner-up spot with this snazzy hat. Inspired? Intrigued? Don't miss their next fair or crazy upcycling competition - sign up for the mailing list at info@ecodesignfair.co.uk

A little birdy told me

It's always gratifying to come across people who can teach a dedicated upcycler like me some new tricks, and Bird is a venture in Ravenscourt Park launched by a pair of girls who could write the book on creative reclamation.

First they upcycled their casual relationship (their kids are school friends) into a business partnership, just as they upcycled their hobby of going to antique fairs into a vocation. To seal the deal they upcycled a railway arch owned by a garden centre called Ginkgo into a showroom and retail environment dedicated to "found objects and furniture rehab".

I visited yesterday and encountered a host of fantastic upcycling ideas. As Thanksgving is now behind us, the most relevant of these relate to Christmas. I'm particularly enamoured with the Victorian salmon nets now posing as festive trees (see below), as well as the old toy cars and spools of thread posing happily as Christmas tree ornaments (above). How very merry!

Bird at Ginkgo Garden Centre, 17 Ravenscourt Avenue W6 0SL, 020 8563 7112, bird@birdythings.com

 

The talkies

The enterprising Mr Slope opened the Cinema Royale in Chiswick in 1910 and had great success until the ultra modern Art Deco Odeon styled cinemas turned it dark in 1934. The deserted fleapit served briefly as a parachute factory in the 40s and then fell into further disrepair until the 1970s when Martin Hanness and some other antique dealers took it over to ply their trade. Today Martin runs The Old Cinema as a giant shop of antiques, organised by department according to theme and era. I asked him about old stuff, upcycling and the business of upcycling old stuff...

What does your work as buyer for this unusual enterprise entail? There are about 15 dealers who help me supply The Old Cinema with the variety of stock now expected by our customers who include professional stylists looking for the next big thing and young locals in search of bargains. I travel around the UK buying at trade fairs and warehouses plus some regular haunts in Europe but my big love for the last few years has been buying 50s Americana and vintage industrial pieces from the American rustbelt.

Who are some of your influences from the world of design and elsewhere? William Morris was my first hero but currently I am very interested in the mid-century Cotswolds furniture maker Gordon Russell and E Gomme Ltd which became G-Plan. However my real passion is for the lost and found objects, things which have been ignored but deserve appreciation. Faded old advertising signs, factory trolleys, old school lockers and printers drawers full of old type faces. The greatest inspiration for me to keep searching is Sir Peter Blake, whose work with ephemera, found objects and popular culture I think is of huge importance to us all.

What’s the weirdest object that has been sold at The Old Cinema? The most bizarre was a stuffed lion in a huge glass case, which we wheeled down Chiswick High Road one Summer’s afternoon from an auction house in town.

What do you consider to be your best ever find? Oh! That’s easy - my wife! She’s had to put up with broken clocks on the kitchen table, 50’s ball gowns soaking in the bath, rusty balconies in the garden and much worse over the years. Fortunately she makes just as much mess with her pottery making.

What’s your favourite piece in your home? We don’t really go for grand pieces at home so our favourite piece of furniture is an old Victorian chesterfield I bought with Mary in a barn somewhere in Wales 30 years ago. It’s curved and fits perfectly into a bay window, we had it completely restored and upholstered and have watched it slowly sag under the weight of jumping children and hairy dogs. Good furniture for good memories! 

What’s your current bestseller or something in the shop that you’re really excited about? At the moment I’m interested in early twentieth century American industrial design.  I love picking through the derelict objects in abandoned factories.  Americans, like the Victorians before them, designed and manufactured to a very high standard, so with a little love and know-how we have rescued some amazing pieces which should be around forever now.

Some of the pieces in the shop are upcycled, meaning they incorporate objects or materials originally conceived for one purpose now being used for another. Why is this kind of practice interesting and important right now? We’ve had a lot of interest in this idea. Antiques are green by nature but upcycling objects is ecological and exciting as we think of new uses for old stuff. Typewriter keys for cufflinks, inverted water tanks for tables, old flags for upholstery  - it’s just the start of something very big that anyone can get involved in. 

Special Christmas event!

The Old Cinema will host the spoof filming of a pilot TV game show featuring Quizmaster Eben Scruise and plucky contestants Mr and Mrs Cratchit. Be part of the studio audience as the penniless couple value, auction and bid their way to a dramatic and heart-wrenching finale. Drinks and canapés reception at 7pm, show commences at 7:30pm, late night shopping with special 15% discount until 9:30pm. Tickets are free but limited at events@theoldcinema.co.uk; see www.theoldcinema.co.uk for more information.

Light of my life

Everyone and his blog brother is talking endlessly and writing on and on about Anthropologie on Regent Street. Being from the US, Anthro is a place I go to in the mall with my mom when I am at home and buy things when they are on sale and browse a bunch of very aesthetic stuff, much of which I don't need but all of which I want.

Here is a pic borrowed from beloved journalist India Knight and her excellent blog depicting the Regent Street shop's chandelier of upcycled plastique. It's gorgeous, I know. No wonder that place is the talk of the town.

Craft activism

This weekend my glamorous life took me to the school hall in a Lincolnshire village called Claypole where the PTA was hosting 80s night. In spite of drinking cans of £1.50 cider all night (I was doing it for the kids!) I managed to keep my beady eyes open for good raisin ideas. And bingo! I found a flyer for free art events called Scrap Tots and Scrapsters which are held by the Unique Scrap Store.

What's the Unique Scrap Store, you ask? Let me tell ya... Unique Scrap Store is the first online scrapstore in the UK, as well as a social enterprise which exists to support the Unique Coffee Bar charity. Scrapstores operate by collecting industry's usable, safe and clean waste products and offering them for sale at low cost for arts and play projects. (Such as the nifty die-cut seahorses above, 69p for a pack of 10!) Regular collections are made from key businesses in the area. The products are brought back to the central warehouse where they are sorted. Then the general public, schools, play organisations, drama groups and youth groups come along to the Unique Scrap Store and collect the products which they take back for use in play and arts projects. And if you're not lucky enough to live near the bustling hotspot that is Claypole, UK mainland delivery starts from £5.49. 

Plastic craft

My friend Belinda just emailed me about a upcycling mastermind she's come across at Contemporary Applied Arts...

Raised by parents of the ‘waste not, want not’ generation, artist Kristina Kitchener was encouraged from an early age to re-use and recycle. Her current work is a reflection of this upbringing – it is concerned with redesigning and transforming the physicality of the most mundane of materials, giving them new form and purpose. In coaxing ornament from the ordinary she provokes a re-assessment of their value and beauty.

Anyone who can make a covetable necklace (above) or brooch (below) from carrier bags is the kind of lady I want to know. Upcycling, she explains, is at the heart of her creative endeavours:

"My knitting is usually done with cocktail sticks, or small off-cuts of a bamboo blind from our last home. (I knew they would come in handy one day!) My ironing is done on my mother's ironing board, which was bought in 1952 and has a seat attached - very comfy with a cushion! I often use household objects to create shape and form, such as a cereal bowl or large spoon to make a curved surface. I also use various textile scraps to create surface texture. I have been investigating the re-use of findings (brooch pins, ear wires, etc) from discarded jewellery in charity shops, rather than buying new, in order to continue the 'leftovers' concept. And I try to either make my own packaging, or re-use unmarked boxes, hair gel pots, plastic fruit boxes..."

Where can you see her work? CAA is a registered charity promoting British craft and for 60 years has been the premiere exhibition and retail venue for learning about, appreciating and purchasing contemporary craft. The organisation offers dedicated exhibition and retail space across two floors with a changing programme of shows and associated events. Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 10am to 6pm, closed on Sundays.

Contemporary Applied Arts, 2 Percy Street W1T 1DD, 020 7436 2344

Jamie's Italian Upcycle Idea

Several years ago I found myself growing very weary of Jamie Oliver. But yesterday when my old pal Vicky sent me off to review Jamie's Italian at Canary Wharf for The Guide magazine there was no way I was going to say no. And people, let me tell ya - the man really knows his way around a stick of salami and a slab of pecorino. It was all so super good. So much so that I like Jamie all over again. And can I just say that there's another reason I'm glad me and the naked one are back on good terms? If I'd not gone last night I'd not been able to appreciate Jamie's little upcycling endeavour... You see, the antipasti come out of the kitchen on wooden slabs. To make them easier to access, the slabs are placed on tins of tomatoes. The photo I took was toootally crap, so I've borrowed the one above from the very tasty Frolickingfoodie blog. Dig in!

Cinematic vision

I'm researching a feature I've been assigned to do for Westside magazine about The Old Cinema in Chiswick. This mega-wonderful department store sources vintage things from the home and sets them out for display in - yes that's right - an old cinema. In addition to cool vintage furnishings, they've got some great upcycling for sale too, like midcentury dressers repainted for a mod new life, lockers that both contain stuff and display spraypainted art, and old chairs and sofas reupholstered in 19th century grain bags from France. Ooh la upcycle.

Tinseltown

Strictly speaking, it's too early to think about Christmas. But Few and Far has just sent out some info on their offerings for the season of good cheer, and these upcycled pieces of tin caught my eye. Who can resist an angel whose previous life involved encasing a quantity of processed pork? If you're crafty and clever, maybe you could make these yourself - if not they'll be a bit over the £5 mark in the shop. 

(Santa, if you're reading this I want the Spam angel - ta.)

Be my guest

Hey Raisin readers I have some exciting news. Lucy Land is my very first guest blogger. Lucy edits West London Living magazine, where this feature originally appeared. She recently spoke to Claire Read of Poppy Valentine boutique where old fabrics are upcycled in fashiontastic endeavours...

WLL: What sparked your love of vintage?

CR: I’m from northern England (near Newcastle) and love the ’60s kitchen sink dramas, such as Saturday night Sunday morning and Poor Cow. The style names for my collections are a tribute to the actresses of that era. The Tushingham bag, for example, is named after Rita Tushingham who starred in A Taste of Honey. I love the clothes in those dramas and I’ve also collected fabrics since I was 13.

WLL: Tell us a bit about your background…

CR: I studied fashion at Newcastle. After five years of working in fashion, I began teaching textiles at Holland Park School. I missed the creative side of my work, so started doing studio sales and the business grew from there.

WLL: How did the name Poppy Valentine come about?

CR: Originally I was going to go into business with my sister-in-law, but she decided to continue teaching. Her son is called Valentine and my daughter is called Poppy.

WLL: What’s your favourite era for fashion?

CR: I love the early ’50s when design exploded with new prints, especially Lucien Day’s atomic print and the work of Mary White. There was so much inspiration in interiors and art after the Festival of Britain, such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. I also love the ’60s. Fashion was pretty staid until then: that was when girls stopped dressing like their mothers.

WLL: Who are your style icons?

CR: Audrey Hepburn, of course, and both Jean Shrimpton and Mary Quant really moved fashion on.

WLL: What do you like to wear?

CR: A nice Poppy Valentine-print frock.

WLL: What’s your most embarrassing fashion disaster?

CR: A corkscrew poodle perm in the late ’80s.

WLL: What would you save from a fire?

CR: After my family, my Lucien Day cushion – sad, I know.

WLL: How ethical is your business?

CR: All of the vintage range products are made in London and we recycle both vintage fabrics for the outside of the bags and plain dead stock fabrics for linings. We use every last bit of fabric, for purses and cosmetic bags. We try to use vegetable tan leather where possible and use a hybrid vehicle to deliver locally.

WLL: What’s your current bestseller?

CR: The Twiggy shift dress with white collar.

WLL: What are you working on now?

CR: Leather and metallic clutches for Christmas; developing the Twiggy dress in ’60s brocade fabrics; and putting together make-up bags for John Lewis.

Find Poppy Valentine at: Unit 16 Portobello Green Arcade, 281 Portobello Road W10 5TZ, 0208 9641350, open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5.30pm www.poppyvalentine.com

Friday SE22 stroll

When I met my friend Noella for coffee today I had to admire her bag. "Don't worry, I haven't been to Thailand - I got it in west London." Either way, it's a great colour and the Thai script makes it thoroughly cool - an upcycling exemplar.

We got together at Le Chandelier, where mismatched china and loads of old chandeliers set the reclaimed scene. Just a few doors down is Karavan, a shop that's been promoting eco living in the area since even before East Dulwich became so darn trendy. They have upcycled goods a-plenty in there, including shoppers recreated from Bangladeshi cement bags from a company called Turtle Bags and notebooks with covers made from plastic bags by a company called Revolve. (Visit Revolve online to see what clever things they've been making from redundant yoghurt pots, CDs, juice cartons, coffee cups and plastic bottles too.)

When I see a bag that once contained rice in Thailand with a stylish new life, or a cement bag from Bangladesh that's dutifully serving a new purpose, or a plastic bag that's now reinvented itself as a notebook, I feel a bit sad for all those forlorn and abandoned bags sloppily going to waste in a pile of rubbish or floating around in the ocean, don't you?

Lofty ambitions

Last week my friend Dee took me on a preview tour of Loft, the shop on Westbourne Grove that opened on Saturday. Loft has been around in France for the past 20 years, and the brains behind the operations is Patrick Freche. Patrick was there putting the finishing touches on his first London outpost along with his right-hand woman, the designer Delphine. Their clothes for men, women and children are made from all-natural fibres; Delphine and I agree that synthetics are "poison". The shop itself (which is incidentally gorgeous) has an authentic flavour too - Patrick's brought in touches like the antique cash register from the first shop he opened in 1989, cardboard drawers made by disabled craftspeople and lots of found objects that serve both utilitarian and aesthetic ends. See for yourself at 186 Westbourne Grove.