Monday, March 11, 2013

Welcome to my Modest Blog

Hi.  My name is Teresa Newton and I welcome you to my blog.  I am beginning this modest blog to catalog my attempts and investigate what others have attempted in what has come to be called "upcycling" - that is, turning something old and useless into something new and useful.  You could begin with a worn out chair, torn jeans, plastic for recycling, or a pallet.  With time, tools and ingenuity, you could end up with a raised garden, a new rug or an intriguing new shelf. 

One main focus of mine is on kids, as I have one.  I like to create opportunities for my son to creatively recycle stuff.  He's sold his own things at garage sales - the ultimate upcycle as your old stuff is directly upcycled into cash.  He also plays with hot-gluing recycling together to make boats to float down the gutter.  Right now, he's finger weaving my leftover yarn which we will then over/under weave on a hula hoop to make a circular rug.

Another strong motivator for me is to keep my contribution to landfills low.  As it stands, I already only put out my extra small trash can once a month.  Until I get to the point where I have time to manage my own compost, I will still need a trash can.  My goal would be to do away with it altogether.

More about me and why I care about this is in my profile.  :-)

Right now, as I'm just beginning, most of what you'll find here are links to ideas, other people's projects, and a link to my Pinterest board (which I update often). 

I am developing a table of activities and displays which I plan to share at both the Seattle and Portland Maker Fairs.  The Seattle one has typically been held the first weekend of June, and last year's Portland Fair was later in the summer.  It was the first one, so I don't know if the next ones will be held at the same time.  Watch this space!  At this table, I plan to display some completed upcycling projects, and to offer some hands-on opportunities to practice upcycling.  One idea to share is hot-gluing interesting recycling together to make art or boats or towers or whatever strikes their fancy.  I'm also planning on demonstrating making and using plarn - plastic yarn upcycled from plastic shopping bags. 

I am also investigating seed swapping.  At the moment, my attempts to participate in this scene is only in the very beginning stages, but I hope to have more information to share very soon.

I hope to see you at the Maker Fairs!

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