We have had a great start to our newest Climate Challenge Fund project – Recycle Upcycle 3D!

We have had the chance to work on a lot of different upcycling projects and have made some amazing textile works, furniture pieces and even completely recycled plastic murals!

We have been lucky enough to work with the school pupils of Kings Oak and All Saints Primary School during block one of this project and have had to chance to have some great discussions about how we can all work together to help our environment! The pupils learned about the recycling and decomposition process and what materials can be used again for crafts and art!

At Kings Oak Primary School the children made loads of different cool crafts such as animal money banks, shopping bags out of old t-shirts and finger puppets out of toilet roll tubes! At All Saints Primary School, the children helped design a mural that will be displayed at the local Auchmountain Community Hall as well as several crafts using 3D Pens, melted plastic and bicycle tire tubes!

We have also been working with the Kings Oak Family Hub delivering both textile upcycling and plastic recycling sessions. During these sessions, participants took part in many different activities from making children’s stools out of cardboard and plastic bottles, making pinboards for the kitchen or bedroom to a finishing line for the KO Sports Day, pencil cases from plastic bottles and purses from melted plastic!  These sessions have been so much fun to deliver and we have had some great chats and learning experiences about the importance of keeping our environment safe by reducing our waste and also how we can use our waste effectively!

We also worked alongside the youth club at Auchmountain Hall to design a mural that will be displayed outside the hall that will promote being environmentally conscious as a community. Participants investigated different types of plastic, where it can be found and what type of plastic was best for their mural design whilst learning about the importance of plastic recycling.

Whilst designing the mural, we connected with a project called Still Life who grind and melt plastic to make it into cool innovative products. This is also something us at RIG Arts have been working on over the past few projects so it was great to get some expert advice from them. They kindly made us a piece for the mural as well as working alongside us over the first block to develop our plastic machines!

Whilst in the process of developing our plastic machines we have made some cool slates and bowl-style pieces to be used in workshops. Our first workshop using these pieces will be delivered during Zero Waste Week where participants will be making clocks out of the pieces displayed below! This is a really exciting part of our project as it has been a process we have been developing for a while now and we are finally managing to develop some great workshops with the items being made from the machines!

We have been busy bees this block, not only delivering plastic based workshops but also furniture, textile and even glass!

In our Furniture Upcycling sessions we have been working on a number of projects such as toy boxes and first aid kits! Participants have been learning many valuable skills that have allowed them to take old pieces of furniture from their home and upcycling it in their own creative way that fits in with their current decor. This is a great class for learning the skills that will allow participants to creatively reduce their waste whilst being mindful of their environmental impacts in doing so. In accordance to ‘Waste Data Flow’ and ‘Edie,’ in Britain a total of 300,000 tonnes of re-usable furniture is sent to landfill every year. This is a shocking statistic that must be lowered, we can do our part by upcycling the furniture we have in our house already, rather than throwing out the ‘old’ pieces and buying brand new items.

In our Textile Upcycling sessions we have been working on so many different activities! We have been repairing and reusing old textiles to make bags, dresses and all sorts of other accessories. Participants have also been working on textile-based scrapbooks and making their own paper from used and shredded paper. This class has been extremely busy and participants have been looking forward to adding lots of different designs to their scrapbooks as well as filling them with photos and memories. This class has allowed participants to incorporate textile and paper recycling into creating something that can be very personal to them. During this class, participants have been using fabric such as denim to paint and dye on to create pages for their scrapbook.

We will also be hosting a one-off taster session for Zero Waste Week that will involve textile eco-printing and dying, which will task participants with using natural resources such as plants, fruit and vegetables to dye and print on fabrics!

Lastly, we were able to put on a full 8 block Stained Glass class after a huge glass donation from a member of the community. After having received a total of 72kg of glass, we were able to facilitate a class which involved participants using pieces of the donated glass to create terrariums for display in the new Community Flat in Broomhill Court. As well as delivering workshops to fulfil this outcome, we have also organised our first ‘beachcombing litter pick’ looking for rounded sea glass that can be used in future classes. We will be looking at different ways in which we can incorporate sea glass into crafting activities as well as having the very important conversations about keeping our beaches clean and safe for the sake of the environment!