​Here we have this north side’s most exquisite equine. This beaut greets us everyday as we travel along the northside’s bike path. It’s just one of the many art installations that makes this part of town a hotbed of creativity. ​​

Coolest mailbox in town! Pretty sure this one's a boy.

Through the creative process, she seeks to lighten our landfills and inspire resourcefulness. It’s easy to see why we at Upcycled are so fond of this artist, we share the same philosophy­ waste not, want not. 
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So, if you find yourself wanting some nifty recycled art, you should probably heed that call. Join us this Friday, February 5th, at Draught Works Brewery for some great beers, great company and some liberated lumber. ​

We launched a Kickstarter campaign, and would love for you to check it out. We've crafted a new adaptable line of wallets designed with flexibility in mind. Our goal is to raise funds for a laser engraver to etch our logos into our wallets and we'd like some other equipment to help us scale. Please check us out and share with friends!

This past week I had the chance to teach a kindergarden class about upcycling.  I showed them some examples of upcycling and then we crafted some greeting cards from cereal boxes and yarn. This was my first experience crafting with very young children and I'm pretty sure I learned more from them than they from me. 
One thing I learned was that five year olds are genuinely excited to try just about anything and will enthusiastically pour themselves into an endeavor in ways you could not foresee. I also learned that while the mind is willing the manual dexterity isn't always able, so the simpler the projects the better. 
My experience left me pondering about good ways we can introduce wee tikes to upcycling so they both understand and take part.  The Upcycled Kids section on our Pinterest page has a bunch of cool little projects kids can do with a little help from their parents. Perhaps next time we will start with a small project like the upcycled bracelets pictured here. The basic design is super simple, but the bracelets scale well at differing abilities. Have a better idea? Feel free to 

A few days ago, I was afforded the opportunity to give a presentation about upcycling to the Hellgate High School student body. A good part of the presentation covered why one might upcycle to begin with. While some of this may be self evident, I still think it is useful to examine a bit closer. So for what it's worth, four major reasons to upcycle.

1. Upcycle to keep items out of the land fill and out of the recycling bins. Upcycling is preferable to both. Everyday the average American creates around 7.1 pounds of trash daily. That's over 2 billion pounds a day for our country. To put that in perspective, It's as if we throw out 200 million automobiles a year. That's a lot of trash to shuffle, burn or bury. Recycling is preferable to throwing away, but it still takes a lot of man power and energy to get the materials back into a raw state to be reused.
2. Upcycle to prevent the extraction of resources from nature. Rampant logging deforests our last remaining great wild lands and toxic mine tailings seep into our streams. Mass consumption extolls a catastrophic environmental impact.  While we will never entirely stop the extraction of resources, upcycling can make a significant difference.  
3. Upcycle out of necessity. While it's sometime easy to forget when living in a culture where almost anything you could need can be bought in a box store, this is the first and primary reason for most upcycling. Since the dawn of man, people have reused materials on hand to build shelter, mend fences and fashion tools. In America, the Great Depression brought about poverty but with it an uptick in upcycling. Case in point flour sack dresses. Today, around the world people are upcycling their way to a better life. Case in point the upcycled orchestras that have popped up independently in Congo and in Paraguay.
4. Upcycle because it allows for awesome! Whether it's a shipping container turned into housing, art from license plates or a sea kayak made of 2 liter bottles, there's a ton of interesting and unique things being made through upcycling. Need more examples? Pop by our store. 

Why do you upcycle?