bluemollusc.com » Upcycle

Things I Learned at Mending Night

emily — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 06:44:55 +0000

I’ve managed to get more wears out of my jeans than any mending job I’ve ever done. Thanks to all who came!

1) Always patch up a hole with the same material that that item is made of. Deciding that these jeans were worn out beyond repair, I cut them up to use as patches in my other pants.

2) Line up the grain (match up the direction of the lines on the jean fabric)

3) If you want to just patch up a hole, put the patch on the inside and stitch on the outside. Don’t be afraid to remove the pocket with a seam ripper if you want it to be really professional. It’s easy to sew back on.

5) Stitch around your patch. Do it twice, within about a centimetre of each one. Trim off any excess fabric from the patch.

6) Go back and forth with a single stitch that looks like a zig zag through the rip. It’ll ensure reinforcement.

7) It’s more fun to mend with friends !

On a side note, oak leaves dye wool wonderfully!

What I’ve Been Up to in my Down Time.

emily — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:43:39 +0000

I’ve been wanting to build my own spinning wheel for a while … and a recent natural dying course I took at Baaad Anna’s (see photos below) inspired me to push forward a bit more. Surprisingly, I found very few resources on how to do this online … so I went to the library and picked up some books on the subject – luckily found this one … and I’ve been carrying it around with me ever since (Please, if anyone has any other resources, please send them my way!!). It will take a bit of time for me to transcribe the steps exactly (the instructions are pretty crude), but I spoke to some people at Pedal Depot (OCB‘s little brother) and they’re going to help me make the necessary cuts (some of the construction involves physically having to cut into the frame). In the end, I’m hoping to make a decent PDF manual that I can share with friends, and a bicycle spinning wheel. I’m sure it will be trial and error, but those are the kinds of projects that I like best

Also, I’m putting together a presentation for a craft night at Vancouver Hack Space (VHS) on Monday, July 5th. We’re hoping that it will be a weekly event! (which means we need more people to share some of their awesome ideas ! (I know you have them) – everything from crafting, to gardening & cooking … ) – I’m super excited about this! and if I don’t already have your email/contact information, please send it over and I’ll put you on the list. Can’t wait!!

Natural Dying at Baaad Anna’s

We used marigolds to get this awesome shade of yellow. Apparently marigolds grow all over Vancouver & all you have to do is pick them, dry them, and grind them up. I have so much to learn!

Straining out the Marigolds:

Post-boiling/Pre-washed:

Magic.

I <3

Upcycle-Type-Fun

emily — Thu, 13 May 2010 00:11:02 +0000

I started this project a few months ago and keep coming back to it. It’s sort of a working definition of how I see “upcycling” , which I’ve been reading a lot about as of late. My main aim was to showcase typographically, both the idea of re-making something of greater or equal value to its previous state. I prefer this idea to recycling, as recycling involve taking something of greater value and making it into something that is of lesser value, and useful for only one generation (ie. turning papers into toilet paper). The idea of upcycling is to keep have multiple generations of use.

My main approach to this particular design was to work with how I’ve seen upcycling implemented in real life – ie. taking a part an old or second hand wool sweater and making a new one with it, etc. I chose to also incorporate ideas related to thrift (ie. mending/darning socks), as well as celebrating where our resources come from (ie. trees). Overall I wanted the aesthetic to be more polished, as upcycling itself is about making something that is of higher value. I liked the idea of juxtaposing this aesthetic with more “ragged” elements, like old socks.

in progress sketches:

Shameless Self Promotion

emily — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:31:54 +0000

For one reason or another, I collect random pieces of paper. I bought a paper cutter a while ago & got a stamp made with my logo on it. I started cutting pieces of paper up for one reason or another and found myself putting my logo & contact info on them. My random pieces of paper collection had been building up pretty much since I moved out to Vancouver 3 or so years ago & it was pretty precious (maybe too precious) to me. It was such a good feeling to take out all those papers that I had grown pretty fond of and cut them up. It’s also a pretty cool alternative to having to go to the printers & print out a minimum of 7 bajillion cards that I probably won’t distribute entirely, with contact information that will probably change. I like that this method is a lot less set in stone and can work in lots of different places. Plus it’s fun ! there are all kinds of different results after each one – different papers and different alignment yield different results. Hooray!

Oh and this photo was taken on my iPhone with the CrossProcess app. I’ve been pretty addicted to the Hipstomatic app – mostly out of accessibility (I always have my iPhone on me) – but this one’s kind of fun too because you can get bigger photos (the Hipstomatic one crops some of the image) … although, I have this feeling that in about 2 months, all of these holga-y apps may start to be kind of lame.