Upcycling a Treasure Trove, Saving the Environment

Every now and then, it's an exciting challenge to work with new material, something unfamiliar or unusual that kicks up your creative spark and leads you down some new paths. Over the next few posts, I'm going to share my adventures in using upcycled materials in my jewelry.

Last fall, I went to a local event held twice a year, created with the mission to keep material out of the landfill. It's a treasure trove of designer samples, construction materials, and miscellaneous stuff, all free for the taking. Artists, creators, teachers, and anyone who's curious enough to walk in can walk out with as much as their arms (or bags and carts) can carry.

It. is. AWESOME.

This was the second time I had gone. This time, my target was fabrics and trims that could be repurposed into jewelry. Holy crap, y'all, I found the mother lode. Books and books and books of designer trim samples. Tassels and gimp and ribbon trim. Faux leather in every finish and color you could imagine. I was absolutely giddy.

I got five big tote bags crammed full of sample books.
If I could have carried a bag with my teeth, I'd have gotten more.

Each trim sample book had at least three panels full of goodies like this:

I spent a full afternoon carefully removing each sample from the books - they were securely glued to the pages, intended to stand up to lots of wear and tear as a designer used them in consultations with clients. Those babies were SECURE. I sacrificed several fingernails to the process. 

Totally worth it. This is a little bit of the final result, sorted and bagged by type in a futile attempt to organize it...

Right?!? And that's not all - there were two books full of fabulous faux leather samples, perfect for backing bead embroidery projects and other uses.

I'm not gonna lie, these materials have posed some challenges as I've started to use them. But over the next few posts, I'll talk about what I've learned and share some of the things I've made so far.