December 2nd, 2010 by Cathy received No Comments »
Trees get a hug
As part of a learn to knit project and to celebrate the story of the wool going all over town in the flood the tree cosies have been put up for National Tree Dressing Week. Once they come down they will be made into blankets for Africa. 
All the wool, knitting & equipment has been donated and about 50 local people were involved in knitting and sewing together the pieces.
The cosy goes up to the flood line (roughly) and are placed in front of the old and new wool shops locations.
Funding from Awards for All.
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November 25th, 2010 by Cathy received No Comments »
Kevin O’Connor created this chess table from a little side table. He added handmade ceramic tiles for the board and wood to the sides to make it more robust. The Chess set was made my his wife Ruth Charlton.
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November 25th, 2010 by Cathy received No Comments »
Painter Rosie Elcock used paint, advertisers vinyl and food packaging from the scrap store to create this wintery scene on a much loved but worn 70′s coffee table.
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November 25th, 2010 by Cathy received No Comments »
Julian Longcake created this coatstand from the middle of a standard lamp and some wind fall wood. He has jointed the coat hangers so they look like they are growing out of the turned centre.The base also provides a seat.
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November 25th, 2010 by Cathy received No Comments »
These seat covers were done by textile artist Kate Jackson which she made from a retired friends collection. She painted the post war chairs with Farrow & Ball from the scrap store. Lots of these chairs turn up at the auction. 
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August 3rd, 2010 by Cathy received No Comments »
Accessories on show
This Saturday (31st July) we had an installation of Upcycled items as a living room set on the main street of Main Street below the Mayo Statue. We were asked to take part by Manchester International Arts and Kendal International Arts as part of the Summer Lakes Alive programme. http://www.lakesalive.org/events/past-events/the-banquet-cockermouth/. The local paper says 2000 people were there and we certainly got lots of interest, people sewing bunting on a hand cranked machine, writing on a glass table top which will be etched to create a pattern, watching rag rug making, playing chess, knitting and general crafty chat. The six of us populated our lounge for 4 hours and had a fantastic time without a T.V. Now we can add street theatre to our C.V. performing next to the world’s strongest woman and trestle tables where people feasted in the rain, sunshine and the firework glow. A grand time was had by all.
Showing our stuff
Di and Rosie helping people make
Patchwork sofa
Let there be light shades
Chemistry experiment
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May 14th, 2010 by Cathy received No Comments »
This short scale guitar uses a tin from free for all, scrap maple for the neck and fretboard, other scrap oddments for the bracing and scrap aluminium plate for the string anchor/tailpiece. Tuned to ADGCEA which is like using a capo on the 5th fret of a full size guitar. Made by Colin Webb, Homemade Guitars for Upcycling.
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April 8th, 2010 by Cathy received No Comments »
Kate Jackson has joined in the Upcycle challenge. She is a textile artist and is keen to use men’s ties in her project. She went away today with a small lamp but is keen to work on a chair and I’m hoping one of the chairs at Free for All will fit the bill.
Kate takes a light
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March 22nd, 2010 by Cathy received No Comments »
Jude with glass top table & light
Julian with stand
Ed with small dressing table
Rosie with coffee table & frame
Last week me and the artists (upcyclists as we are calling ourselves) met at Free For All, the scrap store in Wigton, to match the objects we have collected from Mitchells with people and potential. We also started to decorate a notice board with items from the scrap store so people can follow the process. The upcyclists now have until easter to develop their ideas for the object and then work on it until June so we have some prototypes to display and get feed back on this summer. Feels like its starting to happen.
Di with standard lamp
Kevin with bedside table
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March 1st, 2010 by Cathy received No Comments »
Collection 1
This week we have added some more to our collection: 3 standard lamp shades, wicker topped stool (really is cane work) & tier wicker corner unit, adjustable metal standard lamp (as seen in photo), dressing chest with mirror & 70′s style 2 tiered coffee table (also on photo).
We have two more artists interested in joining in.
The Free For All (scrap store) meeting will be in Wigton on the 18th March afternoon to workshop what we have and the notice board about the project. Jude is hosting us and we can see what lovelies they have on offer including paint, trim etc.
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I have been working with artists for the last 15 years usually commissioning them to do creative things in public spaces. I like to work in collaboration to develop the debate about art and the environment.
A founding member of Riversmeet, a community initiative for Cockermouth (Cumbria) working on climate change issues.
I am interested in the connections that can be made for creative approaches to local issues and using design and craft skills to provide solutions - this is a strand I am currently developing in one initiative called Upcycling.
