cre8tive reuse

Beginnings: One cold evening I walked to my favorite small, locally owned coffee shop and roaster.

I watched my barista shaking the last of the beans into the grinder and tossing the foil-lined bag into the plastic bag-lined bin under the counter.

The flicker of the shiny bag caught my eye. My thoughts began to probe, "what could i make with these colorful shiny non-recycle-able bags?"

V: “ What do you do with those bags?”

Barista: “ We throw them out”

V: “Can I have those bags?”

Barista: " Sure! "

That, was the start of my upcycling adventure.

-I start my day drinking coffee and end my days washing out the collected bags.

-Set out to do my daily chore of finding a coffee shop willing to give me the bags. The larger shops allow me to pick through their trash before they toss it out. THis, is actually better for the both of us, as its time saving for me and them.

In addition to the coffee bags, i create 'fabric' made from food packaging. THis, is more difficult to achieve as -people are less likely to freely give up evidence of what they've eaten. It's so weird! I do have maybe three good friends who are saving me wrappers consistently throughout the year.

This is my daily routine:

- Collect bags, wrappers that are destined for the trash.

-Prepping the bags

-Creating the “fabric"

MAdE from the following:

Non- Recycled materials : thread, clear packaging tape, eyelets, zippers, velcro.

Second-hand materials : thread, clear vinyl tablecloth, eyelets, zippers, velcro

Non Recyclable Foil-Lined Coffee Bags!