York Street’s Artful Persuasion doesn’t just recycle, many contributors of the crafter’s collective choose to upcycle.
Upcycling is instead of breaking something down to recycle it, you use something old or used to create something new and desirable. It’s like finding a wicked cool jacket at Value Village, but spiffing it up to fit your own style.
“One thing I’ve noticed throughout all the years that I’ve worked, volunteered and studied in this area is that, unfortunately, the vast majority of the population needs some sort of motivation in order to get them to want to recycle,” said Charlene Hodder, a crafter with Artful Persuasion.
The store has a whack of re-vamped items which are living out their second, third or even fourth life. There’s purses, mittens, dryer balls, jewellery and a bunch more. Standing cozy in a corner is an old guitar which has “recycle your old guitar strings strings here” written on it and arrows pointing to the sound box.
This was one of Hodder’s ideas for her small business, Jedi Jewellery.
“I do not normally use the force to create jewellery, but I do like for everything I do to somehow relate back to Jedis,” said Hodder.
“As an avid recycler, I always felt guilty throwing out my old strings when it was time for them to be changed. I didn’t have to think about it long before I had the idea to string some beads and see where it went. Now I make a wide variety of bracelets, earrings from string tails and necklaces.”
The guitar first appeared at Artful Persuasion during the Harvest Jazz and Blues festival. Since then every donation has been turned into something creative like music note shaped earrings, necklaces with dangling Beatles picks, steel encased gems and other accessories.
“I have a handful of very regular contributors, some of them friends who also play, many of them I’ve never met. There’s a lady about an hour away who collects them for me and sends me a large envelope full on a regular basis.
Hodder has received tons of positive feedback from around town and has expanded into other stores like Country Image Woodworking and Tony’s Music Box. “Now that I have Dave from Tony’s Music Box on board and saving them for me, I always seem to have a decent amount [of strings].”
Hodder is hoping to establish herself in shops which focus on selling local goods.
“When we buy locally, we support the person down the street who is trying to save for their child’s education or the farmer just outside the city who risked everything to start up a business that will feed you the kind of food your body was meant to eat,” said Hodder. “We have a great community of artists and artisans here and it’s important that we support each other.”
For Hodder, her business is more than a profitable hobby, it’s a community driven product. She is working with local musicians Jaclyn Reinhart and Jessy Ashfield, to each develop their own line of jewellery which will help raise money for their upcoming albums. The crafter has also started up a bartering group in the city. The idea is to trade handmade goods within a network of local artists in hopes of avoiding some of the commercialism associated with Christmas.
“Upcycling is a little easier to pull off because if you can create something beautiful from old and unwanted things, people will want it simply because it’s aesthetically pleasing. The fact that they are making an environmentally conscious purchase in the process is a great bonus.”
