Cucumbersome » recycled materials

Rescued Cashmere

britt — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:15:14 +0000

A few weeks ago I came across a post on the Sculptress Studio blog (discovered through her inspiring Flickr feed) about attending a sheep shearing at a 1840′s festival. Making clothing at that time (which isn’t long ago, really) was a three-year process. Three years. What she wrote here really struck me:
“Clothes had value far beyond what they do today. How many shirts and socks have I thrown away because of a small hole worn in the fabric? How easily would I have abandoned it if I spent three years making it? How did waste apply in the three year cycle? I imagine by the time cloth reached the trash pit it had gone from adult clothing, to children’s clothing, to quilts, to patches, to rags, to wicks, to nothing but a few thread bits.”
Around the same time, I came across baby vests made from rescued cashmere, like the one pictured above, made by eecee bb. An excellent example of good quality adult clothing being saved from the trash and turned into something useful (and adorable). I really want to try to be more aware of the impact of my purchases, and re-use as much as possible.
Have any good upcycling tips?

In The New York Times!

britt — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:31:07 +0000

A huge thanks to Amanda Kwan with the Associated Press for including my Anthro-inspired tables in her article on ‘designer looks for big-box prices’! You can read it on the New York Times site, here and here. Did you wonder what Anthropologie thought of my take on their Curator Table? Well, Amanda asked them (yikes!) and you can read what they said in the article.
If you are new to Cucumbersome, welcome and thanks for checking out my little blog! You can read the original post on the tables I made here. If you are interested in DIY tutorials, here are a few more:

Leather Chain Necklace Tutorial

Recycled T-Shirt Necklace Tutorial

Corsage Shirt Tutorial by Kate.
If you have any ideas or tutorials that you would like to share, I would love to hear about them! Or if you just want to say hi, please comment or use the contact form. I look forward to hearing from you!

Light-It-Yourself

britt — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:33:45 +0000

I was flipping through Readymade’s book How to Make (Almost) Everything and came across the project pictured above. I love that it uses recycled material, but looks really modern. The instructions can be found here but if you don’t have the book, I highly recommend buying it.

This is another lighting project from Readymade magazine, created by Jean Pelle.
These two are my favorite, but here are some other really unique DIY lighting projects:
Plastic bottle chandelier by Michelle Brand: Inhabitat
Bic ball point pen chandelier: Inhabitat
Wine Glass chandelier: Readymade
Light string globes: Curbly
CD jewel case chandelier: Ecofriend
Part of me just wants to hang a single edison lightbulb but our apartment isn’t architecturally interesting enough. It seems like bare bulbs only work with gorgeous hardwood floors, exposed brick and beams. Like this, actually:

Anyone else have ideas for recycled and/or DIY lighting?