Another man’s treasure: innovative ways with waste

The Cape Craft and Design Institute (CCDI) annually presents a collection of innovative handmade Western Cape products – and the latest, fifth edition showcases some outstanding examples of upcycled design.

The Collection was unveiled at the prestigious Design Indaba expo from 1-3 March at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

Floral inspiration is often to the fore - a colourful, garden-inspired panel by Janet Camden-Smith was made of recycled waste, machine-embroidered onto hessian sacking.

David Clark-Brown transformed a 25 - litre cleaner container into a collection of birds and flowers, using scissors and heat to cut the plastic, then painting it. And a yellow plastic cooking oil bucket blossomed into new life, inspired by his love of nature.

Nuno (Sue Kingsma) and Handmade Change (Felix Holm) created the UP! Vertical garden planters and vase system from felt, wire, recycled PET bottles, and papier-mâché.

Fashionable accessories were also to the fore - MaraNelson Designs (a collaboration between product designer Mara Fleisher and craftsman Nelson Banderson) transformed recycled tyres into hip carrier bags; and Wendren Setzer of Wren Design uses everything from coffee bean sacks to cement packaging rejects to create strong bags with a handy shoulder strap.

Jewellery ranged from a textile necklace, combined with glass beads and sand-blasted mirror discs by Nushka Phillips of Wild Olive, to Kallie Doran’s jewellery range that incorporated an old Ohlsson’s bottle top into a ring, an upcycled ceramic toothpaste jar into a pendant, and made ear-rings from old one-cent coins.

Homeware included the ‘Protea Flower Mirror,’ made from recycled plastic and ostrich feathers, by Monique Fagan of Junkanew; beautiful, functional fruit platters from recycled tyre by MaraNelson Designs; and children’s toys made from discarded jeans by Anne-Kathrin Scherner.

“In line with the World Design Capital 2014 slogan of Live Design, Transform Life, such handmade products show that design can make the world more beautiful,” said CCDI Communications Manager Marjorie Naidoo, the project manager of the Collection. “Certainly, with nearly 3 000 enterprises on the CCDI database, representing an estimated 14 695 jobs, it has the power to transform lives.”

All photos by Eric Miller.