Craftree Haus is a new division of Upcycle Exchange that encompasses the handmade boutique, maker lab, shared studio, classes, and events at our big new location on Grand Boulevard! The supply store area of Upcycle Exchange is now open for business and we’ve nearly completed the remodel of the entire space. Pretty soon you’ll start seeing sections of our expansion beginning to fill out.

The first area we are concentrated on is the handmade boutique at the front of the building, which we plan to launch in January 2012. After that, we’ll start planning classes, events, and raising money to buy equipment for our maker lab! So, first thing’s first, we are inviting crafters to show us their stuff that they would like to sell here. If you would be interested in consigning, we are not *requiring* that your inventory be upcycled, mostly we are looking for great design, but at least having some elements of upcycling is a plus! You can see more details and fill out our application through the link below:

Application to Consign at Craftree Haus

The deadline for our first round of consignment applications is January 5th, 2012. We’ll open it up again periodically after that. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out The Upcycle Exchange at 3206 S. Grand Boulevard Tuesday-Friday 10-5, Saturday 10-8, and Sundays 12-4!

So! …Upcycle Exchange will be open for your craft supply needs through Saturday, November 27th (but closed for Thanksgiving, of course), then will be closed to move everything out and finish up the remodel. We estimate our re-opening day on 3206 South Grand to be within the first week of December. We will be sure to let you know through every channel available to us when we have a confirmed date for re-opening. Our hours from then on will change remain the same, except that we will be open later on Saturday nights (till 8pm).

We are really excited for all the possibilities in this fantastic new location that we are planning: a handmade consignment shop, craft classes, shared studio space and a high-end equipment lab. It will all come together in the next few months, but for now, a bigger, better Upcycle Exchange is just around the corner!

The exciting thing that makes up for it is that shop hours are expanding after that! Starting on September 27th, we’ll be open TUESDAY – SATURDAY 10am-5pm and SUNDAY 12pm-4pm.  That’s two more whole days a week! Yay!

Don’t forget to stop by the Upcycle Exchange drop-off station(behind the big pavilion) at Strange Folk – you can drop off wish-list items, and we’ll have a map to all the vendors that you can use your Coupon Passport with!

Get updates about Indy Upcycle on their Facebook page!

One more time! Summer 2011 Hours at Upcycle:

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday……Closed
Thursday…………………………….10a.m. – 5p.m.
Friday………………………………..10a.m. – 5p.m.
Saturday…………………………….10a.m. – 5p.m.
Sunday………………………………10a.m. – 5p.m.

So, yes, Thursday, I’ll be scooting out a little early (3pm), but not to worry – my trusty husband, Doug, will be manning the helm at The {Materials Market} all wekend! Go easy on him, ok crafties? He might not know what rick-rack is, but he’ll do his best to hold the fort down :)

We’ll be open for our regular hours all weekend, and I’ll see you next Tuesday!

EcoBloom will take place Saturday, July 16th from 10a.m.-5p.m. in and around the Sons of Rest pavilion.

You’ll hear tons more about the event itself later, the more pressing matter is that…

We are accepting applications for vendors through May 28th! The fee for a space is $40. Go apply online here: http://ecobloomstl.com/vendor-application/

If you are a facebooker, here’s the EcoBloom page and event. Like it, love it, RSVP to it. See ya there :)

The Upcycle Exchange is currently installing fixtures and inventory in their new location at 3309 Meramec. This new store is a social enterprise that aims to benefit the St. Louis area creative community through offering post-consumer materials at pay-as-you-wish pricing with 10% of the proceeds benefiting a different charity each month.

Indie artists and crafters who make and sell upcycled merchandise offer discount incentives to individuals who gather and drop-off supplies requested on The Upcycle Exchange Wish-list. Anyone is welcome to drop-off during the Meet & Greet, or at any of UE’s area drop-off locations and to get their Coupon Passport. Come say “Hi!” on Thursday!

Bonus! This cool event is going on next door:

SALE AND SHOW

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As I spent more and more of my time sorting, I contemplated what to do next. Should we apply to be a non-profit? I just didn’t good reason to add a level of bureaucracy to this beautifully efficient and inexpensive operation. I have always felt that it shouldn’t get really big; it should multiply, but at what point does the cell divide? I stumbled across an intriguing term in my research for creative new business models -”open-source franchise.”  I was bent on sharing our operating procedures from the beginning, but this is a program where, it appears, that one or a few people end up doing the work. The member artisans naturally concentrate on making merchandise and promoting their micro-brands. Not to dismiss that groups of artisans exist who would be delegate tasks successfully and maintain their Upcylce Exchange as a “club.” I just suspect this would be a rare scenario.  Ultimately, if those doing the work of organizing/promoting collections and sorting are few, they should have the opportunity to be modestly reimbursed. Thus, Upcycle naturally matures into a retail store.

I am approaching this endeavor delicately:

1. The member artisan system should remain intact. I still want to collect the specific supplies they are looking for and reserve a space for each artist’s unique requests; separated from general supply merchandise. The donor coupons and member merchandise discounts would continue.
2. The initial pricing system will mimic up-and-coming social enterprises where customers are given a suggested price, but may pay what they feel the merchandise is worth to them or whatever they can afford. I hope this gives low-income patrons the opportunity to acquire supplies that they could otherwise not afford, and that those more fortunate will help to subsidize. There are also varying values of items across the spectrum of bulk and weight. If we sell “by-the-bag” I don’t think you should be obligated to pay as much for a bunch of coffee cans as you would  for a bag of vintage jewelry. Likewise, weight is not a good indicator as scrap metal, wood, etc. may be in dire condition, but heavy. As most of our inventory will be donated items, there will be no need for wholesale mark-up.
3. I will place 10% of sales in a fund dedicated to acquiring mass-customization equipment for co-op craft workspaces in St. Louis. New and developing technology, such as 3D printers and laser cutters, will not only significantly expand the functionality,  aesthetic, and efficient fabrication of upcycled indie merchandise, but extend potential to even more obscure forms of post-consumer refuse.
4. I am opting to join up with a complementary non-profit to split a space with. We’ll be able to get more space for our money, and benefit each other in many other ways. I’m very happy to be working with Perennial, a budding NPO that aims to open a community workshop and store that offers educational programming in creative reuse to diverse populations and sells creatively repurposed home furnishings and eco-friendly supplies for reuse projects.

We hope to open our location in late Spring or early Summer. Until then, Upcycle itself is in a bit of limbo. Peridot (the boutique we are housed in), switched locations last month, and packed up and moved with them. Knowing that we are moving again so soon has put a bit of a damper on getting everything out of the boxes and sorting out onto shelves like we had been doing at the previous location. We are still accepting donations, and artists are still able to come get supplies. We are just trying our best to spread things out and making it easy to “treasure hunt” rather than sorting extensively at this time.

I debated on whether to go ahead with Spring Open Enrollment, but have kept things at a throttle with current members. Due to high demand, and the fact that we do have a lot of great supplies for the taking(even if they are bit unorganized right now), I have decided to go ahead and accept new members for Spring, and will keep applications up until February 17th. The deal is that, for now, there is no membership fee, we just ask that members contribute a small sum to our Paypal account if they find a worthwhile amount of supplies when they visit. You will be given entrance to our collection as soon as you get your app in, but the new Wish-list will not be out till March 1st. I am doing my best to keep an eye out for unique requests and notify members  when I come across something they asked for!

Development continues on a new Upcycle site that will be capable facilitating the formation of new groups and automating/aggregating their Wish-lists, discounts and other essential digital elements of the program.  As a website developer with over a decade of experience, I can say that this is my most challenging project to date, but I’m enjoying the process and starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  You will be notified the minute we go Alpha!

Finally, thank you so much for all your support. From donors to volunteers, and media outlets. Recently , we won 2nd place overall, and 1st in the Recycling category of Make: Magazine’s Green Project Contest with 840 votes!  Also, I was recognized as Upcycle’s founder in February’s ALIVE Magazine on the 2011 Buzz List for St. Louis. One thing’s for sure, this project is going places; most importantly, to a town near you soon, if you don’t live in St. Louis. ;)

Oh, but that’s not all. The stakes have been upped! If Upcycle Exchange wins, Strange Folk Festival has pledged to erect a DISCO TENT at their 2011 event. It will not only serve as means to boogie-oogie, but also host discussion panels about organizing more independent green project initiatives in our community. See, if we win, so do you!

Go VOTE!

Share the link on FACEBOOK! E-mail it to your friends. Top competitors in this contest are separated by single digits, so every vote counts!
http://makezine.com/tagyourgreen/?id=44

TWEET it too! Here’s a shortened URL:
http://ow.ly/3vdqJ

A thousand thank you’s! ;)