Upcycling in the trees

Upcycling in the trees

It was our first time stringing up upcycled community designs and calling it tree decoration!

It was a magical day at Rid-All farm on Kinsman for the annual FreshFest community festival on September 10, 2022. We were asked by event leaders to lead a tree-decorating hands-on station, in partnership with Western Reserve Land Conservancy, a wonderful organization that does many things, including tree education and tree giveaways. The best collaboration was born as we talked details and they affirmed that yes, our idea would work well, they would bring the ladder and climb the tree, and no, it wouldn’t hurt the tree.

We grabbed plastic parts like lids (so many lids) and other shapes. We drill holes into them (we ❤️ our drill press) so that they go from not useful to full of stringing/building potential. And then we chose rainbow as our color theme.

Pro-tip: when all kinds of things can be designed and options are wiiiiiide open, we choose to create limits so creativity can thrive. Choosing a color theme is a good limit. Rainbow allowed lots of color but eliminated black, white, silver, gold, and brown lids, which helped with the visual unity of the end product!

Community members who wandered over to our table were invited with a simple gesture: help us decorate this tree! Choose a ribbon, string or attach any of these materials (options: zip ties, staples, or more string), and let us know where you’d like it to hang when you’re done! Blissful upcycling ensued.

Her happy place

is in the trees, and we were so glad about that! Erica Henrichsen of Western Reserve Land Conservancy made tree decorating happen with her ladder & love of tree climbing!

Erica was the expert tree climber and truly we couldn’t have done it without her! Big thanks to Kim Foreman, FreshFest festival lead, for the idea and invitation. We’re so happy with what we collectively created. And we hope Rid-All Green Partnership enjoys the colorful community-created tribute to the vibrancy your space generates! (Y’all can reach out when you’re ready for us to pack the creative reuse project back up :)

Our mission is to Provoke Creativity and Promote Community through Reuse, Resourcefulness, and Relationships. We’re grateful for alllllll the ways so many people help us meet this mission every day. This is people-powered work, demonstrating reuse and diverting tons from the landfill along the way!