austin creative reuse workshop

Austin Creative Reuse is a nonprofit organization focused on reusing and reselling creative materials. Their vision is a community that consciously consumes and chooses reuse as a first choice when evaluating the need for personal or project material, and have received over one million pounds of material donations. In addition to selling gently used creative materials, Austin Creative Reuse host workshops and other community events.

This past month, members of the Austin office Jingyi “Hythus” Hu, Megan Daniel and Ian Dippo led Kids Workshop: Bucket Playgrounds. The workshop taught participants how to use unconventional methods to design and build their own mini playground.

Hythus, Megan and Ian’s event was made up of 11 guests of ages six to 17, which made for varying abilities and creativity. To inspire the kids, they were presented with images of creative playgrounds. The attendees were then given five minutes to dig through Austin Creative Reuse’s bucket section for their materials, which is full of hard to categorize and sell items. Some had a plan going into design while others gathered their materials and went from there.

Despite varying approaches, almost every participant had trees in their playground. However, no one used the same method to create a nature element. One method was taping foam to create a realistic and aged appearance, another was using puzzle pieces to make a colorful mushroom shape and a third was manipulating popsicle sticks to become tree branches.

After the event, the participants were asked to provide feedback on the session. One guest noted, “I found myself so creative” and another even declared she wanted to be a landscape architect. All in all the event was a hit. It was a fun and educational Saturday for everyone who participated, and we’re thankful for any moment to give back to the community. To learn more about Austin Creative Reuse and get involved, check out the events calendar on their website.