"Upcyclist" - A person who has the vision and artistic creativity to repurpose old or unwanted materials & items that have already served a purpose.
"Upcycling" - The innovative reuse of unwanted, unloved & preloved materials & items.
The life of an Upcyclist
So the big question "How did I become an Upcyclist?"
I have had an obsession since a very young age to revamp, cut up, repaint & repurpose as many wonderful things including clothes, small mercy’s we never had Facebook then and like all upcyclers some projects worked and some just didn't!
It became a mission to recycle and waste a minimal amount as possible it also served a purpose and refurbished the family home on a minimal budget without breaking the bank.
For many years family and friends have received rather unique handcrafted gifts for birthdays and Christmas proud of the fact of them being 100% recycled and far more personal.
Wanting for many years to have a job which really defined who I am utilising my creativity and love for upcycling is what pushed me to finally throw caution to the wind and give it a dam good go the theory that life is about having a happy work to life ratio..... Wow what a shocker, the reality of being your own boss and working from home really is!!
"How did I achieve starting my own home business? Well like any business you need a plan, boring as all that paperwork is there is a lot to do before embarking on having your own business. Firstly, you need a product, very difficult when your product has already served its purpose and the fact rarely two items will be the same so there is a need for market research and lots of it. Visiting various shops and looking for that place in the market where your product could be unique to what’s on sale around it.
Pricing is always an issue so understanding the current market values and trends is a great help never be too cheap don’t under value your work at the same time don’t hike a price based on a vogue interior article you seen as most of us are aware the costs and labour gone into a piece will not always reflect the price people are willing to pay!
All of this takes time and an understanding of your potential markets is the key to producing financial forecasts to see if it is at all viable to survive and make a living.
Luckily as we are in the business of recycling and upcycling it is possible to minimalize business costs as not everything you can locate for free this month’s latest colour means new paint but if you look after your brushes and reuse that’s a massive saving at the end of a year.