Instead of dumping her broken microwave on the sidewalk, self-professed Williamsburg “design junkie” Tiffany Threadgould turned it on its side, stuck in a shelf and transformed it into a hot new CD player — thus beginning her quest to “recycle the whole world.”
Along the way, the head designer at RePlayGround design studio on Withers Street — between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street — junked her corporate job, wrote her Master’s thesis on “Garbage Nouveau” and began creating quirky kits to help budding eco-buffs transform their humble junk into jewels of utility.
The do-it-yourself recycling kits from ReMake It — think magnets crafted out of bottle caps, lamps from empty soda bottles and greeting cards made of recycled magazines — take minutes or more to create, says Threadgould who designs recyclable furniture and home decor at her studio to “celebrate garbage and bring it back to life.”
Her skills are also for hire at theme-based parties, such as bridal showers and Halloween parties, where the entrepreneur introduces neophytes to the joys of going green. The wine cork trivet kit is a big hit as favors at weddings, she quips, adding that everyone can be a designer with each of her five her kits — including the new Plastic Bag Trash Can project for Earth Day, April 22 — which cost from $6 to $40 and come with the appropriate hardware, leaving budding artisans to complete the project with their favorite piece of rubbish.
The goal is to help budding eco-buffs rethink, reinvent and reincarnate their household trash.
“We don’t think much about the products we buy, or the garbage we generate, but the more we consume the more garbage is created,” she laments.
The kits are available at www.karmakiss.com, or at RePlayGround at (347) 546-4868.
—Shavana Abruzzo
