This
past Saturday I went to Xtras for Creative Reuse. It’s this place where
you pay a small membership fee ($5) and then you can buy a full grocery bag
full of stuff for $8. They have other membership levels taht allow you to buy full carts of stuff or several bags at a time. They get off cuts and useful waste from businesses and
other things. They had the leftovers from an entire office that closed
down, from footrests to paperclips. They also had leftover and miss
embroidered items from a shop that makes patches. Large sheets of paper,
fabrics and yarn. It’s basically a massive junk shop. If you think like
me, it’s a toy shop.
To
get there I had to travel into Lynn, MA and down a few side streets to a
spot just off the Lynnway. I should have shot a few pics of the
building. It was one of the huge old industrial buildings with high
ceilings and 100 years of history. It was attractive in that old factory
warehouse kind of way. The area is kinda rough and like much of Lynn
kind of run down. Once I climbed the 3 flights of stairs to their suite I
was surrounded by stuff. All kinds of great recycled cast off stuff.
Entire offices had been dumped into this place, all of it mine for the
taking provided I could stuff it into the shopping bag they provided. There was loads of old Reebok schwag, the kind of stuff company employees are given to make them feel good.
I found all kinds of great stuff for my art. If you have a place like Xtras near you you should check it out.
Next time I'm there I'll snag some pics.