Upcycle Hawaii Blog

      I have decided that the word “plastic” and how we use it to descried so many materials is misleading. Plastic as a blanket term used for dozens of materials and polymers with similar characteristics.  Although we call of these materials plastic, they do not all have the same properties, are not all recyclable and have different uses and chemical compositions.             Most of us are aware of those little numbers printed on our plastic containers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.  But, do you know what they mean?  And, what happens when a container does not have an identifying number?  Because...

             Garbage, junk, rubbish, waste, refuse, litter, debris…”trash.”  We have become so accustomed to the everyday use of these words – “take out the garbage”; “don’t talk trash”; “this car is junk.”  Not only do we use these words to describe our solid waste stream, but it has also become habit to use them as negative slang terms.  Have you ever stopped to think about the psychology behind this?  Well, I have certainly given it a lot of thought.              You may have noticed that I used the word “trash” in quotation marks a few times already.  I do this because I believe part of our global...

  Being an artist is a strange thing.  No one ever tells you that you are an artist, you don’t need training to become an artist, and going to art school doesn’t necessarily make you an artist.  Yet, I was waiting for the day that some golden envelope would arrive at my door to officially announce to the world that another artist had been bestowed the esteemed title. 

What do you do when the hardest thing you’ve ever done gets, somehow, impossibly harder?  I, for one, would love a concrete answer to this question. 

After working tirelessly and endlessly for the past 5 years, the year 2020 was off to a great start.  Our sales were starting out gangbusters, we just moved into a new studio, and we even had international shows planned... 

            Living with today’s technology, it’s almost hard to fathom that for most of the history of mankind, we built everything ourselves.  Tools were forged by fire and empires were laid one carved stone at a time.  Most people were skilled in multiple trade professions and a community relied on one another to provide the services and skills necessary for daily life.                 Now, in the age of 3-D printers, smart machines, and online shopping we rarely know how the goods we consume are created or what they are made with.  We have become complacent with the idea...