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https://www.positive.news/society/in-with-the-old-out-with-the-new-celebrating-a-circular-christmas/>
"You flick on the fairy lights and half the string fizzles out. A bauble hits
the floor and shatters. The dog chews something festive that absolutely wasn’t
meant to be chewed. Instead of sprinting to buy replacements, there’s a far
better option.
All over the country, people are gathering in warm halls and community centres
to repair their Christmas clutter for free, share tea and cake, and feel, well,
human again. More than 600 repair cafes now dot the UK, so chances are there’s
one around the corner. And if not, you can always start one.
In East Sussex, Bryan McAlley has been running the Chailey Repair Cafe for
eight years with a team of fellow volunteers, the oldest of whom is 93. They’re
gearing up for a festive session in December. “We do a lot of carving knife
sharpening at this time of year,” McAlley explains. The team tackles everything
from broken decorations to battered kitchen kit, and every fix comes with a
side of learning. “We insist that they sit and watch while we repair what
they’ve brought, so they learn,” he adds.
McAlley cares deeply about the movement and the way it cuts waste during a
season that often encourages the opposite. It’s also a social lifeline.
“There’s a social buzz to the place. The atmosphere is always upbeat, it’s a
lot of fun,” he says.
If your festive casualty has gone beyond repair, Dundee has another idea. The
city’s designer Christmas trees, now in their fourth year, showcase its Unesco
City of Design status without felling a single fir. Local artists build them
from recycled or reused materials including bed slats, tin cans and old road
signs.
Woodworker Louise Forbes and jeweller Islay Spalding created their tree from
discarded musical instruments. Topped with a cello scroll, it features parts of
violins, guitars, drums, bagpipes, a glockenspiel and even an abandoned piano
they discovered in the street. “It was a really fun project,” Forbes says,
“taking these instruments apart and putting them together to create a
sculptural piece.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
