DIY Living Wall

Busy busy busy, that is all I have to say. I hope you enjoyed the bus shelter entry from last month. Here I am again with some fascinating design solutions.

Along with Elsa Chen a peer Design and Industry student at San Francisco State University, we had the opportunity of working on a charrette focused on sustainable design.

Our client: Ralf Hotchkiss from Whirlwind Wheelchair International

Our problem: Ralf’s metal shop which had strong smells from chemicals and metal.

Our solution: a living wall

• The main goal was to upcycle materials that could be used in the making of a living wall, so we took a trip to Urban Ore in search of our living wall’s home. There we fell in love with this Italian vintage wine shelf and gave it a revamp by sanding it for days.

wine shelve: before and after

• After researching and learning on hydroponics and plant’s life spam. We decided to keep it simple by choosing easy to maintain plants such as ivy, spider and pothos.
• Our next step was to choose containers for our plants. We decided to collect wine and juice bottles as well as mason jars. Once we had a good amount of containers, we went to Public Glass in San Francisco and cut them diagonally in order to give a home to our plants.
• The amazing people at Public Glass helped us cutting the bottles with a powerful diamond saw. They also sanded and perfected them for us. All for only $25 an hour. It took us an hour to cut and sand twelve containers.

people at Public Glass giving us a hand

containers: before and after

• Once we had replanted our chosen plants and had determined how long the containers were, we went ahead, cut and re-welded the wine racks that way our containers could fit safe and snugly.

adapting wine racks to our new living wall

 

• Finally, we screw the racks in and placed our beautifully cut containers with our easy to maintain plants. The outcome, a beautiful zero waste living wall for Ralf’s metal shop. Something that anyone can make to better off the environment of any closed space.

zero waste living wall

Rock-N-Roll sew that beer koozie

Wednesday night, I had the opportunity of taking a Rock-N-Roll Sewing for beginners class at Workshop SF and have to admit having a fabulous time learning how to use a sewing machine while listening to old Rock-N-Roll.

Caitlin our teacher is a rad fashion designer and entrepreneur graduated from CCA with a hard rock style and great sense of humor. In class, we learned the anatomy of a sewing machine, how to thread a bobbing and basically roll and rock our creativity with the sewing machine.

By the end of the three-hour class we had learned how to make a beer koozie and a secret pocket to place inside a pillowcase. “A pocket for what? Extra lighters, secret stash, late night “protection”, trapping the tooth fairy ” you name it.

Root Beer Koozie

Workshop SF is an eight-hundred square foot space on McAllister and Baker in San Francisco. It offers DIY classes taught by fabulous, creative folks from the Indie Mart, local designers, and, Kelly Malone (owner). “Classes range from the single class for the commitment-phobics, to the more detailed, multi-day classes for those truly desiring to learn their craft. Workshop is equipped with a complete silk screening facility, sewing machines, button machines,and lots of tools for cutting, printing, building, and making. Workshop also offers a library stocked with how-to books, design books, and old magazines to turn the light bulb over your head to ON”

My class was from 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm, and I must admit, those have been some of the most productive and fun hours of my summer. Indeed, I plan on coming back to take Sewing 102: Alterations And Reconstruction or How To Sew: Simple Denim Totes and Hobo Bags, and why not Indie Biz 101: Starting In The Design Business.

Visit their blog for other super creative activities.

Till next week,

Isabel