A conversation with Yellow Bear Wears

As part of our theme for the C-Side Challenge we spoke to innovative up-cycler Yellow Bear Wears.

What inspired you to create Yellow Bear Wears?

Growing up the slogan: ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’ was followed with much enthusiasm, in fact I remember always having random things used for different purposes once reaching their ‘end-life’. For instance when my shoes no longer fit they became plant pots in the garden, my mums laddered tights became supports for plants to grow up, any copper pipes my dad came across became frames for his beloved tomatoes to thrive in, complete with unusable taps attached! This ethos of re-using and upcycling inspired me from a young age, whilst at school my design projects included: a sofa-bed frame made of discarded wooden pallets, a clock made from old CD’s and a candle holder made of bent forks!

Having come from this sort of background it is embedded in me to upcycle and re-use, my jewellery follows that trend and I am inspired by finding new materials that I can try to find a use for, my newest experiments involve recycling bicycle inner tubes.

How do you source your materials?
I love hunting for knitting needles, I find them at boot sales, charity shops and occasionally through ebay. I am also given needles that are no longer being used, people can’t find a use for them as plastic knitting needles are not very practical for knitting with!

Why knitting needles?
I love the fact that knitting needles are probably one of the last materials you would expect to be used for jewellery, the surreal juxtapositions created by re-using and upcycling excite me and I’m still not bored of finding new things I can make with my needles!