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Sweet Notions: Rethink • Restore • Reclaim

Beer for Belts

14
May
2012
in Blog

We‘re just three days away from our Beer for Belts event! We’re collecting unwanted belts and swapping them for chances to win a whole keg of London-brewed beer.

Why do you want our belts?

Sweet Notions is all about finding exciting new things to do with the accessories you just don’t need any more. We’ve turned old earrings into funky new jewellery, unwanted scarves into trendy lampshades and cushions, and now we’re setting to work finding fun, up-cycled uses for all the other things we get given. And that includes belts…

We get given a lot of belts, and sometimes it’s hard...

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Something for the guys

10
May
2012
in Blog

 

Next week Sweet Notions London is hosting our first event aimed squarely at a masculine audience. Beer for Belts is exactly what it sounds like, us giving away beer in return for unwanted belts!

What?

Gents, we want your belts. Just as we’ve turned unwanted women’s accessories into beautiful jewellery, lampshades and cushions, we’re going to turn your old belts into something beautiful. All to benefit women affected by homelessness, just like everything else Sweet Notions does.

We’re working with industrial designer Jason Fletcher to create a chair made of belts, proving yet again...

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New donation address in the US

05
August
2011
in Blog

The mailing address for accessory donations to Sweet Notions USA has recently changed, and is now: 

Sweet Notions c/o Extra Space

3011 San Jacinto #424

Houston, TX   77004


We are currently in need of donations, so please, clean out those jewelry boxes of any unwanted accessories. And, while your at it, ask your friends and family to do the same.

Thanks! Jessica

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Start Small, Dream Big: Q & A with Upcycled Apparel Designer and Small-Business Owner Cassie Ridgway

09
May
2011
in Blog

Mag-Big is a small business with big ambitions. The art and fashion boutique in Portland, Oregon, features handmade work by local artists and designers. It also serves as an educational resource, hosting regular classes in its adjacent gallery and workshop space. I caught up with designer and owner Cassie Ridgway to find out how small business owners can help create big change in the movement to transform the fashion industry.

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As an artist and small business owner in one of the United States’ hubs for sustainability, DIY fashion, and crafts, what is your overall outlook for the future...

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The Art of Repurposing - Together

09
May
2011
in Blog

Today we are excited to introduce a new branch of Sweet Notions, Sweet Notions Portland, and their guest blogger Melissa Reeser.  Melissa is a poet and writer living in the Pacific Northwest. She works part-time at Saint David of Wales Episcopal Church, and is managing director of Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac.....

Here in Portland, people with a passion for fashion and social justice are coming together to build the first U.S. franchise of Sweet Notions—and finding there’s strength (and beauty) in numbers. Opportunities for collaboration, mutual inspiration, and collective empowerment...

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May Events in London

21
April
2011
in Blog

MAY 14th - Swap Shop 2011

Sweet Notions is delighted to be part of Swap Shop 2011.

'The Swap Shop 2011 is all about women joining together to Swap their unwanted clothes in a fun and musically filled environment. The Swap Shop is the only place that women can trade in their well looked after clothes for other chic items, as well as receive tips and goodies, take part in competitions, bid for new items and treat their taste buds to sweet desires! 

Sweet Notions will be selling their gorgeous jewellery and accessories PLUS we will be holding a 'Make a Lampshade' workshop.  They're...

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Meanwhile…at the Fair - 19th April, London

17
April
2011
in Blog

Sweet Notions is excited to have a booth at 'Meanwhile....at the Fair'.  This is a great opportunity to make, sell, do and other such shananigans at the new Meanwhile space on Whitechapel Road, East London.

We will be setting up shop for the day in our beloved East London (where many of the Sweet Notions team reside) and selling our upcycled goodies, as well as hopefully having many an interesting chat.  Do pop along to see us.


When: 10am-9pm, 19th April.  A Tuesday.

Where: 3-5 Whitechapel Road, E1 1DU.  Here's a map to help.

 

Meanwhile Space works with landlords,...

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Purer Gold 2

20
March
2011
in Blog

Here at Sweet Notions we are passionate about beautiful things that are made in beautiful ways. We love a good bit of well-crafted jewellery, full of style and creative passion. The right necklace or pair of earrings really makes an outfit shine, and it's all the better when you know that what you are wearing helps and not harms the world around you. 

If there's one thing we know here, it's that it matters where things come from. The hand-crafted and repurposed accessories we sell at our boutique events are all donated and reused, breaking the cycle of the throwaway culture and supporting...

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Purer Gold

17
March
2011
in Blog
Sometimes you need something new, but you want jewellery that embodies a value for people and planet. For a long time it was only lone campaigners like Greg Valerio who were shouting about the need for ethical jewellery, but in recent years a real movement has been growing behind Fairtrade and ethical metals and gems. These voices in the wilderness have grown in number and strength, clamouring for gold and silver, diamonds and rubies that are ethical as well as beautiful, that are mined in sustainable ways that don't damage the environment, and that benefit the pockets of miners and their...

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Operation Dream Dress

15
March
2011
in Blog

Our design gatherings team leader at the budding Sweet Notions PDX is a semifinalist in a national competition!  Hannah Friesen from Portland, and recently graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles.  In January she stumbled upon her first big break, Operation Dream Dress for Brides Magazine.  After submitting a few sketched designs, she was chosen as a semifinalist.  She got the opportunity to make the chosen design and now the pictures are posted online!  The next stage of the contest is all public votingl you only need an email address to...

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