- Pickleball and golf balls, puzzle pieces, glitter, so much glitter, no one wants to keep glitter in their home.

(laughs) My name is Angela Kollmer and welcome to Upcycle Arts.

The more you look, the more you find really interesting items.

Keyboard keys, trophy bottoms.

We've got vintage googly eyes.

Reusable waste can be anything.

As long as it's in good condition, it's not dirty.

Anything can be reused in a creative way.

(upbeat music) Construction sites just have so much excess material.

So we have a lot of wire connectors, can tops, wine corks, so many wine corks and there's a lot of really fun things you can do.

We get those a lot from individuals and businesses.

They're not all mine.

Part of the fun with this is other people see the materials differently than you do.

You know, you can give everyone the same material, no one's gonna come back with the same thing.

(buttons clinking) Oh my gosh, we've got all kinds of things.

We've got fire hose up here.

We have a ton of feathers.

Whoa.

Old computers and tech waste.

This is a box of photo slides.

We have canvases that were never opened.

We are lucky enough to also get normal art supplies as well.

Yay!

We do a lot of different events.

We partner with our nonprofits.

We do pop-up, make and take events where people can make whatever they want with the materials that are there (laughs) and take them home.

- Do you want a red one?

- It's kind of fun with upcycling because kids get it more quickly than adults do.

Kids kind of have the power when it comes to upcycling.

You know, we lose that imagination along the way and we lose that ability to just make something for the sake of making things.

So it's really fun seeing people kind of rediscover that.

These, I don't even know what this is, but they're pretty.

(laughs) (upbeat music) We work with a lot of different types of professional artists.

We've had designers, painters, mixed media artists.

- You gotta make it work.

(Angela laughs) Shopping at Upcycle Arts is like being a kid in a candy store.

You really get to go there and you put on your best and most creative hat.

And honestly, the possibilities are endless there.

You can find so many things that can become brand new pieces or brand new artworks that are newly lived through me now.

There is a bubble wrap dress that I made.

Right behind me, there is this Queen Charlotte in the garden replica statue that I did for a Popup Putt Putt experience that happened last year during Charlotte Shout.

And I'm telling you, like it is all created, full of upcycled, old billboard vinyl.

Then we have a rose bouquet that was handed down to me.

We have jewelry that was handed down to me.

We have nylon rope.

One of the things that has really touched me as far as sustainability and upcycling pieces is just, it's kind of what I grew up around.

When I was younger, I didn't really have a lot of money to buy a whole new bunch of fabric, but for me it was like, "I want to create, but I can only create "with what's around me, what might've gotten a little old "or just going to thrift stores "and seeing what they have there."

And so it's this longstanding relationship with taking things that are very old and putting my creativity to it and making something new.

And so I love to still incorporate that into my work today.

- This is our closet that's kind of insane right now.

(laughs) And we also have a storage unit.

(upbeat music) I think it is really important.

I mean, look at just the volume of stuff in this room.

So I think it's the perfect time here in Charlotte as we try and figure out, you know, our artistic identity.

And as we're trying to keep up with the big cities and their recycling programs and reach a circular economy by 2050, which is one of Charlotte's goals, it makes sense to provide affordable art supplies here for the community and keep it out of the landfill.

(upbeat music)