Made From Scrap: From Debris to Décor

Photos | Joe Eskenazi

Whether it’s ashtrays crafted from beer cans or lamps made out of bottles, an S.F. couple aims to teach you how to transform crap into couture.

By Joe Eskenazi

When Shakespeare’s Iago famously intones he “who steals my purse steals trash,” he’s commenting on the ephemeral nature of material goods. He is not implying that his purse is crafted out of Venetian trash, much to the relief of theater prop-masters everywhere.

If you were to steal Mercedee Renz’s purse, however, you really would be stealing trash. The 27-year-old San Franciscan took around a dozen old plastic shopping bags and a crochet hook and, three hours later, she had a purse.

It’s all part of what Renz and her significant other, David Sugalski, call “re-ing,” and they’d like to teach you to “re” a bit yourself. For those who already know a bit about “re-ing,” they’re hoping you’ll share your expertise with others — and them.

The couple founded a Web site titled “Made from Scrap” and rented out space in a Bayview warehouse/artists’ studio decorated like an outtake of a Tim Burton flick. Classes on how to make your own rugs, purses or God knows what else out of bags or rags kick off in mid-month.

“I really like seeing familiar things in another context. I’m very much interested in the societal context of consumerism and waste, but we’re not trying to bash people over the head with” the recycling message, said Renz, a freelance copywriter.

“I can start looking at one item,” she said, eying an aluminum can on the table. She reached over and snapped off its pop top. “I can make a belt out of this.”

Perhaps inspired by the large number of future belts and purses blowing around the streets in their Bayview neighborhood, the couple — recent Chicago transplants — were driven to rent out “classroom space” in the warehouse artists lovingly call the “Cataclysmic Megashear Ranch.”

Renz and Sugalski at the "Cataclysmic Megashear Ranch."

Cluttered with the completed and half-completed work of more than 20 artists, the warehouse looks like the unholy amalgam of a scrap metal smelting plant, an MIT fraternity and Ed Rosenthal’s house. To Renz and Sugalski, the place is chock full of raw material to be converted into lamps, end tables or wall-hangings.

While Made from Scrap’s first few classes will feature Renz and Sugalski instructing participants on how to crochet their own purses and rugs or create bird-houses out of pallets, the couple have also made tentative connections with a few serious re-ers who boast specialties ranging from converting bottles into drinking receptacles, creating greeting cards out of scrap paper or disassembling old lamps and inserting the wiring into household objects. Those interested in serving as scrap teachers can contact the couple here.

A beer bottle that will soon be a drinking glass and an ashtray that was once a beer can.

“To tell you the truth, we don’t know how to make that many things,” admitted Sugalski, 26, a Web consultant. “Another reason we dove into this operation is we totally want to learn how to make these things.”

And, as Renz points out, “Men who can crochet are sexy.”