Welcome to Sustainable Makers!
A collaborative, open-source wiki for makers to share our know-how, tests, successes and failures when creating work with sustainable materials.
“What repurposed material might work for this?” “If we need to buy metal new, is one supplier more sustainable than another?” “Should we use new wood if it means this piece of work will have a longer life?” “How can we track these conversations and decisions?”
We’re asking these questions in our maker spaces over and over again. We’re committed to changing the way that we source and use materials more sustainably. But this is hard to navigate! Decisions are difficult to make, and finding the information to make informed choices takes time and capacity. Sourcing repurposed materials can involve detective work, ringing around, foraging in unusual places.
This space is designed to become:
- A searchable, tagged database of materials, build projects and places to source things. It will be changing all the time, created by the makers who are working on these projects.
- A discussion forum and community of shared knowledge, where we can chat and ask questions, share ideas and advice about sourcing and creating from sustainable materials.
Making sustainable decisions when we’re making sucks up time and resource, and can be disheartening. Can we work together to create a body of shared knowledge, and a safe space where we can ask daft questions?
What isn’t it?
This isn’t:
A new resource giving advice about sustainable practices.
A formal or physical network.
Lots of the above already exist, and are doing brilliant work. We’d like to amplify as many existing resources and networks as possible. You can find and add them to our resources page.
Who is it for?
Anyone who is designing, making or researching the use of sustainable materials in creative practice. It is emerging from a community of outdoor artists and creators from the UK, but with a much wider possible reach.
How does it work?
We’re currently in beta, so figuring out exactly what will work best. The current format is:
- A series of forums that you can comment on and add to. These form the databases of information and are searchable by keyword or by tag.
- More static pages with lists of other useful resources and networks. You can suggest additions to these.