Up-cycling has been very popular for a good number of years and I have found memories of the paint effects classes I used to run a few years ago… Nowadays its called upcycling and although the idea is to make up something old and tired looking into something very trendy again over the past few years the aim of Up-cycling seems to have changed.

When I up-cycled in the early 1990’s the aim was to achieve a lot with little. The fun was into making the crackling varnish work even if using a hair dryer was the key to the challenge…

Nowadays you have to up-cycle using some big name specialised paint and before you know it, the little cupboard you bought from the Shelter shop for £5 cost you over £50 in specialised paint and brushes … surely that is wrong this is not what up-cycling is about.

My…

Right in the centre of Glasgow at the bottom of a Mitchell lane off Buchanan street you can find The Lighthouse. And that’s where I was on the 15th October for another #thebigroseday.

If you walk down the lane from the Buchanan street and follow a trail of bright large roses in the style of Mackintosh you get to the front door of this bright, narrow but tall building. I know that because … I stencilled them, one Friday afternoon in October.

Me, my pot of paint, my knee pads and a large stencil. It was magical fun, it took me longer than I though it would. Not because i was slow at it… just simply because the passers by kept on interrupting… “are you the lady who made the carpet at The Hill House? What are you doing? Could I try? Is this not messy? Are you allowed…