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here’s what my day was going to look like on wednesday: wake up, go to peet’s coffee shop, prepare tomorrow’s posts, go back to victoria’s and sleep most of the day. instead i got a call from victoria’s friend, the lovely artist leigh wells. leigh invited me for a day of adventure in her zippy convertible and reminded me that i could always take a nap later. how could i resist? so instead of sleeping we spent the day (and it was a gorgeous day) zipping around the city, seeing new neighborhoods, visiting all sorts of stores and then cruising across the bridge and having lunch in sausalito and then catching a view of the bay area from the marin headlands. for this reason and many, many others (most of which having to do with her incredible artwork), leigh wells is now my hero. one of the shops we visited was a warehouse called scrap (scroungers center for reusable art parts) that carries all sorts of incredible objects and materials (art, craft and building related) to keep them out of landfills. leigh picked up a big basket of supplies for $8 while i just stared and tried to take it all in. scrap is a non-profit and offers all sorts of great classes and opportunities for local teachers so if you’re in town be sure to check it out. it’s off the beaten path a bit but if you have a car (or a cab or scooter) it’s definitely worth the trip. click here for more info on scrap. [more photos after the jump]

Wow, what a great place and way to spend a day.

Sarah, thanks for that link. Although it doesn’t look to be open to individuals, I just passed it on to my child’s school team here in NYC as a great resource. So thanks so much.

these places are often called “materials exchanges.” These is a great one in New York’s Hudson Valley. http://www.hvmaterialsexchange.com/, but a google search of materials exchange yields a lot of results for all over the country

There is a place like this in Rhode Island and the Boston Children’s Museum has a place like this as well. I used to work for a museum and we’d go to these places to gather supplies all the time. I love the milk caps!

Thanks for another great story. There’s a similar org in Portland, OR (also called S.C.R.A.P.) and the awesome Rebuilding Center is worth an afternoon too… forgive me for not hunting up links; they should be easy to find.

There is a place like this is Grand Rapids, Michigan as well. I used a lot of their products to decorate on my wedding day. See link for photos of the raindrops featured on the d*s handmade weddings guest blog.

I agree with Sookie, there should definitely be a place like this in every city. (ps. remake is in my top favorite Etsy sellers, so it is great to make a connection here as well.)

The Rhode Island location Abbey mentioned is probably Recycling for Rhode Island Education, also known as the Recycle Center. It’s on the edge of Providence, near the Roger Williams Zoo. It’s only open to students and teachers (I think), but they have a really wonderful mix of junk that can be turned into creative projects. And almost everything is 20 cents a pound. You can fill several bags and only pay a dollar. It’s a little crazy. (www.rrie.org)

In Chicago, there is also a Creative Reuse. When I was In grad school they were near the south loop but now they are on Brainard. I think half of our project materials came from there. $3 buck for a grocercy bag ‘o stuff. You just can’t beat it! http://www.resourcecenterchicago.org.

We had a comment glitch and this comment didn’t make it in:

Macadamia: i love love love this place. I got most of my materials and inspirations from this Scrap place. They’re so cheap, creative and friendly.

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