The Refurbs Repair and Reuse centre featuring Caffi Cyfle in Buckley, Flintshire has recently held a serious of successful events and upcycling workshops with more planned in the future.

The official opening of the venue took place on Friday 5th November 2021 with the ribbon being cut by Hannah Blythyn, MS Deputy Minister for Social Partnership. At the opening event, local artist Jayne Hopwood held the first of a series of workshops.   This first workshop featured how to make a leather purse, utilising discarded leather taken from the sofa deconstruction project run by Refurbs at the Oakenholt Household Recycling Centre (HRC).

Recently held workshops included, an upcycled seasonal wreath session using unwanted Christmas trees and decorations and a workshop making Christmas decorations from old fabric and haberdashery items.

Looking ahead to 2022, Refurbs has dates set for workshops in January, February and March, these include   upcycling unwanted costume jewellery turning it into decorative items and patchwork and applique methods for upcycling fabric.

Alongside the workshops, monthly repair sessions are planned for 2022. This will give opportunities for community members to bring small household items to the café where they can learn from skilled volunteers how to repair and restore them.

Refurbs are looking for volunteers from the local community who have skills they wish to share to get involved with the workshops and repair sessions. They are looking for volunteers with general woodwork, electrical or electronic repair, time piece and jewellery repair, sewing and upholstery knowledge and skills.

Hanna Clarke – Events & Digital Content Coordinator for Refurbs said,

“We hope the workshops and the repair sessions will help the community to see waste or broken items as a useful resource and that they can gain new skills to give these items a new lease of life, encouraging more responsible solutions for unwanted or broken items rather than sending them to landfill.

The Repair and Reuse centre is a great space to visit and with the added benefit of the café with its selection of hot drinks, fantastic cakes and snacks, we hope it will become a vibrant community hub for the people of Buckley”.

If you are interested in volunteering to run a workshop or at a repair session to  share your skills and knowledge, please get in touch with Hanna Clarke on 01978 757524 / events@refurbs.org.uk