Bedding into Bags: The material and temporal assemblages of upcycling

This paper presents an upcycling creative project: bedding into bags. The premise of the project is straightforward; to take an unused everyday household item (a duvet cover) and upcycle this into new products (8 different types of bags). The project develops a growing body of geographical research on the embodied practices of making, wherein the researcher is maker rather than observer. Through close attention to the materiality of making this project reveals the intricate assemblages of  materials and time that upcycling requires. This project responds to calls for a practice-based approach to sustainability that can reveal the possibilities and limitations of ‘doing’ sustainability.