Students passing through the AAB Lobby at the Taylorsville Redwood campus on Earth Day participated in a tabling event where Library Services, environmental studies, the Fashion Institute, Publication Center and the Student Writing and Reading Center came together to celebrate with books, haikus and upcycled projects.
Fashion students model upcycled clothes
KC Anderson, a fashion student, made pins from bottle caps. Their professor placed plants into single shoes “destined for the landfill” for them to find a new “sole mate.”
“I think upcycling is the best thing you can do with fashion,” Anderson said. Their upcycled outfit consisted of a double-ruffled plaid skirt and halter top made from a knit tablecloth and plaid pants.
“I swear I never find anything that is identical,” Anderson said. “It [upcycling] keeps things out of the landfill and helps cut down on waste.”
Like Anderson, other fashion students wore upcycled clothes. One student wore a Real Salt Lake outfit; a tube top and skirt with a soccer ball purse. Another wore a pink striped top with lace around the collar paired with a gray miniskirt and pants combo.
Fashion student CJ Cameron created her look based on model Twiggy. She wore a messenger style hat with buttons, a jeweled denim jacket and an orange-brown patterned skirt. Cameron said she has upcycled and thrifted clothing long before it was “cool.”
“I grew up in the 70s,” she said. “My mother and I would go [thrifting], so that’s really the memories I have. She would always go to the books section, and I would always go to the fashion section.”
Cameron loves working with denim and owns Twiggy Jane, a secondhand boutique in Trolley Square.
“I think it’s amazing,” Cameron said. “Everyone is thrifting now. I think it really helps, because we don’t need all the stuff that we have.”
Students who visited the Fashion Institute received materials to design a tote bag with iron-on patches of cats and others that read “Save the Great Salt Lake.”
Crafting journals
Other upcycling projects included crafting journals with loose paper and covers made from cut-up empty boxes from grocery products. Brenda Sieczkowski, Publication Center director, said that the craft showed how easy upcycling can be.
Students stitched their journals together with a pin, a needle and a thread. The craft took about 10 minutes to make, with Sieczkowski’s help.
With their new upcycled journals, students could write haikus with Felicia Prevo, SWRC workshop coordinator, who brought her animal-themed tarot deck for students to pick a card and use as inspiration.
“I’ve been doing these [tarot cards] for Stress Less Week,” said Prevo. “So, I thought, ‘you know what, people seem to engage with tarot a lot, I’m going to bring these.’”
Environmental students promote studies and nature app
Environmental students promoted their program and degrees offered at Salt Lake Community College and highlighted iNaturalist, an app that encourages people to learn about the world around them by snapping photos of plants, animals, fungi and other environmental elements to help identify species while creating a database for use in science and conservation.
The lobby stayed busy with conversation as students passed through to see and participate in upcycling on Earth Day.
