All skill levels — 1- to 2-day workshop

Ephemera are items that are not originally designed to be retained or preserved but become a ‘collection’, oftentimes by default. The term is derived from the Greek ephēmeros which means ‘lasting only a day’.

Are you reluctant to part with art materials that bring joy—things that could have been discarded—but were not? Nevertheless, there they are, taking up space.

Maybe the scraps in your collection have the potential to be re-imagined—to become something else, something beautiful. Something that brings renewed joy.

Gather your stuff for a conversion experience. Curate a ‘scrap’ book of much-loved snippets. Collage bits and bobs to invent a whole. Craft your beloved offcuts into oddly-shaped cards to slip into funky envelopes. Weave a pattern from paper threads. Your lettering practice? It could have an out-of-drawer experience in a finished composition!

Not junk! I have intentionally avoided the terms ‘junk’ and ‘recycling’—that’s a different mindset. Instead, you are asserting the value of your ephemera—after all, you kept them for a reason. You are taking treasured raw materials and using your art practice to turn them into something worthy of your creativity. Ephemera re-imagined!