I grew up watching my Bermudian mother and cousins repurpose old items for new ones and use everything from napkins to tea bags more than once. Rainwater was collected in wells for tapwater, glass and shells were used as tile in walls and sand from the beach was rubbed into our skin as an exfoliant. No one thought it was “green” or “eco-friendly” it’s just what you did. Any other way of operating was considered “wasteful”. Well, that same sentiment is what prompted the creators of Kuttlefish to start their company. Kuttlefish is a community and marketplace where buyers meet sellers to exchange goods made with reused, recycled, upcycled content and found objects.
Vase from upcycled magazines
(click images to go straight to site for instructions!)
What is Kuttlefish?
A cuttlefish is a sea creature that has the ability to change it’s shape, size and texture to adpt to its surroundings, and that’s exaclty what Kuttlefish the company is trying to promote with it’s recylcle-reuse philosophy. What’s great about the site is that instead of hunting and searching for DIY ideas that are also helpful to the environment, you can find them all in one place. Not only that, if you’re not so great with DIY but are looking for gifts or even home decor and furnishings that are made from repurposed and upcycled materials then you can shop in the marketplace too! For those of you who are newsletter subscribers, last weeks newsletter featured some items for purchase as well as some upcycling ideas from Kuttlefish. They even carry artisan items from other countries and you can be guaranteed that their products are fair trade and sustainable as per the Kuttlefish Materials Origin Promise.
upcycled grater pencil holder
The Company Mission
In 2014 Father and son team Samuel and Ian Moise decided to start the eco-friendly company with one mission:
Kuttlefish is a community committed to driving positive environmental, social and economic change, by way of landfill diversion through reusing, recycling, and upcycling. We aim to transform the way the world sees value in used materials, creating truly sustainable solutions for reuse that make good environmental, social and economic sense. We do this in three ways:
1) by providing a forum to share reuse ideas and projects
2) by growing a thriving marketplace for people and companies to buy and sell innovative products made from reused and recycled materials
3) by developing a B2B marketplace where companies will sell their by-products to other companies that can use and profit from them.
Messenger bag made from upcycled fire hoses
The Kuttlefish site has five areas to navigate:
Share – This section is members only (it’s free to join!) Here you can post ideas and things that you’ve upcycled and repurposed
Get Inspired – This section is similiar to PInterest and you can browse items and ideas others have made and click on links that give you instructions on how to DIY
Discuss – Trying to figure out how to make a vase out of a wine botle? Wonder how many pallets it takes to make a couch? This is where you can ask questions and other Kuttlefish can answer.
Shop – This is the marketplace, and similiar to Etsy it allows you to brows and purchase tons of items that are unique, high-quality, affordable and still green!
Sell – Also, members only, here you can open a store and sell you DIY, handmade or upcycled products. The rules are strict though. so make sure your products are sustainable and/or fair trade before you try to open up shop.
“Afghan Girl” recreated by Jane Perkins using found buttons, beads even LEGOS!
The thing I like most about the site is that there are some really great ideas on there. Not just things that look like they would fall apart or weren’t made with any kind of durability in mind. People are really coming up with some great stuff! I’ve seen more than one DIY project I’d like to try not to mention some beautiful items I wouldn’t mind purchasing. Click the image below to join. It’s free!
Stay tuned for a Kuttlefish Giveaway! Just in time for Earth Day, Kuttlefish is sponsoring a giveaway right here on Savvy Brown! You can win a gift card for use toward any purchase in the Kuttlefish Marketplace! (More news on that soon!) If you can’t wait that long, you can enter the Kuttlefish Instagram contest today! Also check out Trashion Fashion and SCRAP-USA for upcoming Kuttlefish challenges!
Wanna know more? Here’s to find Kuttlefish on the web.
- Kuttlefish Website
- Kuttlefish on Twitter
- Kuttlefish Instagram
- Kuttlefish on Facebook
