Andre – AW Design & Upcycling: Upcycled objects, mainly light objects

Irma – Creations by Irma: Figurative sculptures, mixed media with hardened textiles

Andre Westerdijk – AW Design & Upcycling:

Recycling and upcycling are hobbies that have always interested me a great deal. As a student I found offcuts of drain and soil pipes that were constantly thrown away at a building site close to home, so I took them home and turned them into lamps, and this started my passion. After graduating unfortunately there was less time to do any work with upcycling, however a few years ago the love was rekindled and I never looked back.
As frequent visitor to car boot sales and auctions I had collected so many beautiful but sadly no longer useful items that needed a new lease of life. I was running out of space and then it daunted on me, that in order to keep these items in the lime light they deserved, they needed a new lease of live to prevent them from being thrown away. So I started to upcycle some of the vintage items into lamps. It now gives me great pleasure to put items out of context, and see a smile on someone’s face when they look at my creations and hear them say; “Wow, I would not have thought of that” or “I remember that, my …. used to have one of those.”
Now I can’t stop looking for Pre-owned vintage/antique objects and materials and thinking what useful creations to make out of them.

Irma Westerdijk – Creations by Irma:

Irma began her artistic career at a very early age and now, as she says herself, simply can’t imagine a day without creating.
Found and recycled objects form the starting point for her work. These she leaves in her studio, allowing them to trigger ideas for sculptures.
These are mainly figurative although she also creates wall art with a lot of texture.
Irma also devotes her time to giving workshops in the use of Paverpol and working on commissions.