Artist Spotlight: Bernadette Noll
Photo by Jorge Sanhueza Lyon
Each month, we highlight one of the talented people in our reuse community. This month, it’s reuse mover & shaker and facilitator, Bernadette Noll (she/her)!
Bernadette shares her journey from consumer to reuser after realizing how much surplus of materials surrounded her. Continue reading below to learn more and see photos of the things she makes!
1. When did you start making upcycled art?
Hmm, it's hard to say when I started upcycling and making things. I grew up in a family that would load up in the station wagon for bulky trash picking so reuse is in my DNA, but the making came much later. When my kids were little I remember being astounded by the messages to CONSUME and the insipid catalogs that would come in the mail. It was before smart phones for sure and when the internet was just a baby so catalogs were much more [of] a thing. Even toys that were billed as "creative" were actually more assembling, and that's when my lens was put on that the messages to create had to be louder than the messages to consume. I remember looking at the American Girl catalog with my then 7 year old daughter and seeing the language they used to sell stuff to children made my skin crawl. It was such in your face consumerism and the language was selling a feeling to girls of friendship and inclusion and we all know you can't buy that. The message to consume was coming at our kids from every direction. It was then that Kathie Sever and I started Future Craft Collective, an afterschool sewing/making class in which we attempted to combat the messages of consume and instill the message of create. We used all reuse materials that we sourced from the community: wall paper, burlap sacks, thrifted sheets, etc. Once I started seeing HOW MUCH surplus there was, I couldn't even buy new materials at all. Everything was already here. Many of the kids we taught are still using that lens of both secondhand and on creativity.
2. Which aspect of creating is your favorite?
One of my favorite aspects of creating is coming up with a project based on the surplus materials presented. My friend Gever Tully, the original Tinkering School creator out in San Francisco always says, "100 of anything becomes interesting." It's so true! When you have 100 corks or election signs or cardboard tubes, you see their possibilities differently. You stop seeing them as just what they are and instead what they can become.
3. Where do you get your inspiration?
I get my inspiration from both the surplus and from the need and, of course, from IG and youtube. It is astounding how the # has allowed us to deep dive into different worlds of making. There are so many incredibly talented and thoughtful and CREATIVE humans in the world and the internet allows us all to share ideas and spin them to infinite places. I also get inspiration from creating in community which is why I like open studio time open to all ages where everyone can get inspired from each other.
4. What is your preferred way to engage with your audience?
I love all ages, open studio time in a room full of materials where there is a serving suggestion of a project but where all the materials are available and everyone gets ideas, instruction and inspiration from each other. There is nothing I Iove more than a table at which are seated teens, twenty-somethings and all the way on up to octogenarians. Everyone learns so much from EVERYONE! And I love the idea of each one, teach one which organically occurs in this setting. It is not unusual to see my crying as I gaze upon this view.
5. How does reuse play a part in your creativity?
In the past year I have been given a little house to use in Smithville at the community garden, through a grant from the St. David's Foundation and the Smithville Public Library. It's the library's extension maker space which is also becoming a bit of a creative reuse center and mutual aid location. I have regular weekly open studio times and monthly occurring events as well. We have a maker space with lots of random materials. We have a sewing lab full of all kinds of fabrics and notions and clothes to remake or embellish and lots of machines and all donated by the community. We have a small free clothes room with a couple of racks of nice wearables and shoes and we have a resource reading room which I am slowly getting usable. I want people to see that materials come in all shapes and forms and that non-traditional supplies are super fun to use!
6. What compels you to donate to ACR?
Reuse is so interwoven with my creativity and vice versa that the two are one. It's a marriage full of love!
7. Do you have a favorite ACR find? How did you use it?
I love ACR so much. I loved it when it was tiny and I shouted it from the mountaintops! I love it now in its glorious space and I love how it has put reuse materials in the hands of many who might not otherwise choose it. I'm astounded by its incredible organization and the amazing staff and you never know what you'll find there! When I wrote my book, Make Stuff Together, with Kathie Sever (of Ft. Lonesome fame) we had sections on where to find materials. Go to the coffee roaster for bags, to the design center for wallpaper sample books, to the print shop for end rolls, etc. If we wrote it now I"d just say, "look for a reuse center near you." Ha!
8. Where can we find out more about your work?
I do like to make stuff and especially remake clothing but I think my bigger thrill is facilitating making and reuse for the community. I love a maker table covered with materials and surrounded by people sharing their hearts and their hands. You can follow me and see what I'm up to at @reducereuseremake or on Facebook at Reduce Reuse Remake.
