Recycle Creative review & a gorgeous mountain picnic in Chiang Mai
Oh my gosh I am a lucky girl!
This weekend me, Andy and our friends Eric and Ice drove to the top of Doi Pui mountain to test out three products from Recycle Creative.
Beyond the famous Doi Suthep temple there's a beautiful campground high up the Doi Pui mountain. There's an incredible view of the city, it's way cooler than down in Chiang Mai city and you can even camp up there if you fancy it. In fact, I think it's one of the best things to do in Chiang Mai!
Recycle Creative has roots in Australia and here in Chiang Mai. I was kinda dubious about their products, because they're made out of old truck tyre inner tubes and old loom fabric. I thought they could possibly be a bit rubbish, despite looking so good on the website. But actually, they're really high quality products and it's obvious that a lot of care has gone into Recycle Creative's designs. I'm impressed.
Recycle Creative's craftsmen-and-women are Chiang Mai locals who are paid a fair price for their work. They take materials that were destined for landfill and upcycle them to create beautiful new products. Gorgeous and environmentally-friendly... perfect.
They have a shop here at Ban Tawai in Chiang Mai (map below) and they deliver to several countries worldwide.
1. Recycled Loom Fabric Picnic Mat, ฿900
The recycled loom picnic mat is huge, thick and I adore the rainbow colours and pink edge. It rolls up like a giant sausage roll (mmm...) and is carried by the pink fabric handle. The fabric is woven quite tightly, so ants and spiders didn't crawl through the mat.
Verdict: My favourite Recycle Creative product. I adore this!
2. Bowling Ball Handbag, ฿1790
This rock-a-billy-esque handbag is like a tardis. We fit so much in that bag! All our food & drink, a book, a board-game and my scarf. It's definitely what you'd call roomy. It's made of truck tyre inner tube, the zip closes and opens smoothly and it feels durable, which is incredibly important to a girl like me.
My only problem with this bag is that it's a really grown up lady's bag, so there's no long over-the-shoulder strap. I like to have my bag slung over my shoulder, so I don't have to worry about putting it down and forgetting it. I've never had a true handbag like this before, so it's taking some getting used to!
Verdict: Beautiful, but I wish it had a long handle!
3. Classic Pencil Case, ฿275
I adore this pencil case. It looks like the kind of pencil case a super-cool graphic designer would have. The price is great and it's got a beautiful clean, simple design, but it's the bright orange zip that really makes it awesome. Also, this isn't a girly product at all. Andy really wants to steal this from me, but he has no chance.
I'm a teacher and I get through a LOT of pencil cases. They end up shabby and worn way too quickly. I have really high hopes for this though, because it's well crafted and made of truck tyre inner tube, which surely means it's really durable, right? I've been using it a lot and so far so good. At the picnic I used it to keep bits like mosquito repellent, sun cream and hand sanitiser in.
Verdict: Awesome and super-cool design
Verdict: Awesome and super-cool design
Find Recycle Creative in Chiang Mai at the Ban Tawai craft village, here:
