The Transformative Power of Reuse

Greetings Reuse Fans!

At CJ, we are always looking for partnerships to “add value” to materials that were likely destined for the landfill. Adding value usually takes the form of turning a familiar item into something surprising or making it unique. The amazing thing about this process is that it not only breathes new life into an old discarded item, it breathes new life into the creator.

CJ’s most recent partnership with Studio Blue at Shuman Center represents the transformative power that arises when you combine creativity and reuse. We previously featured new partnership at our booth at the 2017 Three Rivers Arts Festival and this past March in our display at the Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show.

Studio Blue is a project created by Gerry Florida, a Pittsburgh award winning recycle-assemblage jewelry artist. Her passion to creatively re-purpose materials and a commitment to offering creative art programming to youth in the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center has forged a program to reinvigorate not only materials, but lives.
As part of the Furniture Exchange and Revamp project, the youth at Shuman receive second-hand furniture donated from nonprofits, like CJ or Habitat ReStore. Under the guidance of Ms. Florida, they transform the solid wood items into unique pieces for resale by painting and adding artful touches. CJ will be one of the places you can purchase Studio Blue furniture and we are working with Ms. Florida to expand Studio Blue programming.

The art pieces speak for themselves and so do the youth participants in Shuman Center:

“Painting in Studio Blue gives me something important to do to keep my mind off the negative in my life. I am getting more experience painting detail and did not know I could blend colors so well. I am one of Ms. Florida’s best detail painters and one of the best in Shuman. I painted 4 pieces of furniture for Ms. Florida. When I am in Studio Blue, I don’t feel like a juvenile delinquent whether its painting, singing or laughing. I get to be myself and feel like a regular person who just made a mistake making it through the struggle”.