Get eco-friendly and learn some new skills at the Sparks Repair Cafe
Posted on: 26 Mar 2024Sparks, the independent department store, offer a free drop-in space to fix your old items – and learn how to do it yourself.
We live in a throwaway culture – with items often planned for obsolescence or fragility, many people simply throw out broken items and buy new ones, owing to a lack of time, resources or skills to repair them.
It’s not only terrible for the environment, it’s also much more expensive – plenty of breakable goods can be very expensive to purchase, and just replacing them every time is a far less economically sustainable solution that simply repairing them.
Ready to repair this weekend?
— The Restart Project (@RestartProject) February 1, 2024
Events are happening in:?
??Bristol @Sparks_bristol?
??Harborough
??Havant?
??Lichfield @lichrepaircafe
??Maidstone?
??Marlow?
??Overton @SustainableOve1?
??Portstewart?
??Portsmouth @RepairCafePorts
??Southampton
??Tenterden?
????@markaphill pic.twitter.com/P8ySeJqong
However, learning the skills to repair your items can be a daunting task – especially when it’s dangerous, or you could risk breaking the item further. Paying someone else to fix is always an option, but can get expensive, and doesn’t teach you anything – teach a man to fish…
Luckily, Sparks, the ethical, independent department store that rose from the ruins of Marks & Spencers, offers a solution: the Repair Cafe. Running every Sunday, with two drop-in sessions, the Repair Cafe’s volunteers will help you to fix your broken items, while teaching you the skills you need to do it yourself.
The two sessions take place in the morning and afternoon respectively, with the afternoon session being fixed on a mixture of repair and creation, if you feel inspired by the skills you’re learning to make a little recycled art. The morning session of Repair Cafe takes places from 11:30-13:30, and the afternoon session is 14:30-16:30. Both session take place every Sunday, with the next being Sunday 31 March.
So, if you’re interested in fixing a few things up, and getting some help to do so (or making some interesting and sustainable art), head down to Sparks on Sunday, or head to their website to learn more, or read about their other events.
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Patrick is a filmmaker with so much Bristol in his blood the white blood cells are graffiti'd. Educated at the Northern Film School in Leeds, he’s returned home to be a Videographer and Reviewer for 365Bristol and BARBI. When he’s not messing about with cameras, he enjoys playing guitar, spending far too much time on tabletop RPGs, and being an awful snob about cider. Have a look at his work here, or get in touch at patrickb@365bristol.com.
