Rags to Riches is an award-winning upcycling social enterprise that uses waste to promote environmental sustainability, community engagement and education within Glasgow and the surrounding areas.
We employ the circular economy model to provide workshops within our own venues as well as providing outreach programmes to outside organisations to upskill, train and empower local groups and support vulnerable communities. We also sell a range of handcrafted upcycled design collections on our online shop to create economic opportunities for local makers while actively reducing and reusing waste.
From April 2020 to March 2022 we ran The UpHub, a Climate Challenge Fund project, funded by the Scottish Government. The UpHub worked to continue and expand on the success of Rags to Riches, providing the Govanhill community with education around climate change by implementing long term, sustainable change within local groups, while reducing carbon footprints.
Watch the video below to find out more about our project work!
This video was filmed and edited by Bircan Bircol at 1dea Media.
Workshops
Come along and join one of our workshops or courses and learn new skills across sewing and textiles, woodwork, craft, and mixed media. From traditional upcycling to furniture making, screen printing and mould casting, we use a majority of waste materials during our classes, aiming for zero-waste learning experiences for people from a broad range of backgrounds, ages and abilities.
All our workshops are hosted at our venue at The Deep End on 21 Nithsdale Street.
Community Outreach
We work with organisations around Glasgow to deliver affordable community outreach services that build confidence and skill development, promote creativity and raise awareness of the importance of the circular economy and upcycling in the fight to save the planet.
From delivering creative and upcycling workshops to talks, training and community builds, our team of highly skilled and friendly facilitators can work with you on a variety of projects and targets.
Our Online Shop
Rags to Riches designs and makes innovative upcycled products in the Southside of Glasgow. With ranges across textiles, wood and recycled plastics, we offer a variety of handmade designs that are great for your get-up and for the planet.
You can find our design collections on our online shop or at one of our two monthly markets, hosted at The Deep End on 21 Nithsdale Street.
Workshop and Bench Rentals
As a part of our offering here at Rags to Riches and The Uphub, we offer accessible annual memberships for our community to make use of our workshop space and machinery. By signing up to our membership scheme, you’ll have access to our woodwork workshop, tools and equipment. You’ll also have access to our onsite facilitators who have a wealth of knowledge and skills to support you in your projects. Some experience is required to join, to find out more click on the button below.
Events
We host a range of environmentally-focused events ranging from our monthly markets and talks to exhibitions and more. Through our work, we aim to inspire our local community to bring about long-term changes in the way they engage with the climate change discussion and what better way to do that than with fun and interactive experiences?
You can find out more about what’s on at Rags to Riches via our social media channels, as well as keeping an eye on our website for news and updates.
Working with our community
From our community outreach work to our upcycling and upskilling workshops we have had the pleasure of working with some outstanding organisations over the years. Such collaborations encourage significant social inclusion, diversity and development while using waste to promote core environmental and sustainability values. See some of the organisations we have worked with in the past below.
Work and volunteer with us!
We’re always looking for creative people to join our projects so whether you’re a professional who’d like to collaborate to create new products or workshops, or you’d like to join our passionate team of volunteers, we’d love to hear from you. Simply get in touch here.
