By Nate Seltenrich

The old clothes stuffed in the back of the drawer and fabric scraps saved for who-knows-what: turn them into a rug. Those malfunctioning electronics waiting for someone to fix them: fix them yourself. That forgotten bike with a wobbly wheel and worn brakes: get it back on the road. 

These skills and more are available for the learning at Petaluma’s Reuse Hub, a regional destination for all things reuse that opened at the Petaluma Village Premium Outlets last fall. With summer approaching, the Reuse Hub’s small staff is gearing up for busy weekends full of workshops for beginning do-it-yourselfers across a range of disciplines, from fabric-scrap art and bike repair to soldering, bookbinding, and mending.

The Hub, which also operates as a retail store and lending library, has offered such classes intermittently since its launch. But this month marks the start of its most intensive schedule yet, said Phoebe Schenker, executive director of Reuse Alliance, the nonprofit that runs the Reuse Hub. 

“We are always trying to do workshops in different skills,” said Schenker, who came to Reuse Alliance from the Eames Institute in Richmond, where she served as chief operating officer for three years. Before that, she spent nearly two years designing an award-winning exhibit for the Exploratorium in San Francisco.

So far, sewing workshops have been popular, she said. But the organization’s big push to expand its offerings this summer has resulted in a diverse array of hands-on classes to extend the life of household odds and ends.

Instructors come from across the North Bay and beyond, and many have experience working at the Alliance’s popular repair fairs, held regularly in rotating locations throughout Marin and Sonoma counties. Upcoming fairs are planned for Corte Madera (June 6) and Sebastopol (June 14), with others happening later this summer in Marin City (August 15) and Fairfax (September 12).

San Rafael resident Elliott Donlon, a repair fair volunteer since 2022, will teach a pair of soldering workshops in June and July. They’re designed to equip novices with skills to repair and replace electrical components, particularly on circuit boards in misbehaving small appliances like toasters, blenders, televisions, and monitors.

“I’m a mechanical engineer, so I diagnose these sorts of things every day, pretty much all day,” Donlon said. “The people that come through the door might have very limited experience with that, so coaching them through the process of what to look for, or why I’m thinking of a particular thing as a solution is, I think, really helpful to them.”

Donlon’s “Soldering 101: Electrical Connections” workshops on June 20 and July 25 will begin with the very basics: when and when not to use soldering (the process of joining metal components by melting a filler metal called solder, pronounced “sodder”). By the end, participants will practice hands-on repair. 

Joanne Wang, outreach manager for Reuse Alliance, will teach a pair of workshops in early summer inspired by her experience as a working artist. First, on June 27, is “Crochet Fabric Scrap Rugs,” where participants will learn to transform old clothing and textiles into unique “scrap rugs” using cotton yarn and a crochet hook. 

Then, on July 11, Wang will lead “Trash Printmaking,” a workshop teaching “the basics of printmaking using very accessible found materials that are in most of our trash cans,” she said.

Wang’s classes hinge on techniques she’s honed. “I have a background in soft sculpture and fiber art, so a lot of what I teach at the Reuse Hub is inspired by my own art practice of working with materials that are considered waste, and trying to find ways to repurpose them and transform them into art that is unrecognizable as waste,” she said.

A resident of Oakland, Wang primarily works remotely for Reuse Alliance – yet through her occasional visits to town, she’s come to appreciate Petaluma’s thriving yet scrappy art community, she said. “I was surprised to see that there’s definitely an art scene that’s very local to Petaluma. It’s very cool.”

She is, in fact, a part of it now. Thanks to the three “Colander and Cheese Grater Lamp” classes she’s offered in recent months, there are now upcycled, rustic light fixtures casting intricate, holey shadow patterns all over Petaluma.