Couple turn aluminium caps into upcycled accessories

Fashion statement: Mojinun and Chan want to expand their upcycling venture.

KOTA KINABALU: A display of upcycled accessories and items like clutches and handbags caught the attention of quite a few visitors during a creative arts exhibition at the Sabah International Convention Centre here recently.

People were quite curious about the items, which were made mainly from parts of aluminium cans.

They were the efforts of newlyweds Calvin Patrick Mojinun, 33, and Cheryl Joanne Chan, 34.

"I started crafting and upcycling in 2012, but only in recent years did I get more serious about this field. However, the main challenge is to have a stable supply of materials," said Mojinun.

The idea of turning can caps into something usable came after a family trip with his late father and siblings to the Philippines, where he saw beautiful upcycled items for sale.

"So I thought, these products are actually good. I should bring such concepts home and try out the market here," he said.

Mojinun said his love for arts and craft was also built up over the years as he always followed his father when he went to villages and districts around Sabah for work.

He also attributed his creative skills to his genes as his grandmother, Mailis Jounin, 81, and late mother, Irene Lawrence, also made items such as bamboo bags and beadwork.

Unfortunately, the idea of upcycling and recycling has not appealed much to Sabahans, probably due to a lack of understanding and awareness of the importance of sustainable fashion, he said.

"In fact, people were not willing to pay for what they deemed to be trash. People did not even want to donate or sell us materials we needed, such as can caps, saying it was too much work to get them off the cans, or that they did not see any monetary returns for themselves," Mojinun told The Star.

Meanwhile, Chan always gave ideas on how they could do something better and searched for ways to collect the materials.

She is also in charge of marketing and brainstorming, while her husband does most of the knitting and sewing.

"My husband can take days and sometimes weeks to complete one item, especially new designs, which he does on a trial-and-error basis," she said, adding that she often had to force him to take breaks.

Mojinun had earlier explained that prior to making a product, they must first search for and gather as many can caps as possible.

Then, they have to manually separate the caps from the cans, clean them and smooth them out to remove sharp edges.

This is done manually using their fingers, which often results in cuts from the sharp edges.

"We cannot allow our customers to get injured by our products, so we must make sure that the components are properly checked before we even make anything," he said.

For now, although the market for upcycled items is still new and small in Sabah, the couple have confidence that, in due course, things will change for the better.

They intend to market their products through social media platforms such as Facebook (live2learnideas), noting that acceptance for such products is much higher outside of Sabah.

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