RODMAN: In this episode of Urban Conversion: Gina's helping to expand my artistic horizons.

I enjoy the process, but the result... As we explore upcycle fashion and art.

You make bikini tops out of tubes?

Sometimes.

We'll be seeing how trash becomes treasure.

I use postconsumer plastic bags... Let our tools do the talking in a live pallet build off.

Using the power tools.

And take the topic to the runway at Palletfest, the largest upcycling event in the U.S. in this Urban Conversion.

GINA: My husband Rodman is passionate about creating new businesses and opportunities, but let's just say he's not too eco-friendly.

RODMAN: My wife Gina, she's amazing, but she can be a little over the top when it comes to going green.

GINA: The sustainability movement is not just a trend.

It's a concept that will impact the future.

RODMAN: I'm not against sustainability.

I just need to understand it first.

Yeah, now we're talking!

So I'm taking myself out of my comfort zone... sometimes to extremes.

Wow.

GINA: And we're making it part of our lives.

(horn honking) RODMAN: Yeah, well, most of it.

GINA: Who knows where it will take us?

Welcome to Michigan, welcome to Detroit, Rodman.

RODMAN: It's all part of making our own "Urban Conversion."

♪ Today we are making some garden signs out of some old wood.

We're gonna sand it, paint it, use it to mark different plants in the garden.

To me, upcycling is using something multiple times to find all the life in it.

One of the great things about being at home is Gina and the kids love doing arts and crafts.

Art for me is just more of that creative wave kind of finds you.

There's something very peaceful in that space.

I love doing it with my children and with Rodman.

What's your favorite part about painting?

It's just like you can just paint and have something.

Do you think it's an outward expression of your inward self?

I dunno.

GINA: I have some canvas out that we might just throw some paint on and see if it takes us anywhere.

Rodman's very creative.

He gets caught up in, 'Does it look good?'

Yes, I am a perfectionist.

But, yes, I am also a very bad painter.

I enjoy the process but the results are not terribly stunning.

Well, Rodman, I was thinking, maybe we could go to the Palletfest.

It's gonna be really cool.

Yeah, that's fine... Palletfest is a celebration of upcycled art.

So I'm gonna take Rodman and see if there's something that intrigues him that maybe he'd want to dive into a little bit more than painting.

I'm glad that you want to go because I've actually signed you up for a fashion show.

Oh, good.

I don't mind watching a fashion show.

No, you're in the fashion show.

What do you think?

You're in trouble if you're putting a guy like me into the fashion world.

I highly doubt that modeling is his creative outlet but you never know.

He surprises me sometimes.

So can I go see what I'm wearing and then decide if I want to be in it?

No.

It's a surprise.

But you can go meet the artist.

[laughs] I think you're funny, honey.

I think you're a good artist.

There's a lot of ways to mass produce fashion.

85 percent of it ends up in the landfill.

15 percent of it gets reused.

Upcycling clothing is taking clothing that is no longer valuable and recreating it into wearable pieces of art.

My approach is to make things that are unique.

It's like a treasure hunt, digging through the thrift store, garage sales.

I'm always looking.

The Palletfest fashion show is going to feature unconventional materials that you would never think about wearing until you see them on the catwalk.

RODMAN: So I'm driving over to Boulder to meet Elena.

I pull up to this place and I'm really confused, because all I see are bikes and bike parts.

But this is the address she gave me.

ELENA: We're at the Cruiser Boutique which is a bike shop here in Boulder, Colorado.

Having Rodman come down here today to help me dig through some tubes and old bicycle parts.

You're my fashion designer?

I am.

Well I am a little confused, 'cause this is a bike shop.

Right, well, I don't use conventional materials.

So you're gonna make me an outfit out of bike parts?

Yes.

Don't know how you're gonna do that.

Well, I can't wait to show you.

I'm a little bit nervous.

Come over here and dig through this pile.

So this one has a lot of patches on it.

I probably won't use that.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Well isn't that in?

Kinda the worn look?

Kind of, but that's a little too worn for me.

So far I don't know how this is gonna look on me.

I do wear a lot of black, though, so.

Yeah, it looks like your color.

Rodman seems a little bit concerned about how dirty things are.

Does this smell?

They're not gonna be like that.

I wash 'em.

You wash the tubes?

Yeah, of course.

Man, I tell you what.

I don't know if this is something I can wear to the office or not.

Probably not.

Next is parts.

Oh, geez.

Metal chains and all kinds of stuff.

She's kind of got her craft down where she's looking for a particular thing and she's getting what she wants.

Look at all this cool stuff.

Yeah, cool stuff if you're fixing a bike.

Well these are actually parts that can't be reused.

So I'm gonna reuse them.

I'm gonna be using it for bling.

It's like no bling that I've ever seen before.

I'll tell you what, I have never, ever worn sprockets.

I use that to embellish or decorate.

When I'm looking through the gears, I like the patina.

You're not gonna tell me anything about this outfit yet, are you?

[laughs] No.

What Rodman is gonna be wearing is a surprise.

Chains, more gears.

Chains, I can see wearing those, be a little like Mr. T. With bicycle chains, I really just don't like them to be very rusty.

I'm glad you're a visionary, because I don't know what the heck you're gonna do with all this stuff.

I'm gonna head back to my studio.

I guess I'm gonna be fashion designer for a day.

Assistant fashion designer.

Oh, okay, I'll be assistant.

I'll start there and work my way up.

So can I just drop these tires right here?

Yep, just drop them down.

RODMAN: First thing we need to do is get a pair of scissors and cut these things open.

We just want to cut that plug off.

Okay.

We're gonna use it, but I don't know for what yet.

The plug?

You're gonna use this plug?

I think so.

I'm not sure for what yet.

Okay.

I just pick a line and follow it.

Yeah.

There's like those ridges on it.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

All a sudden, these tubes open up like a material or a fabric.

How many tubes do you think you go through?

Just depends.

A bikini top or a bra, those don't take very many tubes.

And then sometimes I make- You make bikini tops out of tubes?

Sometimes.

RODMAN: We take these tubes, we put 'em in the bucket and start to scrub them down, wash 'em.

When we were back at the bike shop, I couldn't imagine how these tires were gonna work for anything.

But after you cut them open, you can see how these would work as a potential fabric.

It actually feels softer than I thought they were gonna feel.

Um-hum.

When they're in the tire, they just feel like hard rubber.

But this is a lot softer.

Rodman seems to be catching on really well.

Alright, so we'll just hang these up and go start working with the other ones?

Yeah, I usually just lay 'em out.

Lay 'em out.

Lay 'em out and let them dry in the sun.

I'm gonna show him how we're piecing them together so that I can have larger pieces of the rubber to cut from.

What's the whole idea, you're gonna try to make a swatch of fabric out of it?

Kind of.

Do you sew those one at a time?

Yep.

So we sit down at the sewing machine and we take these tubes, and we start stitching them together.

[sewing machine rattles] Now I'm just gonna piece it together to make one big piece of rubber fabric.

And then we'll cut it out.

We were able to take these things, put them together 'til you get a wider and wider piece that you can make garments out of.

It was no different than sewing any kind of fabric.

This is just two tubes.

Uh-huh.

How many tubes is it gonna take for my "garment?"

20.

I better start losing some weight I guess.

[laughs] The next thing she wanted to show me was how to make this garment bling.

Take the needle and poke it through the holes.

Uh-huh.

RODMAN: She shows me the first couple.

Running the needle through, putting the sprocket on.

Says, "Hey, do you want to take a shot at this?"

Straight to the hole.

I think I've got this down.

Rodman could definitely use a little practice.

Mmm, not through this hole.

I got about 10 or 15 minutes into the project and -- Oh, you have a big problem!

Oh, no!

Oh, this is not good.

ELENA: He accidentally sewed his pants onto the belt.

I think I'm gonna let her finish sewing it up.

I want you to make me look good in my tire outfit.

[laughs] I'll do my best.

When I finish a piece I just get really happy.

That looks good... That's cool.

Rodman's getting very curious about what he's wearing.

RODMAN: I've seen a lot of what she's done, and I think it's kind of different.

It's kind of neat to see the process.

Can I see my outfit?

It's not gonna be done today.

It'll be a surprise.

It'll probably be a big surprise.

Can't wait 'til he wears it in the Palletfest fashion show.

Yes, excited, nervous, absolutely.

If you can make a wine rack or a table or even an entire house out of these, why not a whole festival?

RODMAN: We're walking into Palletfest and this place is just jamming.

There's music, there's artists.

There's millions of ideas out there, there's millions of people that are utilizing waste material to create art or items of functionality.

Palletfest is the ultimate upcycle event.

It's a festival based around what you can do with waste materials, primarily the pallet.

Upcycling is the process of taking a waste item that has no value, and using it to create something new, either artistic, or functional, of greater value than its original purpose.

What we need to do is take this movement out from underground and introduce it to the masses, and turn the upcycle movement into the next green industry.

This is one of those rare opportunities that people can come, have a great weekend out, but actually leave inspired.

And once they stop and think before they throw something away and say, "Well, what can I do with this?"

then we're changing the world.

I use postconsumer plastic bags and I fuse them together into a fabric, then I cut that fabric, sew that fabric, glue that fabric into purses, handbags, the ball gown.

There's these beautiful colors, wonderful fonts and lettering that are just getting thrown away.

I've done about 50,000 bags recycled, just me.

RODMAN: There were hundreds of bags in this booth, and they're all being used for art.

It's so creative.

How'd you make that?

It's just with an iron.

I attached it here.

I can sew it with a sewing machine so that it keeps the edges strong.

I sort the bags and I lay that flat, and it's several layers, and then I fuse it.

I have a whole bunch of these under my kitchen sink right now.

Most people have a closet full of guilt somewhere or a drawer full of guilt or...

This turned into this.

They're taking these shopping bags and saving them from the landfill and putting them to use.

MAN: I do an interesting form of artwork where I use just a magnifying glass.

I think of it as a traveler's paintbrush, because you can grab and go, you can paint at the top of a mountain if you want, you can paint by a river.

Can you think of a more low impact medium than solar art?

He's doing this beautiful artwork and I'm like, man, I can do that.

So I pulled out the magnifying glass, barely write my name in the wood.

MICHAEL: Everything is either found in the garbage, found rotting on the side of a street, all recycled material.

The compost of a previous society, where we would call trash, we would call waste, is the only way to grow a fertile ground.

Sustainability is knowing that eventually, something will give its life for you.

So we have to give back.

We have to make purpose and make things grow again.

Plant seeds of culture, of language, of respect.

Upcycling, down cycling, cycle to the left and right.

It's a cycle, that's the point.

They're taking these old tires and using the actual rubber to make the soles on these shoes.

VALENTINO: My grandfather used to say, "I always wear good shoes.

It says on the bottom, look, Good, Good Year."

'Cause that's how he taught me, making recycled shoes out of car tires.

The soles, 70 percent tire and 30 percent deerskin, moose skin.

That is vintage.

Animals died 20, 30 years ago and we go to antique shops and find the skins and make them into something purpose.

GINA: There's just such intention in everything they do.

These ceremonial blouses are telling a story of a women's life.

The Tz'utujil and Kaqchikel Maya, which are the preexisting people of Guatemala.

Three outfits in your life.

One for when you become a woman at 15, one when you get married, and then one when you're old age.

Every single fabric, it's written in the history of that village.

Oh, this is when we had a good rain, or this is when we had a war, or this is when we had a birth.

And so that's what you see, is colors, our history.

They usually burn these, ceremonially, because they don't want them to turn into trash.

I negotiated, which is a word that they use for respect.

I could bring value and worth back to these and I can make them into shoes, into bags, into whatever, so your traditions, your family gets to rise up again and again and again.

I'm practicing metal stitching which is to take my object and eclectically knit them back together into structural form.

So this guy's art, he takes old aluminum cans and tops of bottles and he makes flowers and art that would look pretty cool in your garden.

Transformation is the process in which I'm teaching.

What it could be, not what it is.

I had several missions where they asked me to make large scale sculpture set out of items that wouldn't be stolen.

Where it has no value to be salvaged.

Only the aesthetic or artistic value of the things I found in the street reeee-formulated into something that is perceived value, like you're seeing now.

For you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I'm sure that flower will look fantastic in Gina's garden.

We use bike tubes, climbing rope, camping tents, wetsuits, billboard banners, and we make backpacks, bike bags, wallets, accessories.

We're trying to take our love for being outdoors, getting on our bikes, but not letting our gear end up in the landfill.

And just turning it into something new so that it can go out for another adventure.

They had a bicycle powering a sewing machine.

A heavy duty sewing machine.

Rodman gets on the bicycle and the women starts making a wallet out of bicycle tires.

Rodman-powered appliances.

That is a real bad idea.

BeadforLife is a nonprofit that helps women living in Uganda to become entrepreneurs, and they earn income by making jewelry made out of paper that's rolled into small beads.

These beads were beautiful colors from turquoise to red, deep earth tones, and they were just made out of paper.

You would think that they're a gemstone or wood or something else, but they're actually paper.

DEVIN: Not only is it diverting waste, but it's also helping women change their lives.

Gives them money from the bead production, but then our goal is really to graduate out of our program having learned the skills that they need to start small businesses.

From the proceeds of that, they're able to lift their families out of poverty.

I'm really amazed.

I had no idea there were so many things that you could do with so many different materials.

These are true artists.

This is a great event.

Thank you, I'm really excited you guys made it out this weekend.

Gina and I got to meet with Kenny Fisher.

This guy's got a great vision for what he wants and making such an incredible event out of this.

Do you think that, I don't know, that we can do to maybe help you out?

Um, that's what I wanted to hear.

One of the more exciting elements of Palletfest is our upcycle build-off competition.

And seeing what you guys can create out of these pallets.

Well let's uh, let's get to work.

Yeah, I'm gonna get you guys suited up, get you some gloves, and I hope you're ready for this.

We've got three teams this year.

All three teams are creating something uniquely different from one another.

Rodman and Gina are gonna have an opportunity to participate with that.

Really experience what dismantling a pallet is like, and then finding out the potential while working with these teams of what a wooden pallet can be turned into.

Keith put us on two different pallet building teams.

I'm on Team Orange, and Gina's on Team Red.

We're building a pallet swing, similar to a tire swing, but it's gonna be all made out of pallets, and we're also building a teeter-totter.

We're making this Colorado long ago versus Colorado today piece of art.

We're doing a representation of Denver through its birth and through its progressions.

Right now, we're tearing the pallets apart, taking nails out.

We're laying out the overall diagram.

GINA: I love our team.

They are extremely planned and organized.

We worked on some detail drawings, figuring out what goes where, what sequencing how we're gonna do it, and structurally why they need to be there.

Generally, in upcycling and reusing materials, wood is good, metal's bad.

All the metal, all the steel has to come out.

That's gonna tear up all of our tools.

That is the back breaking part.

Then we reassemble.

The stuff with the most structural integrity are the interior pieces.

That is the thicker piece we're gonna break apart, kind of the exterior surfaces of those, and then we glue those back together and nail them, screw them, whatever it takes.

GINA: I think these are the ones that you guys want, right?

These middle ones?

JEREMY: Gina is amazing.

Not only is she a workhorse, she has been just doing every task that we've asked of her.

We're gonna start constructing things here shortly and hopefully by this afternoon we'll either have a seesaw or a tire swing to use.

ANDREW: We're gonna be laying the pallet pieces out and cutting out the diagram of the United States.

RODMAN: We got our foundation laid.

We're trying to plan it out, make sure that we're all on the same page when we start to bring out the buildings and make this thing 3D.

You're working with shipping pallets.

There's nothing consistent, so when we get into the situation, you got to get together, you got to do planning.

If we get to this first, we can fit the scale of it.

ANDREW: We want to add drama to the piece, so that's what the painting's for.

We have a couple people building separate components and hopefully we can puzzle everything together.

[power saw screams] Rodman -- Been doing a lot of selfies.

Other than that, he's doing alright.

We've been breaking up pallets all morning.

It's exhausting, I'm sweating.

The girls are starting to call me 'Butterfly.'

He had um, shape of a butterfly here so we gave him a nickname of 'Butterfly.'

Butterfly?

I like that.

I learned how to use some power tools today.

Circular saw and a power nail gun.

Little scary to use.

I think my favorite thing today, finishing one section of the project all by myself, feeling like I'm actually contributing something.

Alright!

Using the power tools.

Right now we are building the base layers to what's ultimately gonna be a tire swing.

We have just assembled half of our swing walls.

After this is done, we should be in good shape.

Tie in here to here, and then nail those, nail in the center, and nail up top.

They're really focusing on the foundation to make sure it's really strong, so when people use it, it can withstand it.

Things start out really slow.

I mean, we're tearing these pallets apart and all of a sudden we get this framework into place and we're building skyscrapers.

This thing's really coming together.

ANDREW: We're working on Denver Art Museum right now.

Our central piece to tie everything together.

Now we're gonna introduce a teepee so we can bring that heritage in, and then we're also going to integrate a gold mining cart.

We're gonna have little gold nuggets made up.

We're gonna introduce some paint for character, but we're trying to keep that to a minimum.

GINA: The seesaw is coming together.

We just put in the crossbar, and that is what the seesaw is gonna rotate on, as well as the tire swing supports.

Those are up, so that's coming together as well.

It went from all of these different pieces to now we're starting to see the form of the structures that we're trying to build.

[nail gun fires] That was a good, cool breeze.

RODMAN: We've got gold, we got teepees, we got railroad tracks.

Our project is finally coming to life.

This is the big last push.

We have to put the seats on the swing that we're doing.

We've created this really structural beam that's gonna support the body weight, and the tension that's gonna happen on the swing.

GINA: We put the seesaw together.

It's actually working.

I tried it out myself, and nothing fell apart on us.

It's good.

We're happy to be finished.

It's hot out here.

And everything that we built rocks.

People are using it, it works.

JEREMY: It's been fun watching us try these things out and watching people that didn't have a hand in building it coming on and then trying it.

The smiles just kind of come out and that's the ultimate goal.

That's what we're shooting for.

I think I got placed with the right team.

The community aspect of this project was probably my favorite part of the whole day.

And...BREAK!

Is there more pallet making in my future?

Maybe.

Probably not.

It does inspire me to look around my house and make use out of the things that I would probably just throw away.

Everybody moved exactly how they needed to move.

As you can see behind me, we were able to finish what we wanted.

[cheering] RODMAN: This entire project represents what Denver was and now what it is.

So it's kind of really neat to see the progression and bringing it out through pallet art.

ANDREW: As you look to the left, you start out with the goldmine, branches into the teepee, which was huge with the culture at the time, and that farther trances into the architecture.

We have the Denver Art Museum, and the teepee, and a goldmine actually become part of the architecture and creates a full circle.

And then as the Denver Art Museum goes off to the edge, it's the farther progression for the future of Denver.

We used paint to interpret as metal, give it a little bit of sparkle.

We did that same thing on the Denver Art Museum.

There's tons upon tons of pallets making into our landfills.

The percentage that we've used is wonderful and now it's an eye piece for the public.

I'm really glad to be done here.

I think we nailed this project.

We took a bunch of stuff that was nothing.

It was just old shipping pallets and we made it something cool.

We made it something beautiful.

We made it art.

But I got a fashion show to be in tonight.

I'm gonna get my outfit and I'm gonna go hit the runway.

Elena!

Rodman!

Hi!

How are you doing?

Awesome.

You got my goods?

Sure do.

Oh, man.

Look at that cool shirt and my nice looking... dress.

Kilt.

Kilt!

That's cool.

Look at that.

Like the pockets?

I love the pockets.

It's a pocket with a sprocket.

Let's go get this thing on and get going.

I remember sitting there pulling the bike tires out of this big ol' pile, and now we've got this incredible kilt.

I'm loving this thing.

I'm gonna be proud to represent this on the runway.

There's a huge line of models here.

They've all got their sustainable clothes on made out of everything.

Recycled bottle caps, fabrics.

This is a recycled bedspread.

Someone laid on this once.

RODMAN: The best advice I got all night was just to relax, be myself, and go out there and have some fun.

Alright, let's queue up the music and get this show started.

I'm a little bit nervous, but you know what, it's show time which means it go time.

GINA: I'm amazed that everything that we're seeing is made from clothing that would've went to a landfill, but someone saved and they used it to make something beautiful.

Rodman is just about to go on stage.

I'm nervous for him because he's never done this.

I'm looking out, there's all these people, they're all cheering.

It's kind of this energy rush.

I'm just gonna go out there and strike a pose.

Here's the thing with the pose.

When you get up there, you got to take your fists, and you got to put them behind the biceps.

GINA: I think he likes it.

I think he likes it a little too much.

I might lose him to New York.

I don't know, we'll see.

RODMAN: There's so much garbage, so much waste, that people are upcycling.

They're making so many different things out of stuff that you would never imagine could be cool.

And you know what?

It is cool.

Seeing what these guys are doing and seeing what's possible, I'm really excited to get home and see if I can do a few of these things myself.

GINA: Rodman's just getting off the stage and I definitely want to go and give him a hug.

I'm just jacked that he got up there and did so well.

That was awesome.

I think I've got a career in fashion.

Alright, let's move on.

Let's move on.

Who won the pallet build?

Well, not you.

Not you?

Not me.

Actually Team Three.

Team Three?

They did a shark.

I didn't even know there was a Team Three.

Yes.

Well, alright, participation awards.

Learning how to make my own urban conversion has me all over the map.

Cars that run on hydrogen gas or veggie oil?

Making things at home that you can just buy at the store?

Chickens, goats, and bees in your backyard?

It all sounded pretty crazy at first, but the more I explore the sustainability movement, the more fun I have.

Come along with me as my family and I figure out what will work in our household.

It's all a part of making our own Urban Conversion.

♪ ♪ Sustainability is a huge topic.

On urbanconversion.com we cover it all.

We bring you news, how-to, the quick tips for going green and much more.

My education may start on the show, but it continues at urbanconversion.com.

Full seasons of Urban Conversion are available on DVD for 20 dollars.

Follow Rodman and Gina as they explore the sustainability movement through unscripted fun with education as the goal.

To order, please visit urbanconversion.com.