ART and design students at Ludlow College are taking recycling to a new level, thanks to a new project.

The youngsters are working on a “funky furniture” project with the South Shropshire Furniture Scheme and Ludlow 21 – following on from the success of the “funky chairs” project last year.

Graeme Perks, from Skillbuilders, has joined the project this year to help give students the expertise to deconstruct and reconstruct the furniture without affecting its integrity.

The project aims to move beyond simply recycling. Instead, it seeks to achieve “up-cycling”. This takes recycling to a new level – giving the furniture a new lease of life by creating innovative and contemporary pieces.

These will be sold through Reviive in Shrewsbury, a partnership between the South Shropshire Furniture Scheme and Shropshire Housing Alliance.

Instead of chucking away something that is no longer wanted, up-cycling gives items a new purpose and actually increases their value.

It could involve taking a piece of furniture that has become dilapidated and improving it so that it is not only restored to its original condition, but made even better. “The students and Helen Cass from Ludlow College are great partners. There is nothing like the power of student brains to help you see the world in a different way,” said Peter Sams, of Ludlow 21. For Graeme Perks and SkillBuilders, the work at Ludlow College is another part of the jigsaw of helping to train a new generation of craftsmen and women in south Shropshire.

He is a passionate believer that there is an alternative path for many young people who are gifted but not suited to an academic education – which, in any event, does not necessarily lead to satisfactory employment.

Graeme, a craftsman trained at the London School of Furniture, believes that more people should be helped to consider a career working with their hands, which can lead either to a job or self-employment.

He is trying to secure accommodation and funding to start a ‘timber academy’ in Ludlow that would have links to the South Shropshire Furniture Scheme.

The idea would be that young people would get practical training in woodworking, which may be linked to a college course.

Good quality objects such as garden furniture would be produced at the academy and then marketed and sold, adding another dimension to the training and thereby helping students to prepare for a career running their own business.