One of the big components of next month's Maker Faire Austin festival is the Swap-O-Rama-Rama, an enormous clothing swap and DIY workshop series. Through the recycling and repurposing of used clothing, Swap-O-Rama-Rama seeks to explore the benefits of community reuse and creativity.

During the festival, you'll be able to bring your own bag of unwanted clothing to be added to the collective pile; in turn, you're invited to take away as much as you'd like. Anything that's left over will be donated to Goodwill. There's also a fashion show scheduled for the Saturday evening of the festival—the current list of designers includes Tina Sparkles (of Austin Craft Mafia, Stitch, and Sparkle Craft fame) and Project Runway winner Chloe Dao.

But if you'd like to delve a little deeper and get intimately involved with the project planning, they're now looking for artists and creatives of all types (and experience levels) to serve as staffers.

Projects and folks they're looking for include artist-taught DIY workshops, designer-run sewing stations, silk screening, reuse designers for a recycled fashion show, sorters (get first dibs on clothes) and general help.

DIY Workshops: If you have a unique skill that transforms would be trash into a wearable item (clothing/jewelry/handbag/etc), please consider bringing this to Swap-O-Rama-Rama in the form of a DIY workshop.

Sewing Station/Fashion Show: If you're a whiz behind a sewing machine and work with reuse, consider being a Swap-O-Rama-Rama designer, helping people learn how to mod the used clothing they find at the swap. And join the Swap-O-Rama-Rama fashion show and show off your creations.

Silk Screen Crew: If your a silk screener and would like to join the silk screening crew, offering your fresh designs to bring used clothes back to life, please get in touch!

Swap-O-Rama-Rama creator Wendy Tremayne explains the thought process behind this "creative reuse" event:

As we learn about materials and their origins inevitably we're exposed to the many injustices inherent in our modern means of production. Child labor, harmful synthetic materials and gross wasting of resources are just a few blaring problems in what is today the standard means of production. As our ignorance shatters and our hearts open we become the inheritors of something of real value, responsibility. It logically follows that we must insist that these systems change. With the burden of knowledge comes the promise of meaning if we are willing to do the work. As we make (rather than buy) the objects that surround us the world we live in our lives transforms into lives steeped in meaning. In essence, we create the sacred from the ashes of the commodified.

If you're interested, email Wendy.

[Swap-O-Rama-Rama at Maker Faire Bay Area]
[Swap-O-Rama-Rama Homepage]

[Maker Faire Official Website]

Maker Faire: Build, craft, hack, play, MAKE.
Saturday, October 20th 11-5pm
Sunday, October 21 11-4pm
Travis County Fairgrounds

Photo from Swap-O-Rama-Rama website