Arrow Creative Reuse, Springfield art store, to open in December

Bundles of yarn representing every color of the rainbow line the walls from floor to ceiling. Collections of baby doll arms and heads sit in woven baskets. A handwritten sign that reads, “Haggling Welcome” sits on the front counter. These details make up the interior of a new arts and crafts thrift store opening in mid-December.

Arrow Creative Reuse is located at 1506 E. Saint Louis St. The resale shop will provide both new and secondhand art materials at a reduced price, ranging from colored pencils and paint brushes to box turtle shells and projector slides for more elaborate projects.

Evening workshops will also be held at Arrow Creative Reuse. Owner Re Baker-Dietz anticipates these workshops will be intimate, with about five to six people learning how to use materials found in the shop.

Baker-Dietz is a Springfield native and artist, specializing in encaustic painting, which entails adding colored pigments to heated wax. She has fond memories of visiting the The Etc. Center on Florence Avenue with her mother, who was an art teacher, growing up. Baker-Dietz described The Etc. Center, which has since closed, as a “teacher treasure trove,” full of donated art supplies.

“There was so much to look at and touch and think about, and I want (Arrow Creative Reuse) to be kind of similar,” Baker-Dietz said.

She also took inspiration from well-established art resale shops, including ScrapsKC Creative Reuse Center in Kansas City and Turnip Green Creative Reuse in Nashville. These resale shops are a part of the Creative Reuse Movement.

“It’s all about keeping things out of the landfill and putting them in the hands of people who will do creative different things with them,” Baker-Dietz said.