'The WasteShed' Art Store, Selling Recycled Supplies For Less, Opens Second Location In Evanston

CHICAGO (CBS) – Art supplies at an affordable price and it helps protect the environment.

CBS 2's Jim Williams tells us about a store that just opened its second location in the Chicago area welcomed by artists and teachers alike.

What we might see as trash ready to be hauled away.

"Somebody just put them out on the curb."

Eleanor Ray sees a world of creative possibilities.

Jim: All of this material had been discarded?

Eleanor: It had all been thrown out.

Craft felt once thrown out is now part of this work of art -- Eleanor's own creation -- hanging at her store.

"We are a thrift store for supplies, school supplies creative materials of all kinds and supplies for art and education."

A store she calls The WasteShed.

"Clay and easels and craft paint, nicer paint, printmaking supplies."

Art supplies, many of them recycled and reused, selling for a fraction of what you'd spend at retail stores.

"We provide the link between, you know, materials that are just sitting around and not be used and people who will use them to do good stuff," Eleanor said.

This store in Evanston just opened over the weekend. It is the second WasteShed location. Eleanor's Humboldt Park shop has been around for seven years.

Artist Hahn Ray -- no relation to Eleanor -- once a customer, now an employee here.

"An oasis of art supplies and creative reuse was something that was really big to me," Hahn said.

This section here is free to all educators. Eleanor points out grade school and high school teachers often spend money out of their own pockets and that can be very expensive.

"The average teacher spends $500 a year out of pocket on materials so we're trying to help them offset that cost and find sort of unusual and interesting and sort of unique materials they might not be able to get in other places."

A marriage of art and conservation.

"It's immensely gratifying. the community that we built in Humboldt Park has been absolutely

terrific and we're really looking forward to establishing a similar community in Evanston," Eleanor said.

The store also accepts donations of art supplies and materials used to make art.