Episode 12 Money for Nothing

-Can I have a little rummage around in your rubbish?

-Yeah.

-How do you make money for nothing?

-I love that!

The answer could be hiding in the 30 million tonnes of household waste

-we throw out every year.

-So heavy.

They don't make them like this any more. Look at that.

That's why entrepreneur Sarah Moore

wants to get her hands on things before they hit the skip.

I'm a passionate maker, buyer and user of old stuff

and I've turned that passion into a money-making business.

I make new stuff out of old stuff and I sell it for a profit.

And with some of the country's elite designers and makers...

-Say something nice about it.

-My juices are flowing in this one.

They are going to be "wow".

..she can transform her finds into desirable...

Isn't that stunning?

-..valuable...

-Oh, wow!

-..and, hopefully, saleable items.

-That is bonkers!

If Sarah is successful, then she can hand the profits back

to the very people who had no idea

there was cash to be made from their trash.

-You've got £350.

-No!

Today, Sarah is in Surrey, searching the Whitley Recycling Centre.

Today, I'm after those little gems that, once transformed,

can make some cold, hard cash.

The goal for Sarah is to find three items

that can go from unwanted and unloved

to polished and profitable.

I'm doing this...

You look up there and make sure I'm not missing anything.

Not just anyone can hang about the dump.

Sarah needed special permission from the dump owners

before she could start poking about.

Any minute now, it's going to be completely...

Oh, no, it's even worse.

Thankfully, she doesn't have to rely on her puzzle-solving skills

to spot Keith and his car full of rubbish.

-Hi, there. I'm sorry to bother you.

-Go on.

I was just looking at the contents of your boot. What are you doing?

-Are you clearing out?

-Yes.

-What are the sacks?

-What are all these for?

-It's hessian.

Would it be possible to have a closer look at some of them?

If they're whole, I might be able to do something with them.

-All right.

-If you don't mind.

-So, you do things with things then?

-Yeah.

-If you know what I mean.

-That's a very good description of it.

I try and make stuff out of things that are going to be thrown away.

But can Sarah make anything out of Keith's old hessian sacks?

Hessian is a coarse material made from the hemp or jute plant,

popular in the past for making rope, as well as storing vegetables,

-such as potatoes and onions.

-I love these.

It reminds me of the sack race when I was little.

I'll have to think of something inventive to do with them though.

-She's going back a few years.

-That's rude!

Ooh, it's just a little bit cheeky, Sarah.

I'm going to take your sack full of sacks

and have a little play around with those.

But what does Keith think will become of his hessian sacks?

I've got no idea, to be honest.

If somebody can find a use for things like that,

which you don't see any more, it's brilliant.

I know they look really rustic

but they'd make some really simple tote bags, wouldn't they?

Something like that?

Well, they can't get much simpler than they are just now,

but Sarah knows one designer who can turn them from rags to riches.

When you think bags, think Neil Wragg.

From salvaged and unwanted materials,

Neil creates everything from handbags to haversacks

and prides himself on the fact his bespoke bags will last a lifetime.

I love being able to create something

from what would be rubbish, I suppose, to other people.

You could have, for example, a tent that was at Glastonbury

and saw the Rolling Stones and then now it becomes a bag

and it's seen quite a life already.

Everything here has got a personality.

All the bags have lived a life

and they're now about to live a second life.

So, let's hope Neil can breathe new life

into that pile of unpromising hessian.

One down and two to go and Sarah, as ever, is discovering some gems.

-A rubber swan.

-A rubber swan.

You never know when you need a rubber swan, do you?

Well, I suppose that's true, you don't.

Luckily, it's not long before Sarah spots Harry,

who's cleaning unwanted clutter before moving home.

Been there 20 years,

so it's amazing how much bits and pieces we have collected.

I can imagine. What else are you chucking out? Anything exciting?

-I expect so, yes.

-Is that your card table? Are you throwing it?

-Yeah.

-It's not in very good shape but it's about 80 years old.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Any chance I could have a look at it?

-Yeah, sure.

Bingo! Or should I say yahtzee or pontoon? Anyway, let's take a look.

I think it's lovely. Does it still spring when it opens up?

-So, you just...

-This leg just pulls out, clicks.

When you want to shut it...

I think that I might be able to make something out of that.

-Shall I take away and show you what I've done if I manage to?

-Yeah.

-Where are you moving to? Are you moving far?

-Eastbourne.

Well, maybe I'll take a little trip down to the coast

and show you what I've done with it.

With his card shark days behind him,

what does Harry think Sarah will do with his table?

Well, if anything can be made of it

and sold on to somebody who'll benefit, that's fine.

It's an old card table, 80 years old,

-still in very good condition.

-Is it?

Definitely going to be able to turn a profit on that.

Mmm, looks like a bit of a gamble on the card table to me.

She's going to need a little help to tun it into a winning hand.

Daniel Heath has a passion for all things sustainable.

An award-winning wallpaper and textile designer,

Daniel loves nothing more than adding an artistic flair

to reclaimed materials to create made-to-order furniture

and contemporary design pieces.

My imagery that I've developed for my prints

is usually quite illustrative.

I really enjoy drawing and then I have to draw and develop it

into something that can be used for a textile or for wallpaper.

Screen printing onto salvaged material such as wood,

slate and leather as well, sometimes.

And it's actually meant that I've been able to take my imagery

and put it on all sorts of different things

and it's been really good fun doing that.

I just hope he can get as much enjoyment

out of this currently tatty card table.

We're two down and one to go.

This time, Sarah's searching for her own money-making magic.

Fantastic what we do these days. We even recycle pets.

Maybe stick to the searching, Sarah.

Soon enough, Pauline and daughter Samantha have appeared with...

..a boot load of old apples. Well, I wasn't expecting THAT!

-Hello. Hi, I'm Sarah.

-Hello.

-Don't throw them, don't throw them.

-Are you sure?

-Put them back in the car a second.

You've got quite a few there.

Made about 30 apple pies so far out of them.

-You have crumble coming out...

-And I can't take any more.

-Is it torture by apple?

-Yes, torture by apple.

I'm looking for things that I can recycle and I'm thinking...

I don't know if apples are in my remit. I'm a trained chef.

-Oh, well..

-I spent ten years cooking, so I can cook.

-There you are.

-I'm just wondering about making cider.

-Have you ever had them pressed before?

-Yes.

We have had them pressed and we wanted to do that this morning

but because we've got somebody at home that's not very well,

we can't leave him and we don't... We just can't... We need some help.

-Well, I'll go and get a trolley.

-Right.

And these will be one of my more unusual items of the day.

With Sarah's skills as a chef,

she should be able to take advantage of this unexpected bounty

and I've got one or two ideas.

How about apple strudel, apple crumble, apple muffins,

apple surprise, apple cake...

So that must be one of the most unusual things

that you get at a recycling centre,

so thank you ever so much for letting me have them.

-No problem.

-Thank you so much.

Have a good day and I hope your papa gets better.

-Have one on us.

-Thank you.

-Good luck.

-There might be more than one.

-..apple sauce, apple fritters,

apple chutney, apple turnovers...

I could go on but it's not all about me.

What do Pauline and Samantha think Sarah could do

with their boot full of fruit?

To make some cider out of them would be fantastic.

They're not in great nick, so I'm thinking that pressing them

either for juice, possibly cider, or maybe even cutting them up

and making some chutney out of them. Who knows?

But whatever it is, there's heaps of apples here

and that can be heaps of money.

Heaps of money from a heap of rotting apples.

Well, good luck with that one. And that makes up her three items.

Neil Wragg will work on Keith's raggedy pile of sacks,

Daniel Heath will turn his hand to Harry's card table

and Sarah will press as much profit as possible

from Pauline and Samantha's apples.

Today's eclectic collection of items

provides just the kind of challenge I love.

But there's going to have to be some really radical changes

to make some real ch-ching.

Walthamstow, East London, a busy urban area

where plenty of artists and designers ply their trade.

Daniel Heath is waiting for Sarah's arrival

but he's already got some material in mind he'd like to use.

It's slate that I engrave onto and I think it would be really great

if we can sort of embed that into something.

Hopefully, if there's a wooden surface,

we can do something with that, so we'll see.

Once he sees the card table,

let's hope Daniel still wants to slate it and not just, er, slate it.

If I found this table at a car-boot sale with a £10 price tag on it,

I'd be trying to haggle them down to a fiver,

so it's going to take an absolute genius to turn this

into something beautiful that can actually make a profit.

Fortunately, I know a genius. I just hope he wants to take this on.

-Hiya.

-How you doing?

-Really well, you?

-Yeah, well, thanks.

-I brought you a little gem.

-Right, OK. Let's see what it is.

-Well, card table.

-OK.

-Er, it's seen better days.

-That's a bit gone, isn't it?

-It's got nice legs, though.

I thought it had potential to have something lovely done to it,

-so what do you think?

-Yeah, I think it's great.

It's quite sort of a decadent item to have, isn't it, a card table?

I think we could probably inlay something into the surface.

I was thinking about slate, actually.

That might be quite nice to put in there.

-We've got some etching that we do on slate.

-Look at that.

This is salvaged slate and we engrave onto it.

Daniel will inlay that slate into the top

but what about the rest of the table?

-We'll sand the wood back.

-Right.

But I think we could do something really kind of bold with the colour.

So you're talking a really good game.

It sounds like it's going to be

a beautiful, high-end piece of furniture.

It does, but what's that classy makeover going to cost?

I think we're talking about £300 to £350.

OK, I just can't wait to see it really. I'm excited about it.

-Me too.

-Because it wasn't in a great place.

Daniel's studio is definitely the best place for it,

now a transformation is on the cards.

-Thank you very much. Good luck with it.

-Cheers.

-Bye.

It's quite a big investment to turn it into something beautiful

but I've got every faith in Daniel and making a profit.

And Daniel seems full of big ideas too.

We'll do something really quite striking, quite symmetrical,

I think, geometric, Art Deco influenced.

Really make something of this section

that's kind of carved out from the legs.

Maybe we can put some gold leaf in there or something like that.

Gold leaf? Go easy with that budget, son.

So, will that £350 budget be enough

to turn that old card table into a real ace?

Set on the banks of Old Father Thames,

the pretty Buckinghamshire town of Marlow

has long been the home to creative sorts.

None other than Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein,

once lived here.

And much like that mad scientist, current resident Neil is a dab hand

at stitching together odd bits and bobs to make a whole new creature.

What I tend to do is take any fabrics

that people would be throwing away, that they don't want any more,

so they would end up in landfill.

Anything that basically you can sew, I can make something from.

Anything, Neil? Are you sure about that?

These old sacks have got bags of potential.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

and I'm hoping Neil doesn't mind working with something...

that really smells.

-Oh, not you again! What have you got?

-I've got sacks.

-They are sacks.

-Here, take them.

-Thank you.

-Bags of sacks. What could be better?

-There's how many?

-I think there are about 18.

-OK.

-That was brave.

-Rustic.

They smell, don't they?

-They do, but all my bags have a smell.

-That's reassuring.

Have you ever used sacks before to make bags?

No, it doesn't tend to be the material

that I make the top-end boutique style bags from.

They're agricultural, they're rugged.

There's no disguising that feel, that theme,

so we possibly don't try to hide that.

We stick with the agricultural, um, that kind of feel.

We don't disguise what they were.

Do you think we should make something really agricultural,

like something for the garden out of them?

We add some fabric and turn it into a trug-style bag.

You're in the garden

and you're chucking your weeds and everything in.

Possibly add some leather, um, we make some nice handles.

Neil plans to make them into useful trug-style bags,

used for carrying tools, flowers or veg when gardening.

A traditional garden trug was a boat-shaped basket

carved from a piece of timber,

but these ones are going to be made from smelly old sacks.

How much do you want for that, Neil?

If we've got at least ten of these bags that you would take,

-then we can do them for £12 a bag.

-That sounds great.

£12 a bag is really reasonable. Brilliant. Well, enjoy the sacks.

The deal is in the bag.

Well, that totally exceeds my expectations

of what we might have been able to do with those old garden sacks.

It looks like I just commissioned my first range

of saleable, desirable garden trugs.

It's nice and agricultural.

I haven't seen anything that we're going to make

out there on the streets, so I think this will be something very unique.

A unique agricultural order it is then

but, at a budget of only £12 each,

can he really turn these unwanted sacks

into attractive trug-style bags?

In her farmhouse, in the tranquil Sussex countryside,

Sarah's preparing to host one of her barn sales.

Things are already being set up

but Sarah's got a unique challenge of her own this morning.

Come on.

She's got to turn a profit from a load of old apples.

The plan is to make apple crumble to sell to the visitors.

Right, crumble time.

-Sarah's daughter, Libby, is lending a hand today.

-Let's get started.

And Sarah will need all the help she can get

if she's going to turn the rotting fruit into a saleable treat.

I'm hoping that these apples are going to be lovely inside

but I have a feeling they're all going to be quite brown.

Not that one!

That's fine.

What I'm doing now is just make a puree out of them,

peel them, make sure there's no little bits of core left in them

and then cook them with some sugar and a bit of cinnamon.

Thank you, Nigella. What programme is this again?

I'm going to have my work cut out

getting lots of good apple out of them

cos I think a lot might be a bit rotten.

If you're thinking of starting your own apple crumble business,

there are many food hygiene regulations to comply with.

-Have you washed your paws yet?

-Yeah.

But with ten years of experience as a chef,

our Sarah certainly knows her stuff.

I'm not paying a huge amount of attention here.

I've got way more apple than I need,

so I'm just going to cherry-pick the best bits

and I always use a knife because it's a lot quicker

and when you get to a bit that isn't perfect,

you can just pick it off really quickly.

What I'm going to do is make some crumbles up

in some little enamel tins and then serve some others in teacups

just so people can have a little taster of it.

Although now a British classic,

apple crumble became popular during the Second World War

when the ingredients needed

for the then popular apple pie were rationed.

So, I'm hoping, within about 25 minutes, half an hour,

I could have some crumble ready for the people here at the barn sale,

just in time for lunch. Right.

CLATTERING

Careful, or it'll be less of an apple crumble

and more of an apple splat.

Crisis averted, it's time to rustle up the crumble topping.

To plain flour, Sarah adds sugar.

A lot of sugar.

Oh, crikey, she's used a whole bag.

I hope your customers have got a sweet tooth.

The butter just needs to be rubbed in roughly,

so I'm going to cut it up into little cubes.

When you're making pastry,

you only use the tips of your fingers

cos they're the coldest bit so you need to squeeze that together,

-lift it up and keep rubbing and squeezing.

-OK.

Bet you can't do it for more than 30 seconds. You keep going.

Bet you a million pounds I can.

Sarah's aiming for a breadcrumb-like texture

that will crisp up in the oven.

-Keep going. See, you're bored already aren't you?

-I'm not bored.

You do it like this. Lift it up, drop it down, gently though.

After that's done, time to test the apple puree.

About 15 minutes in the oven. Can I have that spoon? Thank you.

Mmm. Cos they're such lovely ripe apples, they're windfalls...

That tastes all right already. It's hot be careful. What do you think?

-Sugar.

-Even more? Are you sure?

-Better?

-Mmm.

-Yeah.

-Not bad.

Sarah's official taster approves, which is just as well

because hungry visitors to the barn sale are arriving.

Better get those crumbles in the oven.

So far, Sarah's spent £4 on ingredients for those crumbles.

Let's just hope the punters at the sale get a taste for them.

Back in Walthamstow,

Daniel's eager to get started on the ancient card table.

I should, in theory, be able to just pop the top out and, er...

..see what we can do with it.

Daniel gets straight down to dismantling the card table.

He starts by stripping the old wool coverings off the tabletop.

I want to use this board, if possible.

Also, the brackets are riveted onto it.

It's just quite nice not to have to kind of change it, really,

keep as much of the original as possible.

Daniel's now painstakingly sanding the wood top

to give him a stable base to work with.

It just needs a little bit of work. Nearly there.

Go on, son.

Once that laborious process is finished,

Daniel's attention turns to covering the tabletop with salvaged slate.

But first, he has the brain-teasing job

of figuring out how the slate pieces will fit together.

This is the dimension that we've got to work with.

I'm going to draw a pattern.

I want it to be very symmetrical

and made up of different sized pieces of slate.

So, I've just got to work that out.

Creating a template for the slate pieces

is a mathematical and time-consuming job.

-Having worked out the angles, it's time for the next stage.

-So...

You cut the slate by hand. This is the tool.

Which, oddly enough, is called a slate cutter.

I use the corner here to score where I'm going to cut...

..and then I basically chomp along it, along the line,

snapping off the bit of slate that I don't want, hopefully.

Slate is a tricky material, prone to crumbling and splitting,

so Daniel's really got his work cut out

if he's going to achieve the crisp, sophisticated tabletop

Sarah will want.

Back in Marlow, Buckinghamshire,

Neil's just about to get to work on his heap of hessian.

Here are all the sacks.

We've got about 18 sacks.

We're thinking of keeping an outside feel to them

and turning into something like a...

..hessian canvas version of a trug.

So, first thing to do with these is to start with a design process

and work out what we can do with them.

Before that though...

Time to put these in the washing machine, I think.

Quite right. That stinky sack smell's got to go.

And once they're all freshly laundered,

he starts to design the garden trugs he hopes to rustle up.

I think we need to establish a shape.

Neil sketches out his first ideas.

It looks, er, intriguing.

If his design is going to work,

he'll need to combine the hessian sacks with some other materials.

So, if we maybe can do something with these.

That's some reclaimed curtain wire from an old camper van.

Put a tube across around the top, hold it open.

Those will be put to good use giving the trugs a bit of structure.

And Neil's not done there.

He's spotted another salvaged item to add to the mix.

Some tent material.

It's good stuff. Canvas strip along the bottom of the base.

Another canvas strip around the top because the hessian sack,

although it is strong, it's a very loose weave,

so we can't have people putting in their plums

and then seeing them roll across the floor.

With plum security the very highest priority,

Neil applies a mix of paraffin wax and beeswax to the canvas

to make the fabric more durable.

So, the wax will strengthen it and make it sturdy,

so compared to some unwaxed canvas here,

we've got a much stiffer wax and it will be waterproof as well.

To create that stiff waterproof texture he's after,

Neil then irons the material so that the wax impregnates the fabric.

With all the elements in place, Neil stitches it all together.

Well, bag number one, I think the concept is right,

the design is right, the look is right.

It's, er, yeah, it's about there, so that's good.

It's great, but that was just a prototype.

He's still got a pile of sacks to start work on.

Well, the challenge is to make something along the lines

of what's normally made, which is nice-looking bags.

Um, the challenge, at the moment,

is doing it at a price within the budget,

so trying to get something

that's quick and straightforward to make,

however, it obviously can't fall apart.

Neil's got a budget of only £12 per bag

and these trugs seem to need a lot of intricate work.

In Walthamstow, Daniel's back at work on the card table.

He's now ready to cut the slate pieces

which he plans to inlay onto the tabletop.

Today, he'll be cutting his slate alfresco.

Very continental, Daniel.

Improvised outdoor workshop.

Cutting slate makes quite a lot of mess.

I don't really want to do it inside.

Slate can be difficult to cut cleanly,

so he'll have to be careful.

Sometimes the diagonals are a bit tricky, but we'll see.

That's the first piece.

So, I need to do seven more of those, of that shape.

Yeah, actually...

..it's working out all right.

You caught me on a good day, I guess.

Will his luck hold

when he actually tries to fit the big slate jigsaw together?

Quite happy with that, yeah.

Good.

So, next up, is to clean all the slate down,

and then we've got to coat it so the finish is good on it.

The Welsh slate Daniel is using will retain some of its time-worn patina,

even as he gives it a glossier look.

See, it's coming up quite nicely.

Next, he varnishes the slate.

This process seals the slate

and it stops it from crumbling any further

and it also sort of strengthens it

and brings out the grain and gives it a nicer finish.

I'm giving away all my trade secrets. This will be my undoing.

Anybody else does this, the boys are coming round.

But trade secrets or no,

do Daniel's old slates really belong on the sophisticated table

he's promised Sarah?

Back in Sussex, the barn sale is now in full swing,

so it's time for Sarah to take

the first batch of apple crumbles out the oven.

I reckon...they're about done.

That one's done, that one's done.

Mmm, they look great, don't they?

The apples started off as a load of unwanted windfall

cluttering up a garden.

But Sarah's worked her culinary magic...

..and now they're delicious apple crumbles.

Bit of clotted cream from the fridge, I think they're done.

These may have been destined for the dump

but they make cracking crumble.

Mmm.

Sarah came across piles of apples

in the back of Pauline and daughter Samantha's car.

-Don't throw them, don't throw them.

-Are you sure?

They were happy for Sarah to get her culinary mitts

-on their excess garden bounty.

-I'll go and get a trolley.

-Right.

And these will be one of my more unusual items of the day.

At the barn sale,

Sarah's crumbles are on their way to meet the hungry punters.

-Crumble time.

-And soon they're selling like hot, er, crumbles.

Going to charge £3 each for the crumble like this

and maybe put some in teacups later for a couple of quid.

Sarah and daughter Libby managed to make eight apple crumbles

and seven teacup versions.

Good work, ladies.

Now Sarah's near Hambledon in Surrey

to fill Pauline in on what became of her surplus fallen fruits.

-Hi, there.

-Hello, Sarah.

-Lovely to see you again.

-You too.

-A beautiful day, isn't it?

-Absolutely lovely, yeah.

I had so much fun with your apples. We made apple crumbles.

-Oh, well, I'm sure that's wonderful.

-They were really tasty apples.

They made a lovely pulp, so they were great to work with.

I took some pictures of it.

-I'm sure you've made a lot of apple crumble in your time.

-Yes, I have.

It's lovely to see someone else making them.

-Well, we made little ones and we served them in teacups.

-How sweet.

-We made a few bigger ones as well, some little enamel ones.

-Right.

so we did have a bit of fun with them.

I haven't made a fortune out of them for you but I have got £25 here...

-I don't believe it!

-..for you. It was great to have them.

-Oh, thank you so much.

-Any idea what you might do with £25?

Well, it's my grandson's birthday on Friday.

-So maybe I'll give it to him.

-Oh, that's lovely. That's really good.

-Thank you so much for letting me have them.

-Thank you.

Do tell your daughter as well.

I know she was highly involved in this.

Yes, she phoned me last night and she said,

"You have to let me know what happens."

Yes, well, it's apples and thank you so much.

They were great fun to work with and very tasty,

-so I hope he has a good present.

-I'm sure he will, yes.

-Take care.

-Thank you ever so much. Bye.

-Bye.

It was great to catch up with Pauline again

and it sounds like her grandson will be pleased with that windfall.

Sarah spent £4 on the ingredients for her crumbles.

She sold them for a total of £29,

giving her a tasty £25 profit to hand over to Pauline.

In Walthamstow,

Daniel's putting the final shine on the revamped card table.

I'm kind of apprehensive about Sarah arriving

because it is quite out there and it is quite, you know, full-on,

but I hope she's going to like it.

The last time I was here,

I left a really big budget on a very small table,

so I hope Daniel's managed to pull out all the stops

to create something that I can sell for a profit.

When Sarah dropped it off, the old table was torn, tired

and several cards short of a deck.

Now Daniel's worked his magic, its fortunes have changed entirely.

The legs have been revitalised in a rich new palette of purple

with gold leaf detailing.

And the piece de resistance, the salvaged slate,

inlaid in the tabletop, has been engraved

with one of Daniel's signature prints.

It's a striking makeover, but will Sarah think it's saleable?

-Daniel?

-Hello, Sarah, how are you doing?

-Yeah, really well.

-It's, er, it's quite a statement piece.

-It's a man table.

Yeah, it's quite quirky, it's quite fun.

-It's beautiful, what you've done on the top.

-Thank you.

And these little catches have come up...

They look sparkly and really classy, don't they?

-Yeah, they did come up nicely.

-I think it's beautiful.

It feels like you've really crafted it. It...

I sense a lot of effort in making all these pieces fit

and bringing all the pattern together.

Yes, I took some drawings that I had

and adapted them to the shape of the top.

It looks handmade

-and that is a charming thing to see in a piece of furniture.

-Yeah.

Fantastic. And in terms of usability, is it all right...?

If you put a cup of tea down on this, is this usable?

Yes, it would be fine, yeah.

The slate is salvaged slate, so it's come from a rooftop.

It's been up on a roof for 50-odd years,

so it's very hardy stuff.

I love the fact that it's rough and reused, the slate,

but it's got such a fine detail. It's very clever.

Daniel took a creative risk on the bold design,

but the table's a big winner with Sarah.

-This is very recognisable as your kind of piece.

-Yeah.

-I think that will help sell it.

-Yeah, I think so.

I think we'll be looking to find somebody

who maybe has some of my pieces already

and wants something that's completely out there

and completely different to what else is around.

Fantastic. So, you're going to make it AND sell it! Brilliant!

-That's my kind of nose-to-tail designing. Well done!

-Cheers.

I'll tell you where to send the cheque!

Careful, Dan, she'll have you loading it into the van next.

Wow, that is now a work of art, a totally unique piece

created from something that should have ended up in a skip.

Sarah was lucky enough to spot Harry's card table

hiding on his back seat.

-Is that your card table? Are you throwing it?

-Yeah.

-It's not in very good shape. It's about 80 years old.

-Really?

Sarah wasn't put off by its age or condition

and felt it still had a few games left in it.

I think that I might be able to make something out of that.

And Harry was happy to see it moving on.

Well, if anything can be made of it

and sold on to somebody who'll benefit, that's fine.

Under Daniel's creative direction,

it became something truly unique and spectacular.

Keen to showcase the table in all its glory,

Sarah hosted a pop-up shop in her barn and put it out on sale.

-What is it? Slate?

-Yes. It's etched.

People were drawn to the interesting tabletop.

You think? That's fine by me.

Sarah also listed it online,

on sites including eBay, Etsy and on social media.

There's been loads of interest in Daniel's table

and it's not surprising because that is a very clever transformation.

Those kind of things are the collectibles of the future.

I haven't managed to sell it yet but, as soon as I have,

I'm going to get back in touch with Harry.

With Daniel's labour and materials coming in at £350

and the table remaining unsold, we have a potential loss of £350,

but Sarah has high hopes someone will soon snap it up

and she can return the profit to Harry.

Back in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, Neil's finishing the unenviable task

of turning hessian rags into what Sarah's hoping will be riches.

Sarah's about to arrive

and see the transformation of these hessian sacks.

They were a real challenge. The mess was incredible.

I've had a workshop full of hessian.

I became Hessian Man by the end of the day.

So they've been a challenge, definitely.

Now, this could be a little bit embarrassing

because all of the sacks that I left Neil with were in terrible shape.

They had moths flying out of them.

If he's managed to make something saleable out of them,

I'll be really surprised.

The sacks started off as smelly, dusty and moth-bitten,

with little or no "sacks" appeal.

They are now multifunctional trug-style bags,

complete with a canvas base and handles

and curtain wiring round the tops

to make them practical as well as stylish.

-I can't wait to see them. Is it a "them"?

-There's plenty of them.

-I think they're amazing!

-Good.

They look so clean and nice and fresh and...

-Fantastic!

-Good.

-There's loads of them. How many have you managed to make?

-Ten.

-Ten.

Oh, they're really impressive.

It's something that was going to be thrown away

and it will just last another lifetime.

It's a massive achievement.

You've turned something that was, frankly, nearly useless,

short of keeping your tools in in a shed,

into something that's highly saleable and really attractive.

It took Neil long enough to make one trug.

How on Earth has he managed to knock up ten?

Once I got the production roll going,

then I was making strips of canvas all in one go, so it's fine, yeah.

They've come within budget.

They're bang on, they really are.

Sarah's delighted and Neil's just glad

he doesn't have to don his cape and become Hessian Man any more.

Not sad to see these ones go. Quite happy to see the hessian sacks go.

I am so pleased with this lot.

They look absolutely fantastic and they've got bags of style.

Get it?

At the tip, Sarah spotted Keith

and his large collection of hessian sacks.

I love these. It reminds me of the sack race when I was little.

With Keith's blessing, Sarah made off with a bin full of sacks.

If somebody can find a use for things like that,

which you don't see any more, that's brilliant.

And that somebody was bagmaker extraordinaire Neil,

who turned them into multipurpose marvels.

And, thanks to his handiwork,

they were bought by husband and wife team Nick and Kim

to sell in their online retro furnishing and lighting shop.

Beautiful.

-Functional.

-Mmm.

-Very functional.

With the bags rehomed,

it's time for Sarah to visit Keith at his home in Surrey.

-Hi, there.

-Hello.

-Hi, Keith, how you doing?

-Hi, not too bad.

-Very nice to see you again.

-Yes, and you.

I'm here to catch up about the hessian sacks

-that you were dropping off at the tip.

-Yeah.

I didn't get the pleasure of working on them myself

but they went to a lovely chap called Neil,

-who uses lots of old materials to make new bags.

-Mmm-hmm.

He took them and we had a discussion together about what to do with them.

Well, let me show you. So, here you go.

-That might be the way you remember them.

-Right, OK, yeah.

-And this is how they ended up.

-Wow. They're good, aren't they?

Are they gardening bags or shopping bags or...?

They were whatever anybody wanted to be with them.

Lovely Neil made ten of them for us.

-After his money, we actually managed to sell them at a profit.

-OK.

-So, we have £50 here to hand over.

-Oh.

-All for you.

-Oh, grand.

Oh, thank you. That's most unexpected.

Any ideas what you might do with it?

Yeah, several things

but I think it would be nice to take mother-in-law out for a bite to eat

or a glass of wine or two glasses of wine, something like that.

Fantastic. Thank you very much for dropping them off

-and thank you for letting me have them.

-Thanks.

-Absolute pleasure.

-Thanks very much.

-Nice to see you.

-OK, thank you.

-Bye.

-Bye.

I was really impressed with what Neil managed to do

with those old hessian sacks

and I think Keith was quite impressed too.

And he's taking his mother-in-law out with the 50 quid.

There are Brownie points to be had there.

Neil stuck to his budget of £12 per bag

and produced ten, at a total cost of £120.

The job lot of bags sold for £170,

giving Sarah £50 to hand back to Keith.

So, thanks to Sarah, that's three items saved from the skip.

The boot load of old apples became delicious crumbles,

the tattered card table was given a glamorous new lease of life,

and the smelly old hessian sacks are now stylish garden bags.

Well, it's been great handing over money

and meeting lovely people, but I have to thank Daniel and Neil

for doing such an amazing transformation on their items.

Otherwise, they'd have ended up in the skip.