Kickstarter

Thank you for a successful campaign! To purchase items from our store, please visit www.rxmade.org.

With this gift, you can give when you get, and get when you give. ~ Spin Magazine

It’s the ultimate feel-good purchase: you’re bringing something handmade into your home, helping minimize landfill dumping, and giving money to people who need a hand up. ~ Domestica // Chicago Home & Garden

What makes them different is that they blend a strong, contemporary design sensibility with a commitment to local manufacture and sustainable materials... This is a project you’ll want to back, and not just because you’ll receive cool goodies as a reward. You can back it knowing you are doing something good for not only for sparing the landfills of Chicago, but also for two great Made in USA companies. ~ Modestics

I like to feature up and coming companies that are making quality beautiful products... RX Made manages to pull that off with ease... ~ Grassroots Modern

Driven by a strong sense of domestic loyalty, Strand Design produces entirely in Chicago with materials sourced—and often recycled—from the greater urban area, extending that ethos to all RX products as well. ~ Cool Hunting

... if he’s a man of his country, help him sponsor RX Made's Kickstarter campaign... ~ Daily Candy

Looking for a unique gift this holiday season? A Chicago company that makes furniture out of garbage may have the answer... ~ CBS

OUR STORY

Founded in 2011 by Chicago Non-Profit Rebuilding Exchange, RX Made evolved out of what was originally a job training program to create skilled workers in the growing field of building deconstruction and materials reuse.

The trainees in the program were taught basic carpentry skills, and learned to create furniture from reclaimed building materials salvaged in Chicago. From these beginnings, we have since transformed into a small furniture production shop, hiring both graduates from the training program and talented builders from the furniture making community here in Chicago.

OUR INSPIRATION

Over the past year, we’ve received such an enthusiastic response to our furniture line that we wanted to explore producing a greater variety of products utilizing reclaimed and locally produced materials. We also wanted to make these products in the same way that we make our furniture; using local sourcing, local design, and local craftspeople. We are made in the USA.

OUR PROCESS

As we started to ponder this idea, we realized we had lots of questions. What should we make? Where would we get parts that we can’t make ourselves? What could these products look like? As we looked out into the design community to help us extend our product possibilities, we reached out to Strand Design, a Chicago based firm that for four years has been designing locally manufactured products. Strand Design was a natural choice to help us launch a product line that could blend creative design with reclaimed materials, as well as help us pilot a model that supports local manufacturers and designers.

Strand has designed and fully prototyped three products specifically for RX Made, taking into account our material resources and the production capabilities of our small shop. 

Every sourcing and production detail has been considered, and with the help of Strand Design, we were able to domestically source all of the components for this project, (everything from hardware and material finishes to clock movements and laser cut steel) with most pieces coming from Chicago and the Great Lakes Region.

All we need to get started is the support of you, our backers! We are so excited with the results of this collaboration, and are so excited for everyone to be a part of helping us make this project happen!

When you support RX Made on Kickstarter, you help us:

• Reclaim community "waste" and turn it into an asset
• Create jobs for local designers and manufacturers, and:
• Start production of the first edition of designs manufactured by
  RX Made in collaboration with Strand Design

STRAND DESIGN FOR RX MADE: THE PRODUCTS

The RX Made Bottle Opener is made from reclaimed floor boards salvaged from deconstructed buildings in Chicago and locally fabricated stainless steel. The heat brand on the handle was made by a local manufacturer in Chicago, and all of the hardware is U.S. made.

The RX Made Wall Clock was designed with small scraps that accumulate in the wood shop in mind. Each clock is made from locally sourced Ash from Horigan Urban Forest Products, a unique lumber resource. Rather than contributing to deforestation, urban lumber comes from trees that would commonly be turned into mulch, burned, or otherwise destroyed; In the case of the Ash used in this design, it comes from trees that have succumbed to the Emerald Ash Borer blight. The clock is held together with a steel plate manufactured in Chicago, and U.S. made hardware. The quartz movement is manufactured in California, and the hands are manufactured in Rhode Island.

The RX Made Modular System is designed to work with reclaimed dimensional lumber, and can be made into a bench or a bookcase. If you happen to have some nice old-growth 2" x 12" boards from a recent project lying around, the DIY Kit is for you!

If you want a great bookcase or bench, we're offering both urban sourced Ash and reclaimed lumber for the shelves and bench top. The bookcase shelves are 4' wide and 11" deep, and the bench top is 5' and 11" deep. The laser cut steel components are manufactured and powder coated in Chicago. The shelves are finished with Tung oil manufactured in Iowa. All U.S. made hardware.

REWARD RECAP:

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Nick Martin Film

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