REAL-LIFE Wombles at the Made in Stroud shop have been making good use of the things every day folk leave behind.

The popular shop in Kendrick Street now sports display shelving in the window made entirely from recycled materials.

And the Stroud recyclers did not need to go as far as Wimbledon Common to find their raw materials.

"We wanted a better window display and the window dresser from Moonflower helped us a lot with ideas but we couldn't afford to buy the things we wanted new," said the shop's Clare Gerbrands.

"Luckily one of the makers here found some really nice glass shelving in a skip and I got some old oak beams from the old cinema when they were gutting it to turn it into a club and they were cut up into blocks by our wood worker Phil Hinton.

"Our fossil guy, Mark Varah, also made some blocks with ammonites in them so now we've got really funky display shelving."

And the shop's very own Madame Cholet, Lorna Cima, has been making shopping bags out of everything from Capri Sun pouches to beer mats. "The Capri Sun bags are very popular," said Clare.

"She can't drink it fast enough, so if anybody has any empty pouches we'd love it if they brought them to the shop rather than throw them away."

Lorna's other work includes belts made from bottle tops and bags made from scraps of recycled cardboard.

Clare Wilson, who paints traditional barge motifs on household objects, is another Made in Stroud Womble who would like to get hold of things otherwise destined for the dustbin.

"She's looking for enamel pots or jugs, galvanised watering cans, copper pots and old horse shoes," said Clare.

"Again, if anyone has got any they don't want it would be fantastic if they could bring them to the shop."