Green Options

Since I craft through an eco-minded ethic, I have a habit of reading regular craft books through a green perspective, looking for the following characteristics: how friendly are the projects to being performed with eco-friendly practices, how mindful are the projects to a sustainable worldview, how well do the projects work in opposition to a consumerist, commercial culture?

Although Jeffrey Yamaguchi’s 52 Projects, based on his 52 Projects blog, is a little light on the how-to, step-by-step, hands-on tutorial component of your typical crafty book, 52 Projects works through a premise that we have the responsibility to bring meaning to our own lives through our own work, and this is a very green and crafty mindset.

I tend to have philosophies about things. I have a green crafting manifesto, a strict definition of appropriate children’s clothing, a teaching philosophy and a course philosophy both detailed on my freshman composition syllabus, and, of course, a gift-giving philosophy–one for adults and one for children, one for holidays and one for birthday parties.

It can sometimes be kind of tiring, mentally, to be me.

However, to focus–for holiday gifts given to adults by my children, I prefer 1) that they be primarily handmade by the children, and 2) that they function as workable gifts on their own. The adults should appreciate and like the gifts, and find a place for them, because of the gifts themselves, not just the fact that the gifts came from my own clever and adorable children.

Oh, and my kids are three and five years old; this can be a challenge. Within those criteria, here are five projects that work:

Stampington and Company launched a new magazine on August 1st.

GreenCraft is their ode to all things green, recycled, upcycled and more.

In the premier issue you’ll find over 50 stylish and sustainable projects to inspire you.

Organic Crafts: 75 Earth-Friendly Art Activities, by Kimberly Monaghan, is technically a crafting book for children, but as I played with some of the projects in it with my girls, I noticed that many of the projects had the kind of simple-looking sophistication–an effect, I’m sure, of the usage of natural materials to create the projects–that I really like to see in the projects that I, myself, do.

And so, this green crafty book review will look a little different than my review of Weekend Sewing or the Crafty Chica’s Guide to Artful Sewing. I’m starting from the presumption that many of the projects in Organic Crafts will be too simple to appeal to an adult crafting for herself, and that’s okay.

Some projects, however, are pretty awesome, and it’s those that I’m going to review.

It’s a bit of a random craft, sure–perhaps a little church camp, perhaps a little preschool.

But your church camp and your preschool I’m sure didn’t have the same standards of artistic quality that I do. When I say that you can dye dried pasta, I sure don’t mean that you can dye it some pale color that’s all uneven, anyway, and looks like something a three-year-old should be stringing on elastic cord.

I’m talking about pasta that POPS. I’m talking about bright colors, jewel tones, gorgeous shades of emerald or hot pink that will inspire even you, you jaded crafter you.

Because you know there are some things you totally want to make with this beautiful dried pasta. A mosaic? Some biodegradable jewelry? a chandelier to hang in the kitchen?

Here’s how:

I looooove the Renegade craft fairs, although only Renegade Chicago is close enough to attend.

One of the great things about visiting the web sites of craft fairs, however, is the vendor list–most artists have a web presence these days, so perusing the list of vendors is one way to check out all the Renegade-worthy artists even if you can’t be there for the ambiance.

Web shops also help me decide where I want to shop in person, if I am attending a craft fair. I like fair trade, natural, and recycled work, which info is generally available at an artist’s web site, so I don’t have to feel bad about grilling a super-busy vendor in a super-busy booth on the opening day of a major craft fair.

So, nope, I wasn’t able to make it across the entire country to visit San Francisco for Renegade (although I’ll be there in about three weeks, darnit!), but here are some of my favorite vendors who were there without me:

Do you ever think I will run out of weird stuff to do to vinyl record albums? As a crafter who works primarily with recycled materials, I find vinyl records especially inspirational: they’re rigid yet can be malleable, you can incorporate the song titles and album title into your piece or not, you can cut and drill them, you can paint them, you can do things with them that I haven’t even thought about yet, and I’ve thought about it a lot.

Although my bread-and-butter is the ubiquitous record bowl, I’ve made everything from jewelry to artwork with these babies. If only I could bring to them my love of fabrics, especially the ones in those big sample books of upholstery fabric that I bought at a charity thrift store a few months ago and have been so obsessed with…

Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Even more than a celebration of our nation’s birth (which I could take or leave, frankly), in our town, at least Independence Day is a celebration of our community culture. Between the fish fry, the farmer’s market, the Fourth of July parade, and the fireworks, I’ve got plenty of opportunities to show off my craftiness as well as my festive spirit.

The best crafts, in my opinion, are thematically appropriate (red, white, and blue, you know) without being too slavish (the flag isn’t for wearing, my friends) or too country (denim is best if it’s ironic).

And, of course, the best project has to be eco-friendly–what’s up with craft foam, anyway? It’s like wool felt for anti-environmentalists(not that I’m automatically a fan of wool felt, mind you–it comes from sheep).

Anyway, here are five 4th of July projects that satisfy my own discerning tastes AND are quite able to be completed by the big day. Fireworks away!

This place is not your grandma’s pottery painting studio, I’ll tell you that much.

In Wisconsin for Matt’s grandma’s garage sale, the family and I took a couple of days to recover up in Door County. Along with cheese curds, beaches, and dairy farms, we spent half a day at the Hands on Art Studio in Fish Creek.

Holy cow.

For a lady who loves to dabble in anything DIY, who hates cookie cutter crafting, and who plans to move everyone out to a farm before the eldest baby is more than a decade old (I’m speaking of myself, here), the Hands On Art Studio? Was awesome.

I’m a novice gardener. I’ve been interested in gardening for a few years now, but since my two little girls will, this summer, turn 3 and 5, you can imagine, I’m sure, what the last five summers have been like for me. This year, however, I’m dedicated, I’m committed, I have two children who are happy and independent and love the outdoors, I have a next-door-neighbor who just cut down the tree in her front yard that loomed over my front yard–in other words, I am ready to garden.

I still don’t have an infinity of free time, however, and so not only am I gardening with the lasagna garden method, but I’m also basically eschewing nearly all ornamentals. I like my garden to be pretty, sure, but I also need it to multitask for me.

Multitasking means sunflowers, and speckled cranberry beans that climb them. It means kale in the border garden, and carrots in between the lilac bushes.

It also means that I’m growing many of the natural materials that I’d like to craft with in the coming year. Here’s a list of what I’m growing, and some other ideas for what you could put in your own crafty garden:

My green crafting manifesto is clear about this: I craft primarily with recycled materials, and if I can’t make a recycled material work for my project, then I use primarily natural materials–cotton, hemp, wood, etc.

Generally, this makes the positives of green crafting quite clear. When I craft with recycled materials, then I know that I’m taking positive action for the environment even if what I’m crafting with was originally some sort of resource-heavy plastic–felting around dumpster-dived plastic Easter eggs to make shaker eggs or play food for my daughters, perhaps, or incorporating costume jewelry into a new piece.

The ethics of crafting even with natural materials, however, are trickier, because you have to consider not just the nature of your material, but also its provenance.

Take wood.