Green Options » handmade

Crafting at $4 a Gallon

Autumn Wiggins — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 06:42:59 +0000

As the organizer of what is becoming a craft show of epic scale, I have a unique perspective of the handmade movement in my region. Participants in Strange Folk are not limited to St. Louis though. This year, we will host 120 vendors from across the country, and even Canada! I’m excited, and very much in the thick of preparations at the moment. There is one glaring issue that I did not anticipate dealing with though…the dismal economy.

First, came the disappointing news from some of our former and potential sponsors that such contributions had been stricken from their budget. Then, I started hearing the various woes of crafters. They couldn’t afford to travel here due to gas prices. They had to go back to working “real” jobs full-time. Their small businesses were no longer financially sustainable. Disheartening as that is, a silver lining is unmistakable.

Read more of this story »

Consumer Choices Alone Won’t Craft A Green World, So What Do We Do?

Skye Kilaen — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:14:19 +0000

Don’t forget! The next Carnival of Green Crafts will be August 9th at BlogHer. Send in your submissions now.

As much as I love to bring you pretty things, today I have something weightier to share. Grab a cup of coffee or something, pull up a chair, and when it’s done, please let me know what you think. My thoughts on this topic are definitely a work in progress, and I welcome your thoughts. (Thanks to Yoel Knits for inspiration for the first section’s title, by the way.)

Greening The Craft World

As far as I can tell, there are four main “green” strategies currently circulating in the crafting world.

The first strategy is being thrifty with materials. Very few crafters are made of money, so we cut fabric carefully, re-use materials, and give away or swap supplies we don’t need. This would fall into the Reduce part of the reduce-reuse-recycle waste hierarchy, and would also encompass stashbusting and “use what you have” type projects that decrease or postpone additional consumption. Nicely for us, this is also better for the environment than being wasteful.

Read more of this story »

Eco Craft Hunting At Festivals

Leslie Richard — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:13:25 +0000

This weekend is the biggest festival of the year in Asheville NC - which normally would frighten me since there are huge crowds, bad music, and freaky combinations of food smells wafting about these events. This year I decided to go on a treasure hunt, specifically a green crafting hunt! It turned out that 1/3 of the booths were representing environmental causes from biodiesel, recycling, petitioning to save trees, to the ever alluring eco minded crafts. It is totally rad that the world is catching the green fever.

Now you can take a virtual walk with me through a few of my favorite festival crafts…

It never ceases to amaze my inner child when I see someone has taken funked out metal parts and welds them together to make whimsical creatures. This flying bird monster & friends looks like it all began with a tiny BBQ propane tank.

Read more of this story »

Fabulous Fabrics: Kirin & Co (Australia)

Skye Kilaen — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:23:09 +0000

Kirin & Co is the online shop of designer and textile artist Lara Cameron of Melbourne, Australia. Cameron produces limited edition, hand screen printed fabrics as well as handmade items such as super-fab clutch purses.

Cameron prints on two types of fabrics: a cotton/linen blend printed with environmentally friendly inks, and a new hemp/organic cotton blend. The cotton/linen blend isn’t as green as we usually look for in the Fabulous Fabrics series, but Cameron is definitely making efforts to green her fabrics and we respect that. It isn’t always easy or possible to green everything overnight!

Read more of this story »

Journals, Journals, Journals: Recycled, Upcycled, and Handmade

Skye Kilaen — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:30:22 +0000

Ah, the journal. I have about 5.2 billion of them scattered throughout the house, much to the annoyance of some other people who live here and don’t understand that when I ask for “the green one,” I mean that green one and not that green one. I have a journal for notes on films, a journal that reminds me what to look for when thrift shopping, and a couple of journals with notes from conferences I’ve attended in the past couple of years. Journals are so lovely.

Kelly has written about Ex Libris journals and Night Owl Paper Good journals, and Tara tipped us off about her friend Nicole’s recycled wallpaper journals from Freshly Blended Press. I took a spin through Etsy to see what other upcycled, recycled, and handmade journals I could discover…

Holy cow, it’s insane over there!

I had to narrow it down to journals that use recycled, found, or scrap paper inside as well as recycled material in the covers, because otherwise my brain was overloading. I didn’t even scratch the surface, but here are some of my favorites:

Read more of this story »

Happy Earth Day Eve!

Juliet Ames — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:47:08 +0000

Earth Day is tomorrow and it is bound to be the most celebrated yet! It’s time to celebrate all of the accomplishments the green movement has made and to think about all that is left to do. This year, why not make some new Earth Day traditions to insure that the day will be fun and educational for our crafty kidlets, family and friends?

There are a lot of resources on the web to help you plan your events. K a bo ose is a family centered website with a whole section dedicated to celebrating Earth Day with the family. My favorite part, of course, are the crafts. This site has detailed instructions for creative recycled material crafts you can do on Earthday or any day! Some of my favorites projects include the coffee ground fossils, recycled crayon earth ornaments, and toothbrush bracelets.

Read more of this story »

Help Is At Hand

Emma Henderson — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:08:43 +0000

My fingers are like dried up sausages wrapped in sand paper and the skin on my hands is so rough, dry and cracked I look like I’d be more at home on the beach amongst the barnacles. If its true that you can tell a person’s age from their hands I must be about due for retirement.

I love my job but sewing and handling fabric all day long can be really tough on your skin so I think it might be time to try my hand at something a little more rejuvenating.

Read more of this story »

Green Pop Shop at Poppytalk Handmade

Victoria Everman — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:50:33 +0000

Spring is right around the corner - the perfect time to refresh your home with a few new, eco-friendly items. Started by indie Canadian design blogger Jan, Poppytalk Handmade is like an online farmer’s market for handmade goodies (why didn’t we think of that!?).

As luck would have it, this month’s theme for the showcase is all about green:

Here we are, entering our 6th month at poppytalk handmade and we can’t think of a better way to ring it in than as an eco-themed market! As each market starts up, there’s always a bustle going on, and the anticipation to see everyone’s table come to life is my favorite part! We are thrilled to showcase this emerging talent with green spirits!
Read more of this story »

Recycled Newspaper Crafts

Juliet Ames — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:22:05 +0000

Here at Crafting in a Green World, we clearly like crafting with recycling paper! Emma’s post on maps and Autumn’s posts on recycling folded paper and Playing Card Bags made me want to risk the paper cuts to craft. I am discovering, through writing these blog posts, that I am pretty fascinated in paper crafts too. I have already tackled junk mail, paint chips, and old photos, but as I pack up my recycling for the week, I noticed a kind of paper then gets no love, newspaper! Sure, we have all used it to pack a box, but think of all the possibilities!

One of my favorite ideas from Emma’s map post was the adorable Paper Cotton Bird. I could not resist sharing this one made out of newspaper. This Etsy seller from England pays great attention to detail as she hand stitches each bird with embroidery thread using her own pattern. They are so darn adorable, I can’t stand it.

When talking about recycled newspaper crafts, I must mention Newspaper Jewelry. I had the pleasure of seeing these in person, and they really are spectacular. This stuning pendant is made up of newspaper headlines that were hand formed into beads and stitched together with Swarovski Crystal beads.

Read more of this story »

Mission accomplished!

serenity_ii — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:42:21 +0000

I finally opened an Etsy store! My first item: a 75% recycled-cotton scarf.