No doubt about it, I have my vices. Addiction to coffee seems to be genetic in my family, and so, really, there isn’t anything I can do about it other than try to drink responsibly. Aside from buying organic and fair trade coffee, what you drink out of is as important as what you drink.
I was very excited to see the new Sustain recycled and recyclable mugs from Aladdin. Made from eCycle, a new food-grade safe plastic that is […]
One of my favorite exhibits at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is the Japanese Arms and Armor collection… because it’s where they also keep several kimono. So beautiful. So priceless. So likely to get me in trouble if I touch them.
Lucky for me, vintage kimono fabric is available elsewhere without the bother of glass cases and security guards. I found out about online shop Ah! Kimono when I came across Maitreya’s cute flower pin on Craftlog. Ah! Kimono imports used and vintage kimono from Japan and resells the fabric.
Owner Cheri Bridges describes the founding of Ah! Kimono as follows:
In the ’80’s and ’90’s a person could buy 200 lb. bales of used kimono. The very idea of that seemed so amazing, but what would I do with that many kimono I wondered. I really just wanted a few of them to line some hand woven garments. In 1991, I was taking a garment class with a wonderful group of adventurous women. We decided to split a bale of kimono so that we could learn more about the textiles.
In Kelly’s recent post Tools To Use: Batting, she outlined several organic and sustainable choices for quilt batting - including my favorite, Hobbs Heirloom Organic Cotton Batting. Kelly was curious, though, about re-using old blankets or sheets instead.
Being creative with your quilt ingredients is part of the history of quilting. Now granted, many of the choices that early quilters made were due to economic constraints. I suspect that if the pioneers had sewing machines and fabric shops readily and affordably available, a lot of them would have taken advantage of those options. However, quilting does have a historical ethic of conservation and re-use. Quilters today manifest this ethic through the obsessive saving of fabric scraps too small for any reasonable project, “just in case.”
So if you’re willing to look past batting, there are other earth-friendly alternatives for your quilt’s insides. Your linen closet, thrift stores, or donations from other people’s sewing supplies may provide just what you need.
A year after having first noticed the green ‘cyber’wave, months after informing the world about Global Internet giants going green and weeks after being appointed as the new Moderator of the Delhi Freecycle Network(TM) group, the green ‘cyber’wave just got stronger. And Yahoo! has taken the lead. Starting Earth Day, it is not just spreading the message, “Free is good - Give stuff, get stuff. Do good for the environment” through its green pages, but is also working to achieve the same.
Today’s topic is inspired by Solar Today magazine. “Scrubbing Carbon from the Breeze” was written by Rona Fried, Ph.D., president of SustainableBusiness.com in the May/June 2008 issue. Unfortunately this particular article is not available online.
As climate change become a more central issue for people and governments around the globe, a lot of people are looking for solutions - fast solutions. If there were a quick and inexpensive way to dramatically reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, we should go for it right? Well a number of “quick fix” solutions, which have centered around hacking the environment to fight climate change, have been floating around for years. One strategy is to capture the CO2 with plankton and bury it in the ocean (which is much easier and cheaper than pumping it into the ground). Another is to change the composition of our atmosphere to reflect sunlight. Others tend to be more sci-fi and outlandish - but all of them might just turn out to be disastrous.
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. Kaboose 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.
Everyday I come across something on Etsy that surprises and gets me excited about the endless recycled craft possibilities. This week I came across reiter8, a upcycling crafter from Brooklyn that takes sailboat sails that would otherwise go to the dump and creates bags and pillows out of the canvas. The designer came up with this idea while visiting her mother in Maine. After taking notice of the strong canvas material that made up the sails on a boat, she realized that this material would make a sturdy alternative material for bags and pillows all while saving them from going to landfils. Reiter8 takes full advantage of all of the different stitching styles
Let me be the first to confess: I love my laptop. I spend more time with it than most people in my life, including family, room mates, and boyfriend. I might even go so far as to admit an unhealthy infatuation with the Internet, writing, and a handful of computer games. Yet as an aspiring environmentalist, my electronic sidekick poses an uneasy paradox. How do I lay claim to “green” (whatever that really means) when I spend so much of my time plugged in?Computers aren’t very environmentally friendly. They contain lead, mercury, cadmium, lots of plastic, and they thirst for electricity. Most people don’t realize that most of a computer can be recycled, so most discarded computers head to the landfill where the heavy metals can contaminate local water and air. Computers and electronics have become disposable in our culture, so the amount of electronic waste generated each year is astounding. Fortunately these are not problems without solutions. Starting from the beginning of a computer’s life to its demise, it can be easy to optimize everything about your PC.
Buying, Building, and Design
With the new popularity of green, critics have been quick to turn on companies like Apple for pumping out so many gadgets. The good news is that companies have been quick to respond with energy-efficient models, recycling programs, and improved design. Many “green” initiatives focus on energy efficiency but ignore manufacturing or end-life issues, so be wary of their “environmental” credentials. If you find a product or company that can vouch for the creation, use, and disposal of their products, you’ve struck gold. The good news is that newer models use fewer harmful chemicals and metals, require less energy, and improve performance. Lean, and mean is the angle many companies are aiming for with “green” patched on to sell. Laptops are the best example of this trend as they become smaller and more powerful simultaneously. So rest easy knowing that if you must buy a new computer, it will probably be more efficient than your old one… assuming you don’t hook a brand new 60-inch flat screen to it.
Craft show season is almost upon us! Rejoice! It’s finally time to gather all your supplies and get ready to spend some hot summer days at shows selling your wares. Luckily, crafter extraordinaire Jen Menkhaus just told me about Treecycle, a company dedicated to education and access to environmentally friendly products. This site is great for crafters because they carry a huge supply of recycled paper bags, shipping boxes, jewelry boxes and more! In addition to a ton of products, Treecycle also has a huge page of links to offer information on environmental issues. In case you need reason to buy recycled products from Treecycle, they share this lovely list to explain how it helps…
Wrist cuffs are fun accessories that lend an air of rock and roll to any outfit. Thrifting vinyl records is a great way to add rock and roll to your music collection. Put the two together and what do you get? Wrist cuffs made from thrifted vinyl records!
Etsy has lots of vinyl cuffs for sale, but the gold cuff pictured above by Tresijas really caught my eye. The color is amazing and the shape is wonderfully curved just so. Colored vinyl is often hard to come by, making this find even that much more special.
To make your own vinyl wrist cuff you only need a record, an oven and an xacto knife. Simply follow these instructions from the DIY Network to make your own rockin’ wrist cuff:
Back in high school, while other girls were shopping at the mall, I was waxing curbs and flippin’ ollies. So, it’s no surprise that today I’m drooling over 2ReVert’s recycled skateboard jewelry!
This husband and wife team from Nova Scotia craft amazing earrings, pendants,bracelets and rings from 100% post consumer decks. That begs the question: Where has your jewelry been?
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