Green Options

One of my favorite publishing companies, Chronicle Books, is holding its biggest sale of the year through August 5, with 35% off your purchase plus free shipping when you use the promo code FRIENDS at checkout.

I like Chronicle Books for a lot of reasons, some of them a little random–their e-postcards, their manuscript submission policy, and the awesomeness of their craft and graphic design books.

One of the really cool things about the book selection at Chronicle is that so much of it is eco-friendly, and so much of it emphasizes the DIY lifestyle over mass-market consumer culture.

Here are some of my favorites:

When I sell record bowls at craft fairs, people tend to say lots of awesome things to me, and they also tend to say three annoying things: 1) Look, sweetie, this is a record! (to their child). 2) How exactly do you make this? 3) Oh, no! You ruined all those records!

Statement one is annoying because a) the kids being shown the record bowls are always like ten years old, and their response is always to just roll their eyes at their parent, because OF COURSE they’ve seen a record before, and b) if a kid had never seen a record before, well, a record bowl really doesn’t look a lot like one, ya know? Statement two is annoying because, as my partner pointed out to me, the people who try to get me to tell them how to make a record bowl NEVER buy one from me–they just want me to tell them how to make one for themselves. Do a Google search, friends.

Statement three, though…that’s only annoying because someone says it at every single craft fair, and I have to assure them that I have a record player of my own and I only craft with the vinyl that’s way too beat up to have another use. I’m pretty sure, though, that there are people in the world (teenagers who just found mom’s old record collection, I’m talking to you here) who WOULD ruin a perfectly good, and super-valuable, vinyl record just because they didn’t know better.

Whether or not you bought handmade for this holiday, and whether you celebrated Easter or cobbled together a sort of Spring-y pagan festivity (like we did in my house), you’ve probably got some Easter trash.

I know we do. We tried for a low-key, handmade, natural materials little celebration, and we’ve STILL got the packaging for a couple of chocolate bunnies, some marshmallow Peeps that nobody wants to eat (they taste gritty!), and about a gazillion egg cartons and eggshells to deal with.

If you’ve got anything left over, chances are that some other people do, too, and chances are that somebody has thought of SOMETHING awesome to do with all that trash. Here are some tutorials to get you started:

We’ve recently been debating the definition of craftivism here on Crafting a Green World.

While that particular debate is carried on, it’s also worth looking at some of the works of those who practice craftivism. These are works that are created across the globe and for all imaginable political/environmental/social/moral stances.

In fact, all of them really only have one thing in common:

• They’re created by craftivists.

There is an entire world of craft radio out there in the ether. In the same way in which I blog, obsessively, every single day about my crafty life on my personal blog and read the crafty blogs of others, there is also an audio/video version of that same crafty obsession that can be watched or listened to at one’s leisure.

While you grade papers, or wash the dishes, or eat your lunch, or walk home from school at night, you can listen to craft news (the CPSIA, although delayed, is still a big deal), craft opinion (which type of knitting needles are the best?) and interviews with other crafty people (Alicia Paulson has a lot of interesting things to say about the process of writing a craft how-to book).

I heart podcasts.

I’ve gone on and on about Craftster swaps before, but I haven’t yet loved on Craftster itself–Craftster the community of like-minded and helpful friends, Craftster the DIY resource, Craftster the organizer of the swaps that I love, Craftster so full of inspiration for my own work and admiration for the beautiful work of others…

Ahem. Um…I really like Craftster?

In my own challenges to work only within the boundaries of my ethical beliefs (I really do follow my green crafting manifesto), I find Craftster to be one of my best guides. Crafting from primarily recycled materials doesn’t often make working to a pattern or specific tutorial easy, but Craftster, with its indie spirit and overarching environmental ethic, provides a lot of both abstract and direct inspiration.

Here are some of my favorite of their projects, all utilizing primarily recycled components:

It wasn’t always that handmade quilts, the work of women who had a lot of other work to do, as well, were considered artwork in their own right. They were used, after all, and used long and hard, not set aside for posterity. If they were hung up, they were hung up to divide up living spaces or provide insulation, not set on a gallery wall. They were created not by professional artists, but by real women for real needs who used as their materials what was at hand.

And yet, handmade quilts are artwork. They are beautiful. And they are now often hung in museums. Here’s an online tour of some of the nicest permanent collections: