Click for the full size image. More cartoons here.
New year, new life for your festive waste
20th December 2011 by GavinWe’ve been talking a lot about upcycling lately here, so it’s just got to be the theme of your monthly challenge.
If there’s ever a time when reusable waste gets sent in mind-boggling amounts to the landfill site, it’s post-Christmas. But as it’s Christmas, new year and winter solstice… what could be more appropriate than reflecting themes running through all of those festivals by giving new life to something?
Wrapping paper’s the obvious place to start – there is so much of it and so much you can make from it: why not shred your used or damaged giftwrap to make colourful protective packaging for a future gift? Or shred again for confetti. Wrapping paper can make some nifty outfits for paper dolls. Or even jewellery.
Or use it to make beautifully patterned origami – you could create a new post-Christmas tradition that by New Year’s Day your home will welcome the new year by being adorned with carefully crafted paper-folded birds.
Other Christmas waste is also brilliant for craft projects: tin foil from mince pies can become tree decorations; cards and cardboard are always reusable – here’s a nice idea using old playing cards to create notebooks, which could just as easily use greetings cards. Or make next year’s tree-top ornament.
Most homes, let’s face it, are going to have a fair number of empty wine bottles left after the festivities. Instead of sending them for recycling, why not go one better and make some beautiful ornaments? And don’t forget you can upcycle your corks, too.
And saving the best for last…
Is your once-trusty old Twister mat well past its useful life and been replaced by a new one this year? Here’s one way for the, er, fashion-forward among you to give it a second life.
We’d love to hear about or see your creations, so send them in to us at gavin@otesha.org.uk.
Positive impact Christmas
9th December 2011 by caluI have avoided cycling through central London in an attempt to ignore the spirit of consumption that’s hanging from lampposts, exhibited in shop windows and adorning Christmas trees.
It seems the terms and conditions of Christmas include tons of waste in the shape of cards, wrapping paper, useless unwanted gifts, disposable decorations, broken light bulbs and “unstorable” Christmas trees. Were the pagan and Christian origins of Christmas so waste-oriented?
I’m sure lots of traditions and cultures sculpted our current festive season. Can we shape it even further with the choices we are making today?
I’m sure we can by prioritising values over stuff and by trying to minimise our impact. What are our options then?
Cards
Get crafty and make your own cards with recycled materials. Cereal boxes, old maps or tetrapacks are a great starting point. If you have kids or know someone who has, have a card making session with them (it helps the creative mood if cake or ice cream is included).
Gifts
Give time instead of products. Who do you know that could benefit from your cooking, gardening, sewing, singing or baby-sitting skills? Make your own tailored coupons (you could even add a ‘use by date’). If you are keen to spend some money then visit your local charity shop in search of hidden treasures, or support local traders. Think about all those friends trying to make a living selling their music, paintings, photos and books. We could all have a happy festive season supporting each other. You could always just re-gift.
Wrapping paper
Tea soaked newspaper looks amazing. Or just use it as it is preferably in sections with lots of images or nice patterns. Magazines, posters, old promotional material is also useful. You could also use a forgotten blanket. How? Check out this website to find out all you need to know about cloth wrapping.
Decorations
Last year I came across home made edible Christmas decorations. What a great idea! You just eat them through out the season or afterwards. If you think mice will eat them before you do so, try swapping decorations with your relative / neighbour or give a new look to the ones you have. Ideas for hand made Christmas decorations here.
Lights
I’ve got mixed up feelings about lights but I guess that if you can’t live without them go for solar powered ones. If all you want is to impress your friends, use Shelter’s housebling to avoid scary electricity bills (it includes snow). Check how mine looks below.
Christmas tree
Ever tried a totally different approach? How about a wish list post-it note Christmas tree? I thought it was a fantastic new idea but a quick Internet image search proved me wrong.
Check out this guide with 19 Christmas tree alternatives. It might be already too late for a pallet Christmas tree but you could keep it in mind for next year.
We can all make the world a better place this festive season by finding more sustainable ways to celebrate it.
Smiles and positive vibes, Calu
Reduce, reuse, recycle… up-cycle!
8th December 2011 by GuestGuest blogger and friend of Otesha Alice Nicol gets us up to speed on the world of up-cycling, and argues that designers and businesses must put reduction of resource use at the heart of their work
In a world where we are continually putting strain on our resources, I have come to question what my role and impact is as a designer. For me, this means taking a holistic view and acknowledging the social and environmental impacts my choice of fabric has on the world. Which fibre did it start off as? Does it have longevity? Where will it end up?
One place to start is by working with what we already have, as using a material that already exists is more sustainable and environmentally friendly than buying new. Our stage of mass consumerism and fast fashion provides a mountain of perfectly usable cast-offs, for example… I am hinting at ‘Up-cycling.’
So what is up-cycling? In a nutshell, up-cycling means using materials with a low value to create a new product with a higher value. Essentially giving something old a new lease of life.
My up-cycling venture began whilst in my final year of printed textiles at the Glasgow School of Art. I wanted to print onto knitwear, yet knitting my own pieces (even from lovely chunky hemp/wool blends) was too timely and buying too costly. What could be used that, in both senses, didn’t cost the earth? My resolution to this conundrum was to venture into a charity shop, where suddenly I found many sizable pieces of knitwear for bargain prices. At the same time buying from charity shops means re-using a product, reducing shipping to external markets and supporting many a just cause through the likes of the Red Cross, Barnardo’s, Oxfam and Shelter, so much more than just bargain knitwear…
A few samples of printing onto re-claimed knit
But the material is only one part of textile design. My design work has been inspired by the bicycle ever since I wandered into the Glasgow Transport Museum and set eyes on the most beautiful penny-farthing I’d ever seen. Whilst I was influenced by the aesthetic design of bicycles (in all shapes and sizes), they also go hand in hand with reducing negative impacts on the environment. Bicycles have negligible carbon emissions, use few materials and resources and make us all that much fitter and healthier! (Though perhaps not all of us will ride a penny-farthing to work!)
Digitally printed silk handkerchiefs
But back to the knitwear… after using jumpers as material for my designs I began to think of other creative ways to use them. This started an enterprise of making hot water bottle covers from the sleeves and cushion covers from the main body. I also became curious about other designers in the world of up-cycling. This led me to discover Goodone, a company which I have been working for this year.
Goodone was established by Nin Castle in 2006 and has appeared at London Fashion Week for the past 6 seasons. Nin has recognized the need to address the environmental impact of the fashion industry and developed a method that is informed by the use of recycled fabrics, but not restrained by it.
The majority of materials are sourced from a textile-recycling unit in East London. Many of the garments are 100% recycled materials, others are mixed with faulty or end of the line fabrics. All garments are made to order in the studio in North London, with a bespoke option, so that only the fabric needed is used.
Despite already using end of the line materials Goodone has even gone a step further, or several leaps, when thinking about its own post production waste. Jerseys/T-shirts are used as cleaning rags, a children’s toy project is on the go and all those jumper sleeves… you guessed it, hot water bottle covers!
Hot water bottle covers made from Aran jumpers
These are inspiring examples of how the role of a designer can help make a more positive impact on our planet: up-cycling; made-to-measure; managing post production waste. Clare Farrell’s article, ‘Peak Fibre?’, on the goodone blog, highlights the necessity of such business models.
Should you wish to discuss your own ideas of up-cycling (or just come for a chat and see what we do!) there are a few events on about town that you can visit:
- Friday 9th-Saturday 10th December – Goodone Sample Sale; with Lu Flux and Ada Zanditon.
- Saturday 10th December – Stoke Newington Town Hall Christmas Market; Alice Nicol, London Bike Kitchen, Bicycle Library and BikeParka
- Wednesday 21st December – Nyborg’s Christmas Fair; Alice Nicol
Book Review- Concrete Garden Projects
4th November 2011 by JoTimber Press got in touch and asked if they could send over some books for us to review. Timber Press is an international publisher of books about gardening, ornamental and edible plants, garden design, sustainability, and natural history- all good things. So this is hopefully the first of a series of book reviews by Otesha.
I received ‘Concrete Garden Projects: easy & inexpensive containers, furniture, water features and more‘ by Malin Nilsson and Camilla Arvidsson. I must firstly confess that I have not read the book in full, but it is mainly a picture book, and I have looked at most of the pictures. The photography is beautiful. This book is half garden and well decorated lifestyle, half DIY crafts. In theory that’s just great, except it’s about making garden stuff out of concrete. I’m not interested in learning how to make things out of concrete, and it’s not a skill I want to promote to anyone else either. The very last thing I want to do is fill my roof garden or anyone else’s garden with bits of concrete.
The first thing that put me off reading it is the inside cover page photo of a concrete noughts and crosses board and pieces. The second thing that put me off reading it is the first chapter entitled ‘Hooray for Concrete!’. Cement is responsible for 5% of global carbon emissions. The third reason is the authors advocate the use of peat, which is really, really not an appropriate garden product.
A quick browse of Timber Press’ website turns up loads of books I’d love to read on rooftops gardens, bugs and low impact gardening. If this book had been about reclaimed timber (or hempcrete) garden projects instead, I would’ve loved it.
Instead, this is a book about garden tat. If you like tat you’ll probably like this book. I hate tat. If you like tat, get in touch- I have a book here you might like and am up for a swap.
Shampoo insight
27th October 2011 by caluWhen I shaved my head 3 years ago as part of a personal journey to challenge beauty stereotypes I discovered a world of less water & personal care product consumption. My motivation had been more social than environmental but I guess that after a while I just realised how these two are inevitably intertwined.
With more time in my hands due to shorter showers and experiencing the positive environmental impact of a hairless head I started looking in detail at the products in my bathroom. I felt relieved I wasn’t a parent or a health and safety inspector because I could have freaked out by the amount of nasty chemicals I came across. And by nasty I mean linked to neurological disorders, endocrine disruption, biochemical or cellular changes as well as various cancers.
I also found out that “when you put shampoo or conditioner onto your scalp, the 20 blood vessels, 650 sweat glands, and 1,000 nerve endings soak in the toxins”*.
So there I was, surrounded by cocktails of toxic chemicals nicely packed and wondering why a reasonably environmentally conscious person had no idea of such an issue. I’ve had a similar feeling reading “In defence of food” by Michael Pollan and learning about the chronic diseases linked to the Western diet, the nutritionism scam and the highly processed food-like products. But that’s part of another story.
What’s the alternative then? I tried olive oil soap bar, Dr’s Bronners’ liquid soap, castile soap, baking soda and watered down vinegar. There are lots of recipes online here, and here. You’ll have to try a few before you find the one that suits you better – just like with the “normal toxic based” shampoos.
I stopped shaving my hair a year later and tried sticking to natural ingredients until I started rescuing things. I’ve gone back to natural stuff again this summer after spending quite a lot of time talking about our environmental impact at Tartan Trail’s cycle tour training week.
If you were wondering, my hair doesn’t look like the photoshopped models’ hair from the magazines but neither do I (and 99.9% of the female population) so who cares. My hair will take its time to adjust itself to a toxic chemical free life (if we don’t take into account air pollution). Nevertheless I feel better and my personal journey to challenge beauty stereotypes continues.
Smiles and positive vibes
Calu
* http://www.healthiertalk.com/do-you-know-whats-your-shampoo-2200
Guerrilla Knitting
20th May 2011 by JoIn case you didn’t know I am a knitter, a knitist even. I love knitting because you can do it everywhere, except I believe on airplanes these days, which is fine by me since I’d rather be on the train clicking my needles anyway. So if, like me, you have an slightly obsessive compulsive desire to make things constantly, I recommend counseling. Or knitting.
All of my nearest and dearest are proud owners of surprisingly shaped hats. I once bought a cardigan from a charity shop, unraveled it and knitted it back into a jumper – and yes, believe it or not, it was worth it. One day I hope to only wear socks of my own creation. So far I have 3. I would love to knit and wear this jumper.
Real wool is expensive, but it is lovely and luxurious and comes in beautiful colours. I have tried to ban myself from wool shops but I occasionally go in and stroke the shelves. Recently I met a man who spins undyed wool from his own sheep, it takes him a day to make a hat, the result is beautiful, warm and waterproof (the oil in untreated wool gives it water resistant properties). He gave me some, it still smells of sheep.
Luckily I was bequeathed several bin bags of wool that a friend bought at a car boot sale. This matched with my penchant for unraveling second hand jumpers means that my wool habit should be forever satiated. This much wool in the cupboard is a constant race against the clothes moths, but I do like to live dangerously.
Anyway, imagine my excitement at discovering that June 11th is International Yarn Bombing Day (it’s also Worldwide Knit in Public Day, what a coincidence). Stitch and Bitch London will be marking the occasion with a Stitch Crawl through the Royal Parks.
Yarn bombing for those not in the know, is the process of decorating the streets with knitted or crocheted graffiti. Yarn bombing (also know as guerrilla knitting and yarn storming) is practised in cities all over the world. Past targets have included a London phone box, a bus in Mexico City, street furniture, trees and a subway carriage in Berlin.
Wikipedia, the source of all random knowledge, says:
The practice is believed to have originated in the U.S. with Texas knitters trying to find a creative way to use their leftover and unfinished knitting projects, but it has since spread worldwide.
While other forms of graffiti may be expressive, decorative, territorial, socio-political commentary, advertising or vandalism, yarn bombing was initially almost exclusively about reclaiming and personalizing sterile or cold public places. It has since developed with groups graffiti knitting worldwide each with their own agendas.
The movement has been said to be “changing the face of craft” as stitchers are more and more frequently being viewed as fibre artists.
So get your needles out and improve the urban landscape one stitch at a time. Does that seem a bit wooly?
Spruce up your spring clean
5th May 2011 by JoThere’s a spring in our step this month as we challenge to you to make your own cleaning products. Conventional cleaning products are a pollutant and a health risk (just look at the warnings on the labels). So rid your cupboards of chemical cocktails, feel good about what you’re rinsing into your water supply and make your cleaning cupboard an edible one too.
These four natural cleaning products will give you surfaces you really can eat off:
Bicarbonate of Soda
- has natural deodorising qualities (can be used to remove smells from shoes, sinks, cupboards, toilets, carpets and fridges)
- mixed with water Bicarbonate of Soda or Baking Powder creates an alkaline cleaning paste that cuts through grease (good for cleaning ovens, kitchen and bathroom surfaces)
- used neat or in a solution of vinegar and water it also works as a stain remover
Lemon Juice
- also a good deodoriser (particularly good at deodorising smelly kitchen drains)
- known for its grease-busting qualities
- removes hard water marks
- leaves behind a better smell than vinegar
- works as a metal polish
- freshly squeezed or bottled lemon juice works equally well
Vinegar
- works much like lemon juice, should be used in a 1:1 mix with water
- advisable to opt for a subtler-smelling white vinegar (such as white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar)
- removes limesale and other mineral deposits (fill your kettle and leave it over night to descale it, left overnight vinegar will make your toilet bowl look like new)
- will make your taps, sinks and ceramic tiles sparkle (don’t use it on marble surfaces)
- makes the best best window cleaner ever and leaves no smears
- also brings mirrors and glass up shimmering and shining
- works as a fabric conditioner
Olive Oil
- use neat or with lemon juice as a hardwood furniture polish
- mixed with grape seed extract (a disinfectant), water, soap and lemon juice makes a good car cleaner for both inside and out (as it can be used on both metal and leather)
Insulate
2nd March 2011 by Sylvia's MotherWe’ve told you before, but we’ll tell you again.
Insulate with a friend. Insulate with a loved one. Insulate with a glass of wine. Then insulate some more.
We’re often told to reduce our electricity use. Sure. But space heating accounts for 60% of the energy we use in the house, with 20% on hot water and electricity only 20%. Reducing the heating demand for energy in the first place will do wonders. Pester you parents, landlords and friends on the housing ladder to insulate lofts, flat roofs, slanty roofs, floors, pipes, cavity walls, solid walls…
(If you’re interested in learning more you can read some or all of David McKay’s book Sustainability Without the Hot Air book for free online)
The Energy Saving Trust will be able to tell you about grants for insulation, draft proofing and other super-sexy energy saving measures that are available in your area so give them a call on 0800 512 052. They also have detailed guides on home improvements that you can download for free.
With loft insulation going at only £3 a roll, it’s more a matter of can you be bothered to pay a smaller heating bill than can you afford to insulate.