Recycle

Imagine buying a couch that in a years time completely disappears? Montauk, a furniture manufacturer, has designed a couch that completely decomposes. This is just one example of a biodegrabable product. There are many more out there. For example, Looolo cushions (pic below) will biodegrade in one year, should you choose to throw them in your composter once you’re done with them. This idea, that an object be 100% biodegradable, is a noble attribute but how practical is it really?

We live in a throw-away society. The very same products that 50 years ago were bought for their long-lasting qualities are now objects of fashion and ultimately destined for the landfill where even the organic matter cannot decompose due to a lack of oxygen.

Bill Brown from the University of Chicago, who is best known for his work on ‘thing theory’, explains how the value of a piece of furniture you come in contact with often, like a dining room table or a sofa, draws much of its worth from that contact: the longer we keep it around, the more psychologically valuable it becomes. “We use the ‘object world’ to stabilize human life,” he said. “Hannah Arendt said that sitting at the same table grants man his sameness, which is to say his identity.” To Mr. Brown the idea of degradable home goods suggests an identity crisis and I think I can relate to this. If my bed were to decompose I do not think I would feel nearly as safe sleeping in it night after night. If what I built my physical home around is going to just decompose I do not think I would feel very secure.

So how do you satisfy your needs, the need to keep-up-with-the-jones and at the same time not kill the world. One idea is to make objects more valuable. This is usually by expensive materials and craftsmanship. To make a product that is meant to last and be passed on. To move towards traditional attributes of quality as opposed to fashion and convenience. For example, we don’t buy disposable wedding rings so why disposable crockery?

I think this idea, the one of value, makes more sense than the idea of making something that will fall apart and return to the earth. It would feel a bit like watching your money just go ‘phoof’. So, in conclusion, I pledge to buy only with the intention that the object last and be useful for many years and possibly even developing a sense of heirloom rather than saying “Well, it will just have to will do for now and if I don’t like it I can always throw it away and buy another one next year.” I say “No more!”

Here is a collection of all my favourite recycled things from etsy.

Clockwise from left to right: 1) The Alexander Mandinka Hand-Bag which is made entirely of reclaimed and recycled men’s suit coat coats. 2) Reiter8 pillow made from recycled sail boat sails! Reiter8 also make fantastic bags so go and check them out. 3) Polka Dot Suede wallet by Nicaeli made from recycled leather. 4) Earrings by Debby Arem made from recycled circuit boards. 5) 2ReVert pendant made from 100% post-consumer recycled skateboard. One side features the skateboard graphics and some usage marks, and the other side shows off the inner coloured layers of the skateboard. I love this! 6) Hand stitched little bird cut from a collection of bird inspired stamps from Cotton Bird Designs paper and fabric aviary.

The Japanese approach to wrapping is one that I draw a lot of inspiration from. To the Japanese the wrapping of the gift is an art and often more important than the actual gift itself. The function of wrapping in Japan is to refine the object and to add layers of meaning to the gift in its unwrapped form. In the Western world wrapping is merely to disguise and build anticipation of the gift. It does not add meaning and is often an after-thought to the gift. The Japanese emphasize that it is not the object itself but the act of giving a gift that matters. This ties in with the saying: ‘it’s the thought that counts’ -but how often do we actually put thought into the wrapping and the ‘giving’ of the gift. The receiving is the part emphasized in the modern world.

Not only is the way the Japanese wrap beautiful and interesting but it is sustainable. The art of using fabric squares to wrap packages is called Furoshiki and dates back as far as the Nara period. Furoshiki, made using a variety of cloths such as silk, cotton, rayon etc is regaining popularity in Japan because it is a way to reduce the waste produced by paper and plastic shopping bags. Maureen Shaughnessy’s blog and the Layers Of Meaning blog go into more detail about Furoshiki, it’s meaning, history and how to do it.

Here are some examples how Furoshiki has been applied in a modern context:

9brand has created sleek wrap cases for laptop/notebook computers. The size is adjustable so you can have any size laptop and this ‘wrap’ will fit. I want one of these!

I love this Furoshiki bag.

I also came across a really beautiful Furoshiki exhibition in Tokyo called “Preventing garbage with traditional wrapping”. Under the theme of ‘beauty of wrapping’ and ‘beauty of carrying’ 30 artists and celebrities wrapped what they considered most precious to them. Here are some pictures:

Left to Right: Dog wrapped in Furoshiki designed by Yukimasa Okumura, stylish Furoshiki design by artistic and art director Noriyuki Tanaka to encourage the use of Furoshiki amoungst the young and fashionable people.

My favourite exhibition piece is by Graphic designer Mitsuo Katsui (above). He designed a print that complimented the wrapping structure and the end result is both elegant and beautiful. I am putting this on my list of things to do: design a fabric that compliments the wrapping and gift. However, I think I will let this idea rest for a while as I have had my fair share of origami folding for the month with my simple map-paper-bag (below) project.

I value the wrapping of gifts and I carry this through to Wren bag packaging.

Each Wren bag is packaged in a brown paper bag sealed with a safety pin decorated with brightly coloured beads. The safety pin is a traditional South African clothing item used instead of a button to hold clothes together and in my context, it serves as a sticker closing the classic and simple brown paper bag. The safety pin can be used later for whatever reason you can dream up.

This weekend I was playing with a new and ‘bigger’ bag design that I am hoping to introduce soon. For this bag I realized I needed bigger packaging. Brown paper bags come in standard sizes and the one I use is the biggest one available. I gave this ‘problem’ some thought and this is was what I came up with:

I have used the maps that I had under my bed. These maps of Cape Town and the Cederberg were being thrown away due to printing errors, name changes or because they were out of date and I ’saved’ them thinking I would find a purpose for them someday. Until now the only purpose I have found for them were my wall-art swallows but now I can finally say - they were worth keeping. I have taken something that was waste to somebody and have given it ‘new’ life. I copied the pattern from the brown paper bag and adjusted the size proportions. I have never been good at origami, maths or patience so this was a true challenge (and I was doing it on a Sunday afternoon!). After many frustrating samples I finally got it right and I am so excited with the result.

To seal the ‘map’ bag I came up with the idea to use old stamps. This relates to the map itself, distance and ties back to the theme of ‘no waste’. To get the old and already used stamp to stick I use double-sided tape.

So now you know - if you buy a Wren bag it comes beautifully wrapped. The current size bag is wrapped with the brown paper bag and beaded safety pin, if you buy more than one Wren bag you will get the recycled map bag and South African stamp and if you buy one of the bigger Wren bags that will soon be launched you will also get the recycled map bag and SA stamp.

On the theme of recycling I love the work by Justina and Faith Blakeney and Ellen Schultz from Compai, a crafty design studio and clothing label. They focus on eco-design and DIY. Their website is an joyous hoot and their products are as much fun.

Their t-shirt project is one of my favourites:

They recently moved from Italy to the Big Apple and designed this top call this top the “Chaos T”. The textures and the shapes are like the towering skyscrapers. The result, like the big city, is chaotic, yet beautiful.

For instructions on how to make your own “Chaos T,” go to Supernaturale.

I love the simplicity of this project - we all have those over-bleached poor old tees scrunched up at the back of our drawers and never worn….who knows, this might give it some life back.

I am passionate about recycling, re-using, re-creating, organic fabrics and natural dyes. I love the magic that is either gained or restored to a product or design. Recently I have come across several young designers who have used the ‘old’ and created the ‘new’.

Nicole Rae Styer is a young fashion designer who has turned her passion into something truly amazing. She takes old clothes and fabrics and using vintage school craftsmanship creates a “custom vision for the present” in her colourful studio that was recently visited by blogger Flygirl. Her garments are one-of-a-kind, each with its own unique voice, a voice first spoken on the spinning wheels of the early seamstresses and loud enough to make themselves heard in today’s fashion assembly line. Her goal is to draw from the past and create something fashionable for the future. She certainly has done this and recently showed at New York Fashion week.

The CPUT 3rd year Surface Design Students recently did a project where they had to take items of old clothing and created a new and desirable garment from. Their concept was quite in-depth but once unraveled into logical layers it can be understood.

The project deals with recycling old clothes and at the same time incorporates the theme of ‘Extreme Democracy’ developed by Steven Johnson which I would explain as the cohesiveness of organisms working together. This theory was applied to clothing: They asked if you are what you wear or if you wear what you are? An interesting question…and even more interesting is the different ways in which the students interpreted the brief and applied it.

Here are some examples of the students work:

Weyers Marias’s (above) garment is absolutely amazing (and his concept board filled with morphing images of his clothing is beautiful too). What I like most about his garment is the adaptability of it. Hidden underneath are a web of ribbons that gather at the neck. These are colour-coded and for example, if you pull the red one the left part of the outfit rises and the shape of the garment undergoes a complete metamorphosis.

Miriam Haynes (above) has created quite a stir with her garment that “superficially covers the female figure.” The garment highlights the issue of sexuality, sexual abuse and female liberation. She asks why can women not wear anything they want to? You might say that we can…but if you think about it, this garment would be a no-no because of how it exposes the body and could be said as asking to be to sexually assaulted. Very interesting.

Hesere Gildenhuys and Monita Rademan (above) discovered, right at the end, that their garments compliment each other and work well together. Gildenhuys has reworked stocking to create a network of intertwining fabric that hints to a stifling lack of communication and Rademan’s piece tells the story of time. I love the layers in Rademan’s piece: The fabric underneath is so busy, the fabric on top so clean and calm but because it has been gathered, pulled and twisted….it creates a conflict - the same conflict of too many things to do but not enough time!

Inge van der Post (left) used her dad’s old dressing gown. Her theme was comfort, saftey and protection. “My clothes must be my armour, my courage, my energy, my talisman, my secret weapon against the forces of this world that will try (and fail) to conform me to their ideals and into the many mass-produced clone-drones.”

All these amazing creations have a future and I think that is the most exciting thing about recycling or recreating. I love what Chantal Clarys said in her report on the above project: “Mass production is a clustering system, it is great at conjuring up crowds, but lousy at coping. The producers of mass production can manipulate us/the crowds, but you realise there is something missing, something true”. I think she is right….we need heart, soul and meaning in our clothing…because I am a person with heart, soul and meaning.

Silhouettes have an amazingly calming effect. I have two silhouettes pasted on my bedroom walls.

I came across this poor cat silhouette, all tattered and torn sorting through my mom’s old school stuff (she was a Grade 2/Sub b teacher) and became transfixed with it. It was so beautiful I couldn’t let it be thrown away. So…I got hold of some charcoal card, traced the shape and cut it out. It now sits on my skirting board and every time I see it, it’s simple beauty calms me.

The other cut-out I have are three swallows.

I have a fascination with maps and I hate the way that old maps, artworks, just get chucked away. My first idea to ‘rescue’ them was to create paper bags out of them. But this never materialized and I still have a stack of old maps under my bed. At the same time as this was going on I was busy doing a textile design with birds and loved the shapes I was coming across. I choose the swallow silhouette, worked on it a bit and cut it out of the maps. They now fly above my bed and fill a wall that would ordinarily be quite boring and plain. I love the correlation created by the swallow and the map. I have gotten a lot of compliments about them and really all they were was an experiment to fill a space when I had no money and little time. I have grown to love them and think I will keep them when I move one day.