Recycling

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Original T-Bag Designs

February 10, 2010 in Featured by wendren | 3 comments

It is amazing the difference that a single person can make to the lives of others. Meeting Jill from Original T-Bag Designs the other day made me realise this becuase she has really put together an amazing company that has achieved this.

Original T-Bag Designs originates out of the need to create job opportunities for others. Instead of throwing away the tea bag after you have had a cup of tea, why not let it be reused creatively. In 2000 Jill created a company that did just this and their creations are quite amazing. My favourite is the tea bag angel collection.

They get the used tea bags, empty, rinse and iron them. These can then be used to make coasters, greeting cards, artworks, bags, angels (like above), book tags … they really do a lot with the simple tea bag.

You can either visit them at their workshop in Hout Bay and/or buy and discover more about them online.

What to do with cardboard packaging

July 29, 2009 in DIY Projects by wendren | 1 comment

So you go out and spend (as consumerism requires) and you get home to unpack, what in my case was a washing machine, through layers of cardboard, polysterene and plastic. The washing machine is a dream but now what do I do with the packaging?

Here are some options:

1. Recycle it. *If you do not know where to take it you can always drop it off at your nearest school or give it to a homeless person who will more than likely know where to take it becuase they get paid a small amount for it.
2. Make a solar box cooker.
3. Reuse it as a box to ship Wren bags (but obviously the box will need to be made smaller).
4. Make a cardboard chair and watch this amazing video (below) to see how far you can take the idea of a cardboard chair.

5. Bake sweet potatoes with it, instead of using an oven. See how.
6. Make a cat litter. This could not be easier and works like a charm for Pye when she was still a tiny kitten. I put wax wrap on the bottom, filled it with kitty litter and every day I would replace it.
7. Hungry? Make cardboard food.
8. Make drawer dividers. See DIY. (This is something I have always done with shoe boxes by cutting the lid off).
9. Use cardboard to keep away weeds. How? Lay cardboard pieces under your mulch near where you plant your flowers and it will keep the weeds to a minimum.
10. Have a bit of fun and make pom-pom’s.

Whatever you do, do not throw your cardboard away. Why? Because on average, 9% of urban garbage dumps consist of cardboard boxes and a ton of cardboard boxes is the equivalent of 17 trees. For more facts read here.

!NEW! Coffee Clutch

May 5, 2009 in Wren by wendren | 8 comments

I cannot wait any longer to show you these new coffee clutches made from recycled fair trade jute coffee sacks (aka the left over coffee sack peices from the organic coffee bags).

A while back I discovered this fantastic heavy-weight calico that has a heat activated fusing back at a shoe maker. It works wonders when fused to the jute becuase it stabilisers the fabric making it easier to work with and prevents the edges from fraying. Perfect for the clutches.

To add some ‘fun’ to the design I decided it was about time I put my textile design background to use. I designed four placement prints for the insides and screen-printed them (to read about the printing click here).

'Keep Calm and Carry On' in black & sunrise orange.

'Every Day Little Treasures' in black.

'Seagulls' in pastel grey.

'Bird on a lace fence' in black and turquoise.

The clutches are closed with a thin rimpie (leather weaving strip) that gets wrapped around the purse and tied around the fabric covered Wren button.

The clutches are 8″ wide by 5″ (closed) and 8.2″ (open) tall. Cheque books fit inside, notebooks, pens and pencils, receipts, travel documents, cable needles for knitting, ipod and iphone, sanitary pads and tampax, cosmetics, keys, use it as a wallet … let me know what you would use it for becuase it can be used for just about anything.

Visit my etsy shop here. The first three people to buy a coffee clutch will get a special extra that will only be available later. In essence, you get a sneak peak.

The Coffee Sling Bag in colour…

October 27, 2008 in Wren by wendren | 2 comments

The Charcoal (‘From Rawanda’) and the ‘New Blue‘ Coffee Sling bag’s (pics below) were hand-dyed by me using a mixture of natural dyes. These lining colours are a once-off and cannot be repeated.

The stone coloured lining (‘From India Coffee Sling Bag’) (pic below) is dyed by my suppliers with environmental dyes and processes. The print is a brilliant turquoise.

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There are also two new bird pouches in my shop: The ‘Orange you beautiful’ (left) and the ‘Disa’ (right) bird pouch.

How the ‘Organic Coffee Sling Bag’ came to be

October 9, 2008 in Wren by wendren | 6 comments

These coffee sacks were found by chance and I fell in love with them. I did not know what I was going to do with them….but I could not leave them there so I bought a selection. Two days later I went back for the rest. They were too gorgeous to leave any behind …

Then, as per usual, for days I thought about what kind of bag these sacks wanted to be …and it seemed as though this design did not want to wait. At the same time I was busy with an environmental competition with the CPUT students and Hemporium was one of the sponsors. They provided some organic Hemp canvas swatches for the students to see what the fabric was like so that they could design their products accordingly. After seeing and feeling this fabric (which I thought was beautiful) I had a ‘Eureka’ moment: Why not use the hemp canvas together with the coffee sacks? When I got home I put the two textures together and they were a match made in heaven.

I always start a new design by drawing a selection of bag designs in my journal. Then I select a few and play around with the fabric to see how it moves and how it hangs. The final design for this bag came rather quickly and I pinned it together to get the full effect.

Then I worked out the pattern pieces for the bag. This process always takes me a long time as I have to give it 100% focus all the way through. I am not a natural at working out how the pieces will fit together and I often have to ‘build’ the bag in my head. I cannot be disturbed doing this or I have to start all over again.

Once this is done I create the pattern pieces. I use newspaper because if I make a mistake with the pattern, it is not a costly mistake.

After this I make my first sample. I still have not learnt yet from my mistakes as everytime I tell myself, “agh, you have the pattern right this time, you do not need to use cheaper fabric. Use the real fabric. I am sure it will be perfect”.

As expected, it was not.

Luckily only a few changes needed to be made and I made these on the proper card pattern pieces: the overall size of the bag was too big, the strap was a little bit too long, I added an extra pocket inside the bag and changed the tuck sizes. Otherwise, the whole bag was the quickest I have ever made anything from start to finish.

The Organic Coffee Sling Bag is my favourite bag. This goes to show that sometimes the best things happen by chance.

Paradigm Shift Project Continued

October 1, 2008 in DIY Projects, Featured by wendren | 3 comments

Remembering that the project (below) is about taking a ‘known’ object, unlearning what it has been learnt to be and creating a new purpose. Here are some more brilliant ‘paradigm shift’ products:

Above: Lize-Marie created this absolutely amazing lamp using a colinder and a shower head (and shower cable). I think this is absolutely fabulous. It is so stylish and simple!

Above: A broken mirror turned into a mug hanger/holder by Natasha Wisterman.

Above: Tarryn Prins made a plant hanger using a broken lamp shade.

Above: This ‘Whisk light’ is made by Amy Burton. She took a traditional kitchen whisk, bend the prongs out and using think wire hang tea lights from it making a minature chandeliar.

Above: Juanne Groenewald ingeniously turned an unwanted telephone into a watering can for in the home. She removed the inside of the telephone, sealed the box and all other joints and added water to the main unit. All you have to do is hold the telephone higher than the reciever and water flows through the pin-prick holes of the reciever.

Above: Megan Aitken took a toilet seat and turned it into a mirror and table. It is meant to be mounted onto the wall, closed with a strong magnet and when opened you have a mini dressing table. Perfect for small bathrooms.

Make it out of nothing…

September 30, 2008 in DIY Projects, Featured by wendren | 4 comments

The 1st year Surface Design Students at CPUT did a project called the “Paradigm Shift Project”. The aim of the project was to challenge the way of seeing and knowing objects as. They had to take a ‘known’ object and unlearn what it has been learnt to be and recreate its purpose. They had to find one household object to work with, were allowed a maximum of 4 extra objects (including glue etc) to make this ‘new’ object of use and were encouraged to spend very little (if possible, nothing) on their objects.

I was so excited by the results of this project we organized a professional photo session for their products (and them) to be shot. Here they are:

Above: This bottle-top opener and cork-skrew all in one device is made by Micka Chisholm. It was originally a thick metaled fork.

Above: Amanda Wababa made a filing system out of South African cereal boxes. I think I need to make one of these for all my posting envelopes.

Above: Isabelle Manyuchi cut and stuck scoring blocks together to make a seat cushion. She called it “score a seat”. It is colourful, comfortable and an extremely affordable cushion. Love it!

Above: These are placemats made from old diary covers. Lara Stanford took used diaries, removed all the pages and then stuck chopsticks onto them as heat insulators. They are also reversable.

Above: Monique Arnold took her broken bar bridge and turned it into a herb garden for her flat. She fitted it with a full watering and lighting system.

Above: This jewelry organiser is made by Anri Vercuiel by turning a coat hanger upside down, adding an extra metal foot for stability and nails to help organise the jewelry.

I think these objects are brilliant, clever and fun. I wil post the rest of the class tomorrow….