Twisted Textiles

Still have lots of good photos and new lil’ things to share.

This coin purse was sewn from part of a dogfood bag, which happens to be organic food I might add! (I hope the person who gave the bag to me decides to continue buying that food…it’s very unique packaging.) The lining is from scrap fabric—I think it looks good with the shiny-gold outside. Although each of these coin purses are one of a kind, I may have to make myself one from another part of this particular gold plastic.

I also have a purse already cut out from the same dogfood bag, which will be hard for me to give away once I’m done with it!

I’ve got quite a few projects that I would like to get done before Christmas, so between working and eating and sleeping, the projects will have to start taking priority! (Has it really already been a whole year since I was last saying this to myself?!)

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And the cows?–Well, I suppose they may or may not be happy about the news. It depends.

One of the random articles that a Google search gave me (while looking for info on clothing made from paper) was a feature about clothing made from milk…and technically they are correct.
According to Mairi Beautyman of The Huffington Post,

A factory in Italy [has begun] making organic yarn from casein, a protein used to make cheese. Reportedly, this chemical-free stuff, marketed as Milkofil, has some “Blade Runner”-like perks: Thanks to natural lubricants in the protein, you can toss the skin cream. It actually keeps your skin soft and moisturized. Plus, super soft and anti-bacterial fibers stabilize body temperature.

If you view this slideshow (from the International Herald Tribune), you’ll also learn that

fibers were in fact first obtained from milk back in 1935, when Fascist Italy was bent on pursuing a policy of autarky, or commodity self-reliance aimed at avoiding international trade. Under names such as Lanital, Aralac and Merinova, these yarns replaced wool until the post-war period. By the 1950s, however, such substitutes had been happily forgotten, an embarrassing blip on the national fashion conscience.

Hmmm.

In the same article, Beautyman introduces us to the 360 Paper Bottle. I would love to get my hands on one of these to really see what it’s all about…

Because in my head, I’m imagining what happens to your McDonalds cup when you let the rest of your rootbeer sit on the counter overnight (or, for a few days). Because we’ve all come home to a sticky rootbeer mess from THAT kind of paper cup, haven’t we? Well, this paper bottle does look quite different—more sleek, all official and heavy-duty-like.

Apparently, plastic clothes hangers are on the chopping block, too. And with good reason. I noticed that someone had “conveniently” name-dropped the following product in a website’s comment section, and I was too curious to not check it out. I’m talking about Ditto Hangers, a company specializing in recycled paper and plastic clothes hangers, and I hope it catches on! They offer a fairly wide selection of styles for their hangers (in paper and plastic) and the website also offers a good summary of the dilemma retailers face between convenience, cost, and environmentalism…

Plastic and wire hangers have become so commonplace in the retail environment that they have become virtually invisible. That is until it’s time to dispose of them. Municipal recyclers won’t and can’t take them. Made of 7 different types of low-grade plastic (if marked at all), they are extremely difficult to identify and segregate on a rapidly moving recycling line. Made from multiple materials (plastic, wire, non-slip vinyl pads, etc.) the components are costly to separate.

I worked in retail for many years, so I can understand the dilemma, and would be very interested to see how strong these paper hangers are. Retailers—and especially customers—are very rough on hangers. I’m not sure how long the paper would hold up, meaning that the hangers would have to be replaced frequently, which would require purchasing lots of extra hangers to have around. (And personally, when I’m shopping, I like to hook the hangers onto the strap of my shoulderbag, so that my hands are free to keep browsing the racks. Would they stand up to the beatings?)

But I digress. Luckily, Ditto Hangers also makes recycled plastic PET hangers, which look pretty sleek in comparison to the paper ones. It looks like more and more companies are making an effort to switch to recycled, but the key is to then RE-USE the recycled items so they don’t end up in landfills when the day is done.

The retail supply-chain is the most obvious place to start dealing with all this plastic….lets hope they keep the new ideas coming!

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Mmmm! I’ll have mine with a side of packing peanuts.

Plastic and I sorta have this love/hate relationship going on. (It’s presence has saved human lives through technology and medicine, yet it’s sheer abundance has created a deadly “plastic soup” in the Pacific Ocean. Birds constantly mistake plastic pellets for food.)

I’ve also been noticing the new decorations in the trees on our street, put there by the recent harsh winds that have dislodged local litter from it’s hiding places. It has prompted me to go on a few garbage collecting journeys recently. Otherwise known as “shopping for art supplies”.

While trying to figure out new things to do with all this plastic garbage that I’ve found myself collecting, I stumbled across artist John Dahlsen, who makes daily trips to his local Australian shoreline to collect the garbage that washes up there. (See the short feature video at www.Overlander.tv to see John in action.)

This Blue Rope triptych (above) is something I could stare at for a long while. Found colors—whether it be colors of autumn leaves or colors of collected garbage—is something that intrigues me. The washed-up ropes, layered and intertwining together, creates a feeling that is both like a painted landscape and a geological diagram. To me it reads as layers of sedimentary deposits in the earth’s strata…mapped-out all neat and tidy. With just a splash of irony.

As well as assemblage art, Dahlsen offers “plastic purge sculpture” such as this one here (Bronze Plastic Purge 2005). These sculptures, byproducts of industrial manufacture, take on a variety of colors and shapes. I especially love how this one in particular reminds me of skin, or like a glorified internal organ. I could write many paragraphs about it’s tactile qualities, but I don’t want you to feel like I’m teaching a biology class here… (geology, now biology—yes, I’m a sucker for science of all sorts.)

Also, have you:
—heard the statistics on Ireland’s taxing of plastic bags in their grocery stores?

—seen a flyer posted in your local “health food store” notifying that they’ll be doing away with plastic bags in the next few months? (Although, toss-able paper bags aren’t that much better, considering how much energy and resources it takes to produce them.)

I can imagine that other artists are going in a similar direction as John Dahlsen (at least I hope so), and I’ll be doing more research in the future on problematic plastics.

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