Learn how to make sustainable paper from mushrooms using tough, fibrous fungi like artist’s conk, turkey tail, and birch polypore. This eco-friendly craft transforms woody polypores into strong, chitin-based sheets perfect for art projects, greeting cards, or handmade journals. Our step-by-step guide to mushroom papermaking covers soaking, pulping, forming sheets with a mould and deckle, and drying methods—showing how fungi can replace traditional wood pulp for unique, natural paper.
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The workshop on socks provides an immersive experience, guiding participants through the complete process of sock-making. After the knitting phase, SOUKI’s skilled staff steps in to sew the toes and apply a press-finish, ensuring the socks are ready for wear.
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Maybe you are makers like these guys from Havie. You spend so much time in your craft and money too - should you offer free shipping through platforms like Etsy?
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The perpetual pursuit of cheap stuff stuck together by underpaid workers in China has put a great deal of stress on “mom and pop” artisans across the globe – including Lebanon. Traditional broom makers from Ghassaniyeh in the southern district of Zahrani told Lebanon’s Daily Star that they once made a decent living making straw […]
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Concerned to reconnect hands and minds and make a worthwhile environmental impact, a few women from Saudi Arabia are crocheting recycled plastic bags into colorful bean bags and other quality crafts. The founder of Ateeq, which is Arabic for vintage, Diane Rayyan teamed up with crochet master Ishrat Khawja to hold a two day “trocheting” […]
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While away the long, hot hours of fasting with these fun and festive crafting ideas for Ramadan In times of stress, I turn to sewing and crafting. Colouring in and cutting out shapes, gluing, stitching and sticking things together is just so much fun that I can’t believe entire nations aren’t hooked on it. For […]
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Although Moursi has worked on satellite cities in Kuwait and interior design for river Nile cruise boats, it is telling that she has switched her focus to creating a sustainability ethos within the Egyptian context. Such leadership is badly needed in this country, although we are happy to report that the newly-invigorated local populace is slowly taking up the mandate to forge ecologically and socially-responsible businesses.
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Just because incandescent light bulbs are less energy efficient than CFLs doesn’t mean you need to toss them. Upcycle them! IKEA Israel won’t even sell incandescent light bulbs any more, and people are gradually switching to more energy efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs). No need to toss the baby out with the bathwater, though – […]
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Before grabbing another polluting plastic bag, learn how to easily make a cloth bag out of items you already have lying around. Sustainable Israeli designer Aya Tager will be giving upcycling workshops in Tel Aviv in a couple weeks, but for those who can’t make it she is giving an online workshop right here on […]
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Sustainable designer Aya Tager will teach upcycling workshops this month so that the lighting miracle of Hannukah can continue beyond the holiday’s 8 days. The Jewish holiday of Hannukah celebrates the miracle of a single day’s supply of oil lasting for eight days of lighting, and is beloved by environmentalists who appreciate the energy efficiency […]
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Origami and some creativity saved these Earl Grey tea bag wrappers from the recycling bin and made them functional again. We are constantly surrounded by paper. It is in our mailboxes, surrounding our dry food items, and pretty much everywhere. It is all too easy to toss unwanted or used papers into a wastepaper basket […]
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Regional Etsy shops unite to form old-fashioned collaborative studios, online. Etsy, the online handmade and vintage shopping platform, has done amazing things to help people buy handmade, eco-friendly and local products. Artisans who are marketing their own products can easily set up online shops on the site, and on the buying end, Etsy has made […]
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Pottery has been passed on for several generations in el-Qasr, an ancient village 12 hours south of Cairo. In the medieval village el-Qasr, set at the foot of a limestone mountain in Egypt’s western desert, pottery is taken very seriously. In their book Egypt, Civilization of the Sands, Pauline and Philippe de Flers quote the […]
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Giving Eid cards is trendy in Muslim culture. Eco-designer Zaufishan demonstrates how she "upcycles" old spangles and scraps, into jazzy new handmade Eid cards for the Hajj season.
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Paula Leven is an avid spinner, in the archaic use of the term. Etsy, the popular handmade craft shopping site, touts itself as being green for a few reasons: all the items on the site are either handmade or vintage, and there is a feature to help shoppers buy local. And yes, these are green […]
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