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Aya Kaya’s Online Upcycling Tutorial For Turning T-Shirts Into Bags

Karen Chernick — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:02:46 +0000

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 Green Prophet! Aya (aka Aya Kaya) teaches us how to turn old t-shirts and tank tops into cloth bags that can be used in multiple ways. (For those of you about to gift Christmas or Hannukah presents, this bag may be a great eco-friendly alternative to disposable wrapping paper.)

No sewing experience or fancy equipment necessary! For this easy 4-step project you will need: an old t-shirt or tank top, scissors, needle and thread, and old socks.

Step 1: Fold the shirt so that the sleeves are one on top of the other (you can use the side seams as guides). Then cut out the sleeves and excess fabric at the top of the shirt, so that it will resemble handles.

Step 2: Stitch the bottom to close the bag. You can use a different colored thread to make the bag more decorative (in the photo above Aya has used red thread on white cloth).

The basic bag is now done and you can add details.

Step 3: One way to decorate the bag is to continue the stitching from the bottom of the shirt around the edges of the entire bag.

You could also use old colorful socks to thicken the fabric around the handles. This will help use up other old fabrics and make the handles of the bag sturdier.

The socks can also be turned into a decorative flower or bow tie.

Step 4: Your bag is done! It can now be used as a lightweight and reusable shopping bag the next time you go food shopping, as a lunch bag to take to work or school, or as an alternative form of gift wrap during the holiday season!

:: Aya-Kaya Sustainable Design

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Rothko-esque Plastic Bags Go From Rubbish to Relevant

Karen Chernick — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:21:32 +0000

Colorful plastic bags are both the canvas and the paints in Aviva Sawicki’s artworks.

Plastic bags are a ubiquitous and un-eco-friendly material that many sustainable and upcycling designers have tried to reuse. One designer has turned plastic bags into shoes, another has made plastic bag wallets, and plastic bags can even be used as crocheting material to knit reusable shopping bags. There does seem to be a common trend among these designers, though, in that they fuse plastic bags together in order to make them more durable, usable, and pliable.

Israeli artist Aviva Sawicki is no exception, but she certainly is unique in the visual effects and textures that she creates in her plastic bag fusions.

Of her art, Sawicki writes that “the fusion of colored plastic bags becomes a vivid palette that allows unique color combinations, transparencies and textures which [are used] to create a vibrant transformation from rubbish to relevant.” Who knew fused plastic bags could be so Rothko-esque?

“The unique thing about the recycled plastic bags original works,” she continues, “is that unlike my previous work which was characterized by using self-made recycled paper as my support for paintings and prints, now the fusion of recycled colored plastic bags becomes both canvas and medium. No painting, not even one drop of paint!”

Sawicki is not only concerned with the visual, however, and her work has a clear environmental message.

Using only plastic bags that she procures from her local supermarket in northern Israel, she hopes that her artworks “remind us that we are a mainly consuming society and appeal to awareness of our environment.”

To see more of Aviva Sawicki’s work check out her Etsy shop, AVIVART.

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Upcycled Tea Wraps Into Miniature Origami Masterpieces

Karen Chernick — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 05:58:22 +0000

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 or recycling bin (a more valid ecological choice), but it would be even better if one or more uses could be gotten out of something before it is recycled. Israeli crafter Ruti Ben Dror, who has a love for reusing pre-existing materials and color-matching, has found a use for her used tea bag wrappers and other paper scraps in the form of origami. Her origami creations are not merely decorative, however, and are highly sturdy and functional.

Describing her love for the craft, Ben Dror writes that “in recent years I have been drawn to the magic of folding recycled paper and creating various works of art with them.”

“This kind of art combines my passion for shaping and color-matching with my love for nature”, she continues, “while attempting to preserve and reuse pre-existing materials.”

Ben Dror’s Etsy shop displays masterful origami bowls, magnets and swans made from as many as a couple hundred individual pieces of paper that have been painstakingly chosen for their color or design. Scraps from old maps or Earl Grey tea bag wrappers are purposefully folded together to create visual harmony, or different colored papers are combined in order to create geometric patterns and designs.

The papers are bolstered by glue and a cardboard base, so they form a durable and sturdy structure. Ben Dror suggests that they be used to store small items.

Check out more of Ruti Ben Dror’s upcycled origami items at her Etsy shop, Ruti’s Roots.

Read about other upcycled paper designs::
A Wastepaper Basket Made From Wasted Paper
10 Upcycled Paper Cypress Trees to Be Built as Part of Interfaith Ecological Celebration
Liat Yaniv’s Colorful Newspaper World and Upcycled Paper Dolls

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Etsy “Local” Stores in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Dubai

Karen Chernick — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:13:40 +0000

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 it very easy to shop local by looking for products made and sold near you. Crafting and selling products alone from one’s home or (for the lucky ones) from a studio can be isolating, though, to some artisans. Which is why it’s great that Etsy Teams have started to develop, creating virtual collaborative studios for craftspeople of particular regions. Including, of course, the Middle East.

Etsy Teams allow artisans to communicate with each other, learn about other people’s work, promote each other, and even sell together and plan local bazaars. Local teams of Etsyians have emerged so far in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the UAE – and hopefully more groups will emerge in the future.

Here’s a quick look at these virtual co-ops:

HifromDubai

Hand dyed yarn from Dubai Knits, a HifromDubai member.

Active for almost a year, HifromDubai connects “the amazing Artisans we have in the UAE.” Team members must make their own items and be located in the UAE in order to join, and have even made efforts to meet outside of the virtual world (like, in person).

Made in Israel

Rocking a whopping 95 members, Made in Israel is “for all Israeli designers and artists who wish to take part in a team that helps and promotes its members.” Members communicate with each other, share news about their work, and support each other. (Check out the handmade fabric doll at the top of this post made by Made in Israel member, Timo Handmade.)

Etsian Jordanian Team

Red bamboo coral earrings made by Papercrane Studios, an Etsian Jordanian Team member.

The smallest of the Middle Eastern Etsy teams, the Etsian Jordanian Team is still growing at 4 members. It hopes to “help small businesses to sell their handmade stuff by creating an event or bazaar” for the team.

Enchanting Egypt

Going strong at 31 members, this team is “a place to help connect Egyptian themed artists with other artisans for inspiration, wonder, and creativity.” The team is pretty active, with members using it to expand their networks, promote their work, and think together about products to be made in the future.

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ELTE Weaves New Life Into Aging Persian Rugs

Tafline Laylin — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 15:41:16 +0000

What’s almost as good as a Persian or Turkish Rug? An old one given new life with special dye.

In addition to oil, Iran has a commodity that no one needs to fight about: carpets. According to the Financial Times, in 2008, that country’s exports accounted for 30% of the world market. A staggering number of people rely on carpet-making for their livelihood: 1.2 million weavers craft 5 million square miles of carpet each year. (Learn how to green clean your carpet.) Unlike is some places, where a Persian or Turkish rug is merely a fancy decoration that hardly gets used, carpets in the Middle East are functional. (The Solaris carpet can even generate energy!) As such, they get worn to the bone, so to speak. Instead of letting them go, a Canadian company, ELTE, gives them a second life.

Treehugger saw the rugs at Toronto’s interior design show, where it is said designers are tripping over one another trying to produce the greenest products. ELTE especially caught the blogger’s attention with their SECOND LIFE rugs.

The family-run business scoops up rugs otherwise headed for the landfill. They then “scrape them down” or sand-washed and reinvigorate their former color with oil-based dyes. Many are up to 100 years old and range in price from $500 to $2500, depending on the size.

Not all of the rugs can be fully salvaged. Those that are beyond help are instead cut up into blocks and re-purposed as patchwork rugs. No one could argue that the rugs will ever achieve their former glory, but it’s a fine way to pay their respects to the artists who originally crafted them.

ELTE has made other strides to lower the carbon footprint. Their “Nature’s Carpets” are made from 100% wool – a renewable resource according to their website (this could probably be debated, but we’ll let it go for now), with jute backing.

They also sell what are called “Organic” Persian Rugs. This word has morphed so much since “organic food” came into being, we’re not sure what it means anymore. As applied to the rugs, however, they are all hand-knotted in Persian villages with hand-spun wool and use only natural dyes. Products used to create the dyes include walnuts, pomegranate skins, and vine leaves, and madder roots.

All in-store transactions are paperless, only degradable bags are used, and even the business cards are printed on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) paper. And everything is recycled.

:: Treehugger

More Fashion and Design ideas from the Middle East:
Eco-Hijabs On The Rise: What Muslim Fashion Bloggers Have To Contribute
Israel, Iran Take Top 2 Endangered Species Design Prizes
TreeShirt Brings Graphic Tees And Planted Trees To Lebanon

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