Spoonflower fabrics for Hawaii and San Jose Students

Many yards of fabric!

I was so excited to return from Sweden and see a big box from Spoonflower. In it were all the initial textile patterns of the Alum Rock, San Jose students and the Hawaii students in the You Are Here Street Banner Project. Some of the fabric will be cut into square and hemmed to create furoshiki wrapping cloths. I will be teaching the students how to use their custom fabrics as eco friendly carry bags. The Japanese Ministry of Environment has been promoting the tradition on their website: http://www.env.go.jp/en/focus/attach/060403-5.html

The remainder of the fabric will be used for an art installation at Montalvo Art Splash, a showcase of student art. The purchase of the fabric has been made possible by a MERIT mini grant from the Krause Center for Innovation. The project site for the You Are Here Street Banner is at this link: http://youareherefabrics.weebly.com/

Furoshiki Security Check Series

I am exploring creating furoshiki that reflects on modern airplane travel. Furoshiki are eco-friendly traditional Japanese cloth wraps from an era when traveling was simpler. I painted the objects with gauche and then scanned them. I wanted a hand drawn feel to the textiles patterns.
Click on above image to see it as a Spoonflower fabric.
The design features banned items such as scissors, needles, nail clippers, cigarette lighters, and oddly, snow globes.Below: the fabric wrapping a package as a furoshiki.



Below: A design showing bins at security check with shoes and other items in them on the way to the scanner. Click on image below to see it as a spoonflower fabric.

San Jose Bans Plastic Bags!

San Jose has today banned plastic carry out bags in grocery stores. The ban will take effect in 2012. I was surprised to read this development in a San Jose Mercury News Article. I have used plastic bags in my art and it amazed me a few years ago when I visited a local creek to collect trash for projects and saw many nests of plastic bags tangled in the water and surrounding bushes. This ban is a wonderful development for our community...no more of this urban tumbleweed! I will be nice to no longer see empty bags blow up against fences and drifting along the streets.

I have met an entrepreneur who is the son of a plastic bag manufacture. This son now has a business selling the eco friendly Japanese cloth wrappers called furoshiki through http://furoshiki.com/ His furoshiki are a lovely collection of local and Japanese designs.

Anyway, musing on plastic bags and am grateful that they will be a thing of the past. I do have a purse somewhere made of woven together Safeway plastic bags. It was made by a friend of my grandma in Hawaii. Such hobbies utilizing this waste will move onto other medium, I suppose.

At any rate, good news today on the plastic bag ban!