My Mathematical Mind

A treasury I made last night featuring a few EcoEtsy sellers, among others, made the front page today! Here's a screen shot of it:

For Your Eco Papa!

If you have one of those geeky and/or earth-loving fathers, he might really dig these clip boards made from recycled circuit boards!



These were craftily and consciously created by DebbyAremDesigns!

Orange You Recycled?

Yes, in fact this beautiful floral fabric pin is made of a recycled t-shirt!



Marang97 has many such creations in her beautiful Etsy store!

Made from several layers of a recycled t-shirt. These are great little personal accents! A wonderful accessory to any outfit, coat, bag, pillow or where ever you may need a little more attention!

Great for a wedding or prom corsage, hat pin, curtain accent, on a dog's collar, sweater, hair tie or anywhere else you may think ~ be creative!!

It's Wedding Season. NO, IT'S DUCK SEASON!

But for real, it's wedding season. And if you're looking for a neat gift or keepsake for someone who is tying the knot, consider this cloth calendar, with their wedding date circled via embroidery!



This calendar, made by chakrapennywhistle, is cut from a vintage tea towel. The day of the week may not match up, but for a true earth-lover, that may not matter! For you crafty types, you could then append the patch to any number of gift items, to give them a customized significance!

One of the latest rages on Etsy that I've noticed in recent weeks is the steampunk look. And I must say, I can see why it's caught on.



The above cuff links by dustDesignCo are made from recycled vintage watches, and give you that late 18th century Industrial Revolution meets sci-fi fantasy feel.

Conscious Knitting

If you're a knitter or crocheter and you care about the future of our planet, it may have crossed your mind more than once where a lot of your yarns come from, and how they are made. Go into any Michael's craft store and browse around in the yarn section, checking the labels of random brands and you'll find that 99% of the yarns being sold have some sort of synthetic fiber in them. Even the yarns made of 100% wool or cotton can seem a bit iffy because of the practices used to create them. This tends to bug me, more and more especially ever since I've found that there are eco-friendly alternatives out there!

Today I'd like to feature one of those alternatives, a store on Etsy called Crafty Yarn. I've used this store for a few months now, and have bought a plethora of recycled yarns from her, which I have found to be not only weight-lifting on my conscience, but a pleasantly diverse and unique variety of yarn types that I could never have bought from a chain box store to begin with!


This is yarn recycled (unraveled) from a gently used, high quality sweater. This is a really special yarn - it's unusual to find silk in such a thick weight, and the color is awesome.

There's plenty more of these one-of-a-kind yarns in her shop to check out! And what a great way to make for some guilt-free fiber crafting!

Count the Ways You Buy Green

JesseDanger sells some magnificent handmade jewelry and other metalwork creations! For instance, these Lemongrass shadow earrings are made from recycled silver:



Aside from the product itself being recycled, Jesse takes some other environmentally friendly steps to make buying from him a happily green one...

5% of all profits go to Earthworks, a nonprofit organization that regulates fair trade mining worldwide. Each piece comes packaged in a signed and sealed box using 100% recycled and sustainable materials.

Reusable Baggies

Kootsac makes some very colorful, not to mention useful nylon bags that are great for purchasing bulk foods, as an alternative to plastic bags. And I should know, I bought a few from her! They're washable and reusable, which is very convenient, not to mention great for the earth!



Here is some information about these bags, straight from the source:

WHY NOT USE A NATURAL FIBRE LIKE COTTON?
I am a textile artist and designer and only work with natural fibres, so that was my first thought too. Cotton is too heavy and things like flour leak through the weave. Uncoated ripstop nylon is lightweight, doesn't leak and is water resistant.

WHY IS THERE NO DRAWSTRING?
It was important to keep the weight down. When you buy bulk food you are paying by weight. These bags weigh the same as a plastic bag. Just use a twist tie. Many stores require that you put a bin number on the twist tie anyway.

WILL THEY BE ACCEPTED IN A GROCERY STORE?
All the natural food stores I've used them in have been really excited to see an alternative to plastic and have been very supportive. I can't speak for other stores but I can say that there is a movement towards banning the bag in many parts of the world.

CAN I STORE MY FOOD IN THEM?
In the same way as I try not to store food in plastic I would not store my food in these bags. I put the food in a glass storage container when I get home from the grocery store. Plastic leaches chemicals into your food. Ripstop nylon is not an organic material so I would treat it the same way as plastic, although it is an uncoated nylon.

Twist and Shout!

Seriously, do a little dance for these beautiful twisted bracelets, made of recycled telephone wires in an eye-popping array of colors!


Creator: CourtneyWatson

For Your Woman Times

Consider switching to cloth menstrual pads!



Why make the switch to cloth pads? ModestMaiden lists a number of convincing reasons for crossing over to the green side:

• save money, since they can be used again and again
  
• feel good knowing you aren't adding to the landfills
  
• they're so soft, and they feel much better against the skin!
  
• celebrate being a woman! :)