Eco Friendly Art Practice
I should have started this blog a while ago. At the end of last Summer I was doing quite a few illustration fares and stalls as well as getting to grips with selling work online. I was getting really frustrated at having to wrap my prints, cards and other items in plastic wallets when I knew they would be thrown away after the items got to their new homes.
I've always been very conscious of the harmful effects caused by humans on the planet and more recently with the problem of plastic, both in it's production and the accumulation of plastic products in the environment. I think people are becoming more aware of this problem, especially since supermarkets started charging for plastic carrier bags. This had the aim of reducing the litter associated with them by encouraging people to reuse bags, you can find more info here. Plastic isn't just harmful to the planet but it's inhabitants, including us. It is great to see new ways of recycling plastic such as using plastic bottles to build houses, click here, alternative ways of producing plastic-like materials and people avoiding the use of plastic all together. Even the supermarket Iceland is going plastic free. This was an interesting alternative view, see here, but I'm really talking about a product that is essentially the same but biodegradable and compostable and less harmful to the environment.
Prints and cards where the main thing I was thinking about, these items need to be packaged in a way that you can see the art work whilst also being protected from damage. I did think of other items, larger artwork for example that might usually be wrapped in bubble wrap (I have found this Geami WrapPak that could be a good alternative, but I need to look into this further). However I was focusing on the first as these where the items I was warping at the time.
I looked in a lot of places to see if I could find an alternative to covering my prints with these plastic wallets but couldn't find anything. I did manage to find a number of interesting sites that offer alternatives to plastic items and packaging. I will put these here as they may not be exactly what I am looking for but they may offer alternatives to others:
Anything But Plastic (who I have contacted)
M&H Plastics (these guys aren't all about plastic free but offer a small range of sustainable packaging)
Bio Mass Packaging (this has a list of other brands and products available)
-Bio Mass Wraps and Bags ( this has some products that could be used as alternatives for smaller items, cards perhaps.)
Eco Craft (more on this bellow)
Eco Craft!
I got in touch with this company to ask if I could get some samples. Kevin the amazing, agreed and sent me not only samples of the Cellulose bags (I wanted to see the quality of these as a possible alternative) but also their recycled paper made from coffee cups and a sample of the tissue paper.
I've always been very conscious of the harmful effects caused by humans on the planet and more recently with the problem of plastic, both in it's production and the accumulation of plastic products in the environment. I think people are becoming more aware of this problem, especially since supermarkets started charging for plastic carrier bags. This had the aim of reducing the litter associated with them by encouraging people to reuse bags, you can find more info here. Plastic isn't just harmful to the planet but it's inhabitants, including us. It is great to see new ways of recycling plastic such as using plastic bottles to build houses, click here, alternative ways of producing plastic-like materials and people avoiding the use of plastic all together. Even the supermarket Iceland is going plastic free. This was an interesting alternative view, see here, but I'm really talking about a product that is essentially the same but biodegradable and compostable and less harmful to the environment.
Prints and cards where the main thing I was thinking about, these items need to be packaged in a way that you can see the art work whilst also being protected from damage. I did think of other items, larger artwork for example that might usually be wrapped in bubble wrap (I have found this Geami WrapPak that could be a good alternative, but I need to look into this further). However I was focusing on the first as these where the items I was warping at the time.
I looked in a lot of places to see if I could find an alternative to covering my prints with these plastic wallets but couldn't find anything. I did manage to find a number of interesting sites that offer alternatives to plastic items and packaging. I will put these here as they may not be exactly what I am looking for but they may offer alternatives to others:
Anything But Plastic (who I have contacted)
M&H Plastics (these guys aren't all about plastic free but offer a small range of sustainable packaging)
Bio Mass Packaging (this has a list of other brands and products available)
-Bio Mass Wraps and Bags ( this has some products that could be used as alternatives for smaller items, cards perhaps.)
Eco Craft (more on this bellow)
Eco Craft!
I got in touch with this company to ask if I could get some samples. Kevin the amazing, agreed and sent me not only samples of the Cellulose bags (I wanted to see the quality of these as a possible alternative) but also their recycled paper made from coffee cups and a sample of the tissue paper.
Cellulose Food Bags really great quality, very clear with a shine, pretty much exactly like plastic. These are biodegradable, compostable and vegan friendly.
This paper feels like high quality cartridge paper and is fairly light weight. I tried out some materials on the paper to see how they would work. Everything worked pretty well, the marker bled a little but not as much as I was expecting and the water buckled the paper a little but I wouldn't suggest cartridge paper for watercolours or heavily watered down paint anyway.
Ok so when I first looked at this site in the Summer, the company didn't have any bio sealable display bags, but now they do! Yay! Find them here. However, the bio options only go up to A4. Not bad tho, not bad. Another downside is that these are almost double what the non bio bags cost. With that and the price of postage (which is actually very reasonable) this may put people off this option, especially if you're a student who only eats beans on toast for dinner. Another alternative would be to buy the roll of cellulose film and wrap the prints, etc. by hand.
I am very, very happy however that there is actually another option! But there seems to still be a slight gap in the market and I think there is room to bring the prince down. However I need to do more research into how much the products actually cost to produce.
On a slightly different note but with the same ideals in mind, I found a local man in Portsmouth, Adrian Mundy, who makes his own paper out of offcuts of paper from when he is making his books as well as other materials such as tea leaves, leftover fabric, etc. I have tested this paper out bellow. In his book Natural Imperfections, he explain to process of making paper right from growing the plant for it's fibres. You can see the exhibition that came from this here.
Comments
Post a Comment