oh wow

how innovative!

http://www.ecouterre.com/hoyan-ip-turns-food-waste-into-buttons-buckles-other-bio-trimmings/





or

http://www.ecouterre.com/what-is-zero-waste-fashion-and-why-does-it-matter/

which leads to.....
http://www.ecouterre.com/the-monster-challenges-of-cheap-low-maintenance-frankenfabrics/

(or) wherees the bear?!

bear hair.

natural, salvaged, local.

My good friend works at grandfather mtn in their habitats.... so lucky me scored  a bag of bear hair collected from the bears at grandfather!

question is is this some kind of project that I can turn into something big enough/ meaningful enough for a senior project or a craft project for myself.

I could turn it in to sometype of faabric (most likely felt) and then turn it into something - but what?

taking a turn

Over the past few weeks I have scouted out the growing sustainable textile industry of North Carolina.  And well there really is no fibershed to uncover.  As far as a commercial industry North Carolina is fully functioning. With in 750 miles cotton is being grown, spun, manufactured and created into clothing.  The wool industry is not as commercial, it is used in a local scale with artisans and more specialty  products.

The more that i look into it- this direction seems as if my project would be almost strictly research which is not what I want.  New, sustainable fibers are great! However not exactly the most sustainable...

what about all of the textile waste? what about wasted resources that could be transformed into something wonderful?!

aaaaaalpaca

Located in the near by mountains of Banner Elk there lies an alpaca farm!

Even more exciting I have a friend that personally knows the owner... I plan to get in contact with them very soon

http://www.applehillfarmnc.com/ 


field trip!

research research research...

there are a lot of North Carolina hopefuls trying to keep our cotton in NC where it can be spun, woven, dyed, sewn and printed.  TS Designs is company that is a working example that it can be done, while providing jobs, using environmentally conscious methods (dying and printing with water based inks) and keeping it all here in NC :)
awesome. heres a short video I found about their vision
http://tsdesigns.com/blog/

Step One: Finding Fiber

                                                                    baby alpaca :)

First step in building/working/creating my blue ridge fibershed is finding a fiber source

in October there is a animal fibers fair in Fletcher NC with tons of local vendors, animals, workshops etc.  Might be an eventful trip to learn more about the Southeastern region for animal fibers and trades of all sorts

http://saffsite.org/