lazy-bed

Spring!

2012-02-25T03:29:00.000-08:00

"I was here first," said the snowdrop: "look!"

"Not before me!" sang the silver brook.
"Why," cried the grass, "I've been here a week!"
"So have I, dear," sighed a violet meek.

"Well," piped a bluebird, "don't leave me out!
I saw the snow that lay round about."
"Yes," chirped a snowbird, "that may be true;
But I've seen it all the bleak winter through."

"I came betimes," sang the southwind, "I!"
"After me, love!" spake the deep blue sky.
"Who is it cares?" chimed the crickets gay:
"Now you are here, let us hope you'll stay."

Whispered the sun, "Lo! the winter's past:
What does it matter who's first or last?
Sky, brooks, and flowers, and birdies that sing,
All help to make up the beautiful spring."

George Cooper

Oh snowdrops, I think that

You came in the night,

In only your nighties

And that's why you're white.

The world was all sleeping

With never a sound,

You wanted to see it

So came through the ground.

I think that you're smiling,

But still feel too shy

To lift your sweet faces

To smile at the sky

Melinda Kennedy

Red

2012-02-23T00:38:00.000-08:00

Here are some not-so-obvious reds. Ghent, Malawi, Scotland, New York, Enkhuizen, Sheringham.

White

2012-02-21T09:34:00.001-08:00

Here are some whites. I've photographed them on Barra, on a ferry in Ireland, in Limburg, on my balcony, in a lighthouse on Mull-of-Kintyre and from my own textile collection.

Blue

2012-02-20T09:09:00.001-08:00

Here's the bright contrast of many blues. Sparkling, soft, light, dark. In Enkhuizen, Malawi, Ireland, Scotland, New York.

Brown

2012-02-15T14:20:00.000-08:00

Sometimes just colour can be a connecting concept. Colour is so strong, it's everywhere. This is Berlin,Morocco, Amsterdam, London, Chile and Edinburgh. The warm tones, the contrast, the atmosphere....................

Herman Wijffels | De Nieuwe Liefde

2012-02-13T01:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I attended the first-year anniversary of De Nieuwe Liefde, a cultural centre for debate, reflection and connection. Keynote speaker was Herman Wijffels. After so much he has done, he is now one of the members of the sustainable finance lab. He had a clear, inspiring lecture about the need for change. The idea of how to use money, how to organise society, how to deal with natural resources, how to organise the economy; all these have to shift. From linear to circular, from pyramid to network, from greediness to subservience, from ultra-specialism to broad views. We need the so-called cultural creatives, he said: people who take their responsibility and act as part of a whole and not just for their own good. That might be a slow development, but think of the 'tipping point theory': how little things can make the change. He's a real visionair, and one of my heroes.

Elmina Moisan

2012-02-10T13:36:00.000-08:00

This is a painting by Elmina Moisan, the Chilean painter who lived from 1987-1938. Before I went to Chile I had never heard of her before. I came across her work at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes .
Besides the wonderful work by Maria Angelica Echavari of whom I wrote earlier, the section with Chilean paintings was a true treasure. This painting 'Interior' was my favourite. The first image is my secretly made photo, the second is from the museums' website. Mix both colour schemes in your imagination and that's about the true colours standing in front of the painting...

Green

2012-02-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

Still lives in green. For I can't wait for spring.
With great ceramics from Scorlewald, a few of my favourite books, postcards from Scottish painters, recycled glass and Farrow&Ball wall paint.

Global Citizenship

2012-02-08T03:28:00.000-08:00

This weekend I attended the 40th anniversary conference of NCDO. Their new focus is global citizenship. The shift of development aid towards international cooperation is so clear and good.
There were mini symposiums, the battle of the cheetah's, an interesting debate and a few keynote speakers. The one who most inspired me was Juma Mwapachu; the current President of SID and former Secretary General of the East African Union. During his entertaining talk I scribbled down some keywords:
oneness (ubuntu), social justice, human dignity, the important role of women, sustainability, for the use of public goods it's important to respect ecology and human diversity, the global society is hugely integrated (f.i. IT) and plays an important role, youth can -and needs to- play an important role in building global solidarity.

(photo from sr8talkchronicle)

Elke Dag een Draadje

2012-02-06T07:45:00.000-08:00

Today I went to see the exhibition 'Elke dag een draadje' in Verzetsmuseum in Amsterdam. The title is part of a saying hardly used these days: elke dag een draadje...is een hemdsmouw in een jaar. A thread a day is a sleeve in a year. A moving exhibition of embroidery done by emprisoned women during the Second World War. They smuggled the yarn and the needles into the prison by hiding it in the laundry which had to be done by family, and finished pieces were smuggled out in the same way. The embroidery was made on any piece of fabric. With the embroidery they first of all kept themselves busy, and it was also a way of documentation, communication and resistance. The exhibition shows some amazing pieces. made with dedication and perseverance. Tiny handkerchiefs, edges of sheets, large pieces of cloth, pin-cushions, comb-covers etcetera. Daily routine, wishes and reassurances were written and drawn with thin yarn. Also shown were skirts made after the war. Skirts made from small pieces of fabric used during the war quilted together and embroidered with messages of joy and hope.

Knit Malawi II

2012-02-03T02:40:00.000-08:00

The knitting is something the women have to weave through their daily life. And being a head of household, wife, farmer and mother that's a real challenge!

Knit Malawi I

2012-02-02T09:04:00.000-08:00

I'm preparing my next visit to Malawi this spring. The knitting project will be continued. I''l be working with them to develop techniques, sustain the work by creating a studio/atelier/shop for them, investigate local business opportunities and while doing so empower them. The idea is to support them for 3 years to help them becoming more independent and to be able to gain some extra family income. Most people in Malawi are farmers, and also the people in these villages. I'm looking forward to it very much. And they are looking forward to it as well. The project proposal is now being discussed with the women, village headmen/-women and chiefs involved. A project only makes sense if it's endorsed by the local people.
So far they've enjoyed the craftwork very much, they've even worked on a hand sewing machine that I brought. Their work is mainly used in their own family. But some women do have their own small business with knitting assignments. So we'll be intensifying the process together.

Aran Islands IV

2012-02-01T01:36:00.000-08:00

One of the best visual impressions made about the Aran Islands is the book The Aran Islands by Bill Doyle. He was there in the 1970's, and documented life, crafts, economy and culture. It's one of my favourite books to draw inspiration from. The images are all in black-and-white, and that suits the atmosphere really well. The endless walls made of stones, the skies. The green of the fields is a huge contrast when you walk around on the islands. It's a modern society of course, but curraghs, the small boats, are still hand-made these days. And women still knit and sell their work.
So recently I came across a small company called Inis Meain. A lovely collection of local knitting. Their work reflects what I've written before; even in these contemporary days the feel of craft and tradition is still vivid. And inspiring.

Sheep Galore!

2012-01-30T02:45:00.000-08:00

As wool is my main source of textile to work with, sheep are a source of inspiration. On my travels through Scotland and Ireland I'm always happy to come across a flock or just one. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish them between the rocks. Most of the time they are shy, but occasionally their curiosity wins. Their fleece is sheered but also just gets loose, so there's lots of bits and pieces to be found for my work. I'm always returning home with pockets full of fluffy wool.
Look at the way they live here, they have so much space, such healthy grass to eat and no stress. That's until they eventually are transported.
These happy ones live on Canna.

Fishing Industry

2012-01-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a map, published by Trouw a.o, which shows the devastating effect of the world's fishing industry.
WWF developed this method of visualising the shocking increase of fishing.
Think before you eat your fish, all the reasons to do so!

V&A | golden spider silk

2012-01-24T01:58:00.000-08:00

From the 25th of January on a new fabric exhibition will open at the V&A in London. Textile designers Simon Peers (UK) and Nicholas Godley (USA) and their team went to Madagascar, home of the golden-silk-spider. More than one million spiders were needed to weave a piece of 4 meters. This display will showcase the world’s largest pieces of cloth made from spider silk. It will include a brocaded shawl made from the silk of the female golden orb-weaver spiders collected in the highlands of Madagascar, as well as a cape on public display for the first time. The display will also feature background material and a short film revealing the process. It took four years to weave the piece, and looking at it you understand why. What a delicate fabric! The good thing about the life of the spiders is that they were released afterwards. Less sad than the life of the silk caterpillars whose lives are taken while the thread is taken from their cocoon. An amazing project!

(photo V&A)

David Grossman

2012-01-23T02:45:00.000-08:00

The Israeli writer David Grossman is of of my favourite authors. His work is so delicate, full of ideas and beautiful stories, I read his novels and essays over and over again. From the first book I ever read The Yellow Wind to his latest masterpiece To the End of the Land. Humanity plays an important rol in his work, more important than the political situation in his country. Although he has a lot to say about that, it's never on the foreground in his novels. I 'm lucky to know him personally, and it's always a great pleasure to meet him and talk.

(photo from De Papieren Man)

From an interview for The Paris Review in 2007 with Jonathan Shainin there's this extract from their long conversation:

S: Yet in Death as a Way of Life you say: "I don't belong to those who believe that the Holocaust was a specifically Jewish event."
G: I don't think one can separate the Jewishness from the Shoah, but it's an event that's relevant for all humanity. Every human being should ask himself several questions regarding the Shoah. One of them is - in the face of such total arbitrariness- how can I maintain my uniqueness as a human being? What in me can not be eradicated? In Be My Knife I call this idea the luz, the kernel. Luz is a word from the Talmud. It's the smallest bone in your backbone, which can not be eradicated. All your essence is preserved in it, and from that you will be recreated in resurrection. Sometimes I do a little exercise: I ask people to close their eyes and for one minute to think what would be their luz. The pupil of the eye of their personality. I get interesting answers.
S: What is your luz?
G: I guess it has to do with the urge to create.

What a great thinker David Grossman is. A very moving contribution to questioning what's important regarding humanity. Of all times, from the Talmud to the Twenty-First century.

The Elders | make an end to child marriage

2012-01-20T10:33:00.000-08:00

I've posted before about this initiative endorsed by The Elders. It's so important to empower girls and women all over the world but especially in developing countries, and this might help.
The initiative is called 'girls not brides' and it's worth reading more!

Selvedge | modern modesty

2012-01-18T08:39:00.000-08:00

Today the new issue of Selvedge was dropped in my mailbox. Always a pleasure to read and look at. There's a pile in my studio and most of the times one lays open on a beautiful spread. It's just the most inspiring textile magazine. About crafts, historical background, places and people, art and culture. In this issue one of the topics is modesty. Not for religious reasons (Amish for instance), or cultural reasons (Simone de Beauvoir) but modesty as a choice for a new aesthetic. Shapes, fabric, colour, comfort. Many examples are described and showed. Beautifully made, gorgeous fabrics and elegant as well. It suits the sign of the times; it will probably endure, the new demure!

Guardian | HRW report on small farmers in Ethiopia being forced from their land

2012-01-17T01:17:00.000-08:00

Human Rights Watch says people in the remote westernGambella region of Ethiopia are being forcibly moved to inadequatevillages to free up land for commercial agriculture

Mark Tran 

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 January 2012

An Indian worker transplants rice on a majorcommercial agricultural scheme

in the Gambella region of Ethiopia. Photograph: BenParker/IRIN

The Ethiopian government is forcibly moving tens of thousands of peoplein the

remote western Gambella region, with villagers being told that theirresettlement is connected to the leasing of large tracts of land for commercialagriculture, according to a human rights group.

Waiting for Death, a HumanRights Watch (HRW) report, said the population transfers under the"villagisation" programme are being carried out with littleconsultation or compensation. People are being moved to new villages that haveinadequate food and lack health and education facilities, said HRW. Relocationshave been marked by threats, assaults and arbitrary arrest for those who resistthe move. HRW, which conducted 100 interviews in Ethiopiafrom May to June last year, as well as with Gambellanswho have fled to refugee camps in Kenya, said it found "widespread"human rights violations at all stages of the programme.

"The Ethiopian government's villagisation programme is notimproving access to

services for Gambella's indigenous people, but is instead underminingtheir livelihoods and food security," said Jan Egeland, the organisation'sEurope director. "The government should suspend the programme until it canensure that the necessary infrastructure is in place and that people have beenproperly consulted and compensated for the loss of their land."

Gambella, which is the size of Belgium, has a population of 307,000,mainly indigenous Anuak and Nuer. Its richly fertile soil has attracted foreignand domestic investors who have leased large tracts ofland at favourable prices. From 2008 to January 2011, Ethiopia leased out atleast 3.6m hectares of land.

An additional 2.1m hectares is available through the federalgovernment's land

bank for agricultural investment. In Gambella, 42% of the land haseither being marked for lease to investors or already awarded to investors,according to government figures.

Many of the areas from which people are being moved are within areasearmarked for commercial agricultural investment.

Investors range from Saudi billionaire Mohammed al-Amoudi, who isconstructing a 20-mile canal to irrigate 10,000 hectares to grow rice, toEthiopian businessmen who have plots of less than 200 hectares.

The report says the Ethiopian government has consistently denied thatthe resettlement of people in Gambella is connected to the leasing of largeareas of land for commercial agriculture, but villagers have been told bygovernment officials that this is an underlying reason for their displacement.

One farmer told HRW that during the government's initial meeting withhis village, government officials said: "We will invite investors who willgrow cash crops. You do not use the land well. It is lying idle."

By 2013, the Ethiopian government is planning to resettle 1.5 million peoplein

four regions: Gambella, Afar, Somali, and Benishangul-Gumuz. Relocationsstarted in 2010 in Gambella, and approximately 70,000 people from there werescheduled to be moved by the end of 2011. The plan states that the movementsare to be voluntary, and pledges to provide infrastructure for the new villagesand assistance to ensure alternative livelihoods.

However, instead of improved access to government services, says HRW,new villages often go without them altogether.

The first round of forced relocations occurred at the worst-possibletime of year – the beginning of the harvest – and many of the areas to whichpeople were moved are dry with poor-quality soil. The nearby land needs to becleared, and agricultural assistance (seeds and fertilisers) has not beenprovided. The government failure to provide food assistance for relocatedpeople has caused endemic hunger and cases of starvation, according to HRW.

HRW urged international donors to make sure that they are not providingsupport for forced displacement or facilitating rights violations in the nameof development. Ethiopia is one of the world's largest recipients ofhumanitarian food and development assistance. In 2010, it received more than700,000 tonnes of food and £1.8bn in aid. The UK is Ethiopia's biggest bilateral donor. Britain isexpected to give an average of £331m to Ethiopia annually until 2015.

This is the latest critical HRW report on Ethiopia. In 2010, it issued areport

accusing the government ofMeles Zenawi of using development aid to suppress political dissent byconditioning access to essential government programmes on support for theruling party, a charge governmentofficials strongly reject.

Zarina Bhimji

2012-01-16T02:31:00.000-08:00

And suddenly I came across the work of Zarina Bhimji this past weekend. Never heard of her before I must admit, although she as nominated for the Turner Prize in 2007. There will be an exhibition in the White Chapel gallery in London till late March. She descends from an Asian family in Uganda who fled to Britain in the seventies. Her work consists of films, photo's and installations. The sense of material is wonderful, as well as her colours. In her series 'She Loves to Breathe|Pure Silence her photo's are printed on muslin and framed in plexiglas. The topic is what Asian/African women had to bear when coming into the UK.
A film called 'waiting' is about a factory where sisal is made. The processfilmed very close and is abstracted so that tactility, sound and colour take over from the actual work. So beautiful!

Textiles as a metaphor for life

2012-01-12T04:39:00.000-08:00

In Beverly Gordon's book "Textiles - the whole story" she writes with depth about the meaning of textiles throughout history and through all cultures. Techniques, meaning as well as uses.
The meaning of cloth regarding life is an interesting topic. She describes 5 elements.

Thread as a pathway, a line to follow is the first. In mythology, fairytales and religion there are many examples in the text. Ariadne's ball of thread to get out of the maze. Also, the word cloth is rooted in Greek mythology. Clotho was one of the three goddesses who controlled human life. Clotho was the spinner 'who spun the thread of life'.

Second is the idea of thread and cloth symbolizing connection, wholeness and strength. Plying threads make them so strong we can trust it to be strong enough to hold body weight for example. The fragility of life is often connected to the fragility of cloth. An old piece of cloth is not just worn, but also delicate and it has a history.

Third is the symbol of birth and growth. Life grows day by day, textile grows stitch by stitch. The meaning of quilts in (native) American society is an example. But also the child's baptism dress often made of the mother's wedding dress.

The fourth element is that cloth serves as a wrapper, container or framer. Textiles protect us, comfort us and keep things together, take us to another world after we've passed away, hide us.

The fifth and last one is the 'living quality' of textile. It absorbs, both literally and metaphorically. Sweat, sound, energy.

Looking at these elements as Gordon describes them they do play a role in all cultures. My question is: are we still able to see these symbols? With the mass production of clothes, we hardly think of them as being part of our culture. If we could get back to connect textiles with culture, we can revalue the making of garments and fabric. Thus a more sustainable approach. It can make us think of re-using and old garment instead of throwing it away. Think before you buy as well.

New Renaissance

2012-01-11T01:24:00.000-08:00

In this month's Items, besides many interesting articles, an interview with Stefano Marzano; the former CEO of Philips Design. Talking about the development of design in society he has some interesting things to say.
Here's a quote:
"The current economic crisis could actualize the attention for immaterial values. There has been a period in history in which our scientific knowledge was rather poor and senses were more developed and important. In the Middle Ages cathedrals were built to be closer to God. The mystical had a great value at that time and we have completely lost that. In our current time we should connect immaterial values with our knowledge to get to a more complete system. You could call it humanism, or a New Renaissance."
That is an interesting thought. Thinking like this could reset economic structures which are completely rusted, could change habits, consider developments in a more holistic approach and make space for other ways of thinking. By doing so we can make a real move towards sustainability and a fair outlook on what's really needed. In that sense the economic crisis is a chance.

John Lorne Campbell & Margaret Fay Shaw

2012-01-10T02:15:00.000-08:00

When I was on Canna I came across this wonderful shed, hidden in the trees and overlooking the bay towards Rhum.

I hopped over the fence, had a peek inside and made some photo's. A small haven. It turned out that it belonged to the house where Campbell and Fay Shaw had lived together. They were both scholars and folklorists, him being born in 1906 in Scotland, she originally from the USA. He emphasized on history and spoken language, she on songs and traditions. Together they have done a lot for passing on the Hebridian history; they dedicated their whole life to it. They lived on many islands, but later moved to Canna, the island that became their property. They were a very ambitious couple. The house they lived in is now being turned into a museum by The National Trust for Scotland, with all their archives. It's still as how they've left it at the end of their lives around 1996. At that time Canna was more populated than nowadays, but still, a very quiet island. I imagine the little shed was to escape sometimes. To be away from the other. To concentrate on non-scholary matters maybe, or rest. In a lovely environment, that's for sure. The shed looks and feels as if someone just left for a walk. I hope the Trust is taking good care for conservation, for it reflects their style and attitude perfectly.

Grey

2012-01-06T06:30:00.000-08:00

A gale nearby at Canna, Scotland. The subtle tones of grey are stunning! Grey is one of my favourites, and in the Western Isles of Scotland grey is a colour to live with.
As Seton Gordon wrote in 'The Immortal Isles' in 1926:
The grey wind is a wind of sadness, of mystery.
A sadness that uplifts rather than depresses.

Plastic and how to cope with it _ Guardian Weekly

2012-01-05T14:06:00.000-08:00

Global hunger for plastic packaging leaves waste solution a long way off

Despite measures to increase recycling, discarded plastic packaging continues to blight Earth

Juliette Jowit
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 December 2011 15.09 GMT
larger | smaller

The "Plastic Bag Monster", a creation by Slovenian artist Miha Artnak, is displayed outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels May 24, 2011. Photograph: Francois Lenoir/Reuters

Five hundred tonnes of Christmas tree lights and at least 25m bags of plastic sweet wrappers, turkey coverings, drinks bottles and broken toys will be thrown away by UK homes this Christmas and new year. But only a tiny proportion of this waste will be recycled.

Even at other times of year, only a little under a quarter of the UK's plastic waste is recycled, but over the festive period still less escapes the tip according to a survey by home drinks maker SodaStream. Globally, recycling of plastics is even smaller.

The outcome is a belief that the Earth is being slowly strangled by a gaudy coat of impermeable plastic waste that collects in great floating islands in the world's oceans; clogs up canals and rivers; and is swallowed by animals, birds and sea creatures.

In many parts of the developing world it acts as a near ubiquitous outdoor decoration, along roads in India, around villages in Africa and fluttering off fences across Latin America. And when it is not piling up, it is often burned in the open, releasing noxious smoke.

There are no global figures on the true scale of the problem but, according toPlasticsEurope, the European trade association for plastics manufacturers, 265m tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year. In the UK, about two thirds of this is for packaging; globally, this would translate to 170m tonnes of plastic largely created to be disposed of after one use.

Even at the almost unmatched EU recycling rate of 33%, two thirds of that – or more than 113m tonnes – would end up in landfill, being burned or cluttering up the environment. Such a figure, almost certainly a huge underestimate, would be enough to cover the 48 contiguous states of the US in plastic food wrapping. If the world recycled packaging at the rate the US does, 15%, it would generate more than enough plastic to cover China in plastic wrap. Every year.

A few years ago the UK was seized with worry about plastic bags: communities went "plastic-bag free" and the then prime minister, Gordon Brown, announced he would talk to retailers about phasing them out. In the absence of much change, his successor, David Cameron, recently re-raised the idea of a national levy. In response, the plastics industry argues that the alternatives would be even more wasteful in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

What would a world without plastic look like? Earlier this year, Austria-based environmental consultancy Denkstatt imagined such a world, where farmers, retailers and consumers use wood, tins, glass bottles and jars, and cardboard to cover their goods. It found the mass of packaging would increase by 3.6 times, it would take more than double the energy to make and the greenhouse gases generated would be 2.7 times higher.

To understand this, consider the properties of plastic that make it so attractive: it is durable, flexible, it does not shatter, it can breathe (or not) and it is extremely lightweight. As a result, food and drink are protected from damage and kept for lengths of time previously unimaginable.

The European Packaging and Films Association (Pafa) says average spoilage of food between harvest and table is 3% in the developed world, compared with 50% in developing countries, where plastic pallets, crates, trays, film and bags are not so widespread. Once the food reaches people's homes, its lifespan is also increased – for a shrinkwrapped cucumber, from two to 14 days.

A less obvious benefit is that, by being much lighter than alternatives, plastic packaging greatly reduces the fuel needed for transport. Because of the huge carbon content of our diets, it is estimated that for every tonne of carbon produced by making plastic, five tonnes is saved, says Barry Turner from Pafa.

A more surprising point is made by Friends of the Earth's waste campaigner Julian Kirby, who points out that because it is inert in landfill, plastic waste buried in the ground is a counterintuitive way of "sequestering" carbon and so avoiding it adding to global warming and climate change.

This focus on carbon and climate change, however, ignores the very reasons plastic bags and plastic packaging generally first gripped the public imagination – namely that it is such a highly visible result of our throwaway society.

Wales, Ireland and other countries have opted to levy a tax on plastic bags to deter their use but making deeper cuts to plastic waste will need other options too.

Many "ethical" products – from sandwiches to nappy bags – have switched to biodegradable plastics, made either from natural products such as cornstarch or by using an additive that helps break down the plastic. However, Turner suggests this will remain a niche, because the process is expensive and – in his words – is "destroying" a resource that could be recycled.

Recycling plastic is particularly hard because there are so many types and because it is difficult to remove contamination. Increasing recycling is, though, one of the two areas focused on by the plastics industry. It estimates that if every council in the UK operated at the rates achieved by the best local authority for each type of plastic – PET bottles, cartons, trays, bags and so on – the country could raise total plastic recycling from 23% to 45%. "On-the-go" recycling – currently almost nonexistent – also needs to be dramatically improved, said Turner.

To meet its self-imposed target of zero plastic waste to landfill by 2020, however, the industry is largely looking to incineration, which is highly controversial with environment groups and communities, who worry about how waste ash is disposed ofand breathing in emissions from the plants – despite assurances from the Health Protection Agency that modern plants are not damaging to health.

Greenhouse gas emissions from such plants are also high: equivalent to 540g of carbon dioxide (CO²e) per kilowatt hour, more than gas power and more than 100 times that for nuclear.

Instead, environment campaigners want more attention paid to the "waste hierarchy" – reduce, reuse, recycle. To drive this change, the government this month proposed increasing all recycling targets, raising plastics to 50%.

If enforced, that should encourage innovations, such as more food recycling (which research suggests reduces over-purchasing and so the need for packaging), and the recent development of a new dye for black plastic bags which, unlike the traditional compound, can be detected by the automatic sorting machines.

Globally, 47 industry groups have united to fund research to stop plastic getting into the seas. On land, countries could adopt a system used in several European nations where manufacturers are responsible for recovering a percentage of the plastic they make. "The idea of producer responsibility is one that people are most agreed on, but no one's sure how," said Kirby.

Eco Village

2012-01-04T01:43:00.000-08:00

In the small magazine from India Motherland, I read an article about a village called Mawlynnong. This village is known to be 'the cleanest village in Asia'. That sounds eutopia! But it's clear that all inhabitants add to make it happen. They seem to live like an extended family anyway, how special is that! Tourist taxes are used to pay village cleaners, schools pay so much attention to the importance of ecology that all children also find it normal to keep their village clean and every grassroot initiative is welcomed by the local government. And the village is built among the huge trees with even using those trees:

"Working with nature and building with the smallest possible footprint has a history in Mawlynnong, something that you can see in the living-root bridge that is the oldest man-made structure in the area."

Aran Islands III

2012-01-03T03:23:00.000-08:00

And then the knitting and other textile crafts. Synge observes in 1903 'The simplicity and unity of the woman's dress increases in another way the local air of beauty. The women wear red petticoats and jackets of the island wool stained with madder, to which they usually add a plaid shawl twisted round their chests and tied at the back.........The men wear three colours: the natural wool, indigo, and a grey flannel that is woven of alternate threads of indigo and the natural wool. Many of the younger men have adopted the usual fisherman's jersey, but I have only seen one adopted on Inishmaan.'

The so-called Aran knitting, usually in an off-white wool, emerged around the nineteen twenties. Knitting was mainly done for family purposes, but with some of the fishermen now going around the British isles, seeing other jerseys, and the first tourists appearing on the islands, women started to knit and sell. They became very creative in creating new types of stitches- such as diamonds, zigzags- and designing patterns.

Today the tradition is still alive. Although many of the jerseys seen in shops are machine made. It's easy to distinguish whether it's hand- or machine made. An Aran pattern is centered and similar towards both ends of the front and back. If the vertical cable pattern is mirrored seen from the centre, it's handmade. If the cables are turning in the same direction, it's machine made.

It was hard to learn, but once I managed to do it, my skills improved quickly. It's very time consuming, but also here: making takes time and that teaches us to value it!

(further reading: The Aran Sweater by Deidre McQuillan)

Aran Islands II

2011-12-30T00:52:00.000-08:00

And Synge continues somewhere in part III:

' It is likely that much of the intelligence of these people is due to the absence of any division of labour, and to the correspondingly wide development of each individual, whose varied knowledge and skill necessitate a considerable activity of mind. Each man can speak two languages. He is a skilled fisherman, and can manage a curagh (narrow handmade boat) with extraordinary nerve and dexterity. He can farm, burn kelp, cut out pampooties (leather slippers tied with fishing string), mend nets, build and thatch a house and make a cradle or a coffin. His work changes with the season in a way that keeps him free from dullness....'

The crafts have remained, even with modern techniques. That's very inspiring about this place. Something to learn from. As crafts artist Denis Brown recently said in the British magazine 'CRAFTS' : 'Some think tradition means copying the past. But a living tradition must move forward'. We must rethink the importance of traditions, of the crafts that come with them.Which are to be used in a contemporary way. In this way we can revalue design, revalue what we really need, and also the labour it took to make it. Whether it's food, clothes, household ware or accessories. Crafts galore!

the photo's are mine, from 2004

Aran Islands

2011-12-29T02:22:00.000-08:00

Recently I came across an old copy of J.M. Synge's book 'The Aran islands' on the lovely Friday book market at Spui, Amsterdam. A few years ago I was on the Aran islands with 2 friends. We took knitting classes, to learn the traditional aran knitting. What Synge wrote in 1907 still captures the sense of the islands today.
This is how it begins:
'I am in Aranmor, sitting over a turf fire, listening to a murmur of Gaelic that is rising from a little public-house under my room. The steamer which comes to Aran sails according to the tide, and it was six o'clock this morning when we left the quay of Galway in a dense shroud of mist. A low line of shore was visible at first on the right between the movement of the waves and fog, but when we came further it was lost sight of, and nothing could be seen but the mist curling in the rigging, and a small circle of foam. There were few passengers; a couple of men going out with young pigs tied loosely in sacking, three or four young girls who sat in the cabin with their heads completely twisted in their shawls, and a builder, on his way to repair the pier at Kilronan, who walked up and down and talked with me.
In about three hours Aran came in sight. A dreary rock appeared at first sloping up from the sea into the fog; then, as we drew nearer, a coastguard station and the village.'

Options, Fair+Fair, Maison NL

2011-12-28T05:24:00.000-08:00

Three new great shops have opened recently in Amsterdam. Despite the economic crisis we face, a good idea, a strong concept and sustainable products seem to have the future. These people certainly have followed their heart. All three shops sell items you want to have, you need and will love forever. That's the retail concept of the 21st century! Nothing cheap or bad quality, but wonderful kitchen stuff, lovely textiles (at Options also my flock of lambs), desirable desktop items and good books and magazines. I like!
Options
Fair+Fair
Maison NL

Poor Economics

2011-12-23T02:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to the 'globaliseringslezing' by Esther Duflo. It was about the book she wrote with Abhiijit Banerjee 'Poor Economics'. She had a sparkling lecture about their way of working on the eradication of poverty. The main message is : start looking at reality, and act regarding to that reality. Within their 'Poverty Action Lab' at MIT they do small scale projects such as stimulating communities to vaccinate their children by providing them a one-kilo- bag of lentils. It helped; more children were vaccinated and the next time also. It worked as a drive for development. Why do poor people act the way they act? Why is poverty not solved yet, despite the aid that's been given? In contrary to many scientists and workers in the field such as Sachs, Moyo, Yunus, she states that there is not 1 solution. Eradicating poverty is a blanket woven from many threads. By starting on a small scale they work on governments to take over. That last step is a tricky one. But it must be taken!
Also invited were Dutch NGO specialists such as Monique van 't Hek, Rene Grotenhuis and Andries de Jong. After the lecture it was meant to have a discussion. However, Linda Polman, who was the moderator, was acting shamefully. She kept on showing that she had read the book properly, kept on pushing the dialogue into her cynical ideas about aid, and completely forgot the knowledgeable input of the others. She was a bad moderator. Rene Grotenhuis saved by stating that he was unhappy the way the conversation went, and the audience agreed by applauding loudly. Despite this; the evening was inspiring and gave fresh ideas and results. The book is out also in Dutch: 'Arm en Kansrijk'.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-22T09:10:00.000-08:00

Let's fly in 2012. We might find new opportunities, new destinations and new passions.

Even close by. Let's open our eyes, spread our wings, choose direction but: fly!

Socks

2011-12-20T12:09:00.000-08:00

I'm learning to knit socks! Through great tuition by Ada and Truus I'm finally beginning to understand the wonderful process. My skills are rapidly improving, especially since I'm working with thick wool and 5 bamboo needles. It has been a tradition for long among women all over the world. I've seen great examples in Ireland, Scotland, England and Chile, but also my own grandmother used to do it. It's great to see that it's getting back to being done. I know Heleen, Nicoline, Trine and Severine who are currently learning it. Ada and Truus are passing on the skills.
So let's revive the tradition!

Schatkamers van de Hartenstraat

2011-12-16T06:45:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow and Sunday: design shopping for Christmas!
My lambs of my flock will be in the wonderful atmosphere of Vlinder & Vogel.......

Pattern

2011-12-14T14:19:00.000-08:00

Some wonderful city patterns that I spotted while in Valparaiso. This Chilean city is built on 45 hills, just on the Pacific coast. This neighbourhood was very inspiring. Some houses had great colour patterns, and the most outrageous decorations. Tiny streets, endless stairs, a great breakfast & lunchplace 'El Desayunador' with a great wall pattern. A very colourful place, Valparaiso

Footprint

2011-12-13T03:31:00.000-08:00

After the half hearted results of Durban and the attitude of the Dutch Government as if climate change and sustainability are matters of less interest than 'our model of growth' my concern grows. Today in Trouw a few articles about the topic. The 'Taskforce Biodiversity' proposes a.o. green taxes and a stop on products that threaten biodiversity. Green taxes are being discussed already everywhere, it just doesn't seem to be taken serious enough. With this article came this graphic by Michel van Elk about our footprint:

It shows we in The Netherlands are using twice as much as the world average and 3 times as much as the planet's capacity. Politics as well as companies as well as individuals MUST act. So please switch off your electronic devices when not in use, have shorter showers, eat less meat and fish, eat as local as possible, as fair as possible, go by bike if possible, wear a warm jumper and reduce the warmth in your house, recycle and be happy about all you can do!

Neruda

2011-12-11T23:27:00.001-08:00

Being in Chile we visited Isla Negra, his house along the coast near Valparaiso. Unfortunately you can't walk around on your own; just with a museum guide. Groups queue up, so each group is pulled through the small buildings in great speed. But the sense came through; this remarkable poet was a remarkable collector. Shells, crockery, glassware, sea maps, endless. He was takes from this place because he was seriously ill, just as the Pinochet coup took place. The military force went to his house, afraid of the power he had with his poetic interpretations of what was going on. Shortly after this he passed away. His house was restored, eventually. His inspiration never faded, and that's what you feel when you're in Chile.Here's a fragment of one of his poems:
Unidad
Hay algo denso,
sentado en el fondo,
repitiendo su número, su señal idéntica.
Como se nota que las piedras han tocado el tiempo,e
n su fina materia hay olor al edad,
y el agua que trae el mar, de sal y sueño.

Oneness
There's something dense, united,
sitting in the background,
repeating its number, its identical signal.
How clear it is that stones have handled time,
in their fine substance there's the smell of age,
and water the sea brings, salty and sleepy

This poem was taken from the book Neruda Esencial, from Pehuén Publishers in Chile.The motto of the book:
'On our earth, before writing was invented,before the printing press was invented, poetry flourished. That is why we know that poetry is like bread; it should be shared by all, by scholars and by peasants, by all our vast, incredible, extraordinary family of humanity'Pablo Neruda.

Crafts

2011-12-08T06:42:00.001-08:00

Just returned from Chile. An amazing trip. Thinking of crafts in South America, Peru and Bolivia popped up immediately, but that was wrong. Chile has a long and varied tradition of crafts. I visited the exhibition in Santiago's Fundacion Artesanias de Chile . Along the country's regions an overview was presented. Wood, ceramics, copper, leather, wicker and, of course, textiles. Alpaca wool and sheep wool in knitted and woven techniques. Heaven!The foundation was established after the 2009 earthquake to help people getting back a normal life. All products are fair, social and sustainable. So I was happy to buy a pair of alpaca socks, a ball of sheep wool and a large scarf.

Santiago Street Life

2011-12-03T17:46:00.000-08:00

Just some impressions.....

Mimbre

2011-12-02T17:20:00.001-08:00

I'm in Chile at the moment, to celebrate the wedding of one of my favourite cousins. After the house of Pablo Neruda at Isla Negra and much more, we're back in Santiago. Yesterday we went to the wonderful Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. It is a beautiful building, both from the outside as well as the inside. The biggest surprise was a small exhibition in 3 rooms by Maria Angelica Echavarra. She's an artist who does wickerwork. . The title of the exhibition was'Efimero':'Mil preguntas refuerzan mi asombre por lo efimero'In English:'Thousands of interrogatives strengthen my amazement for what is ephemeral'.I found it stunning, and took some illegal photo's. The way she uses the traditional crafts from the region near Chimbarango here in Chile is so beautiful! After I've seen the small exhibition in the cultural centre of La Moneda where crafts were shown of the regions where the earthquake influenced daily life terribly this was a wonderful addition.

Lambs

2011-11-22T12:38:00.001-08:00

The last week I've been busy preparing a delivery of my lambs for 2 shops. Royal Tichelaar in Makkum and the soon-to-be-opened Options in Amsterdam. The knitted lambs, Barbara does a lot for me, had to be filled with pure wool. For the filling I use clean wool but unwashed with the authentic fragrance of lanolin. Lovely to work with. The flock grows with each lamb, and they all have their own character. They are all made of organic undyed wool in browns, whites and greys. They are very popular, and I'm happy to know that they found new homes from Friesland to New York.

Fog

2011-11-21T01:26:00.000-08:00

For days now we have a fog. From my window I see nothing but this mast.Boring, but also beautiful.

Occupy

2011-11-19T02:00:00.001-08:00

This is Occupy Amsterdam. An amazing gathering of people, ideas, questions. Maybe asking questions is the most important beginning of opposition. As Remco Campert wrote in his poem:VERZETVerzet begint niet met grote woordenmaar met kleine dadenzoals storm met zacht geritsel in de tuinof de kat die de kolder in zijn kop krijgtzoals brede rivierenmet een kleine bronverscholen in het woudzoals een vuurzeemet dezelfde luciferdie een sigaret aansteektzoals liefde met een blikeen aanraking iets dat je opvalt in een stemjezelf een vraag stellendaarmee begint verzeten dan die vraag aan een ander stellen

Reflection

2011-11-17T02:33:00.001-08:00

Sometimes, in the buzz of activities, duties and running around, I see an image like this. Reflected on my wall in the beautiful late-autumn light was this simple geranium. It made me stop, see and feel.Good to reflect every now and then.....

Greenhouse

2011-11-15T10:15:00.001-08:00

Today my online order from the wonderful webshop vlinder&vogel arrived. A lovely package, and great design inside. A mini greenhouse, based on winter garden designs from the 16th century. Wrapped in cardboard and made of recyclable polypropylene. Great to grow seeds, and prepare for spring. Or just sprouts ready for eating! They have other great products as well. I'm a fan!

Community Garden

2011-11-10T10:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, just a few minutes to browse through the other favourite bookshop Architectura & Natura- besides Athenaeum where I work- I bought The Thrifty Forager by Alys Fowler. A well-designed book about city gardening, foraging in parks and how to recognize what to pick and what not. Her subtitle is living off your local landscape. The reason for me to buy it is not to be thrifty, but to become more aware of the vast potential of that local landscape.Leaving though all the possibilities described in the book, it thrilled me. Today I applied officially, on behalf of some fellow tenants, to use the 'garden' next to our building as a community garden. At the moment you can hardly call it a garden. It's full of boring bushes, and the soil is filled to the brim with shingles. Even planting a small bulb is impossible. How great would it be to grow our own veggies, strawberries and apples. It could be a lovely place, for it's quite secluded and has many sun hours. So we've asked to remove the shingles, replace it with pure soil and give it it a go. So that we can be part of the worldwide development of community gardening, urban green, city veggies and sustainable use of precious space. Hopefully we'll have a reply soon in order to start in the next spring.

nature

2011-10-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

A friend, Katja Gruijters, launched her new initiative today. She invited us all to a vegetable nursery south of Amsterdam. Kwekerij Osdorp, a great place where passionate people grow tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables.Katja works with them for her project 'mooi van nature'. This is an anti-food-waste-concept. The whole cycle from growing, harvesting, selecting, preparing and eating food has to change in order to have no waste. Why are all the peppers in supermarkets the same size? Why portobello mushrooms? Why are cucumbers all straight? Carrots? Katja makes installations for her lectures and workshops in which she uses the odd veggies. Outer size, outer shape. But with great taste!She also uses traditional methods to keep food. Pickling, using hay boxes to keep it warm, using bee wax to conserve etcetera. We all received a paper bag with funny tomatoes and a recipe. She's brilliant, and very inspiring!

Snapshot

2011-10-18T06:57:00.000-07:00

This morning I went with a friend to a very good exhibition. Snapshot in Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. First of all, the striking exhibition design. So well done! The colours of the walls, the fonts used for titles, the lay-out of the exhibition; great. We later learned the exhibition design was from InsideOutside, Petra Blaisse's office. The topic is the relation between painting and photography in the late 19th, early 20th century. Breitner, Bonnard, Vuillard, Evenepoel are among the artists. Photography influenced their way of looking at the world around them and by doing so influenced their way of painting. At the start they used their camera as any other person; taking photographs of their family, their environment, their friends. More and more they used photography for research as well as art.We saw children, women in bath, street scenes, beaches, rooms, nudes, family scenes etcetera. For instance the out-of-focus effect, which is common in photography, became an element in Breitner's painted work. A must!

Textiles

2011-10-12T03:29:00.000-07:00

I added a great new book to my library: Textiles-The Whole Story by Beverly Gordon, professor Design Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Uses, meanings, significance is the subtitle. It goes from the early beginning of fabric to the contemporary period and tells about textiles in human consciousness, survival, social meaning, power, communication and spirit. An in-depth survey, and lavishly illustrated.Textiles can tell a lot about human development, and as such is highly important to understand ourselves and our lives.A joy to read and see!

10:10

2011-10-10T00:45:00.000-07:00

every little bit is important....together we save a lot of energy. Not just today please, but from now on.....

Girls

2011-10-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

As part of the Millennium Development goals gender equity is an important issue. This week The Elders, a wonderful bunch of former world leaders who are still taking the lead, launched a new campaign: Girls not Brides.This campaign accompanies the importance of the Nobel peace price 2011 to the three courageous women mentioned below.Desmond Tutu: "We want to try and help these young women to catch up on the education they have lost. If they don't, we really have no hope of making a dent in poverty and hunger and, of course, there is no way we are going to be able to achieve universal primary education … and we're not going to be able to reduce infant mortality."Have a look at the film

Women

2011-10-08T03:12:00.000-07:00

Hurray for women all over the world. Great, this Nobel Peace prize 2011 for Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee from Liberia and Tawakoel Karman from Yemen.Their struggle for peace and equal rights, their dedication for their goal is an example for women all over the world. Development starts with women!

Fish or no fish

2011-10-06T00:58:00.000-07:00

Alarm over our fishes. Again. This image from the EU group 'fish for the future' shows the European fish population. Only 3 (!) species -mackerel, herring and saithe- are caught in a sustainable way. Meaning not too young, enough left for a healthy population, and their environment not harmed. Subsidies keep the fishing industries alive, especially in Spain. What does that mean for the future? Fish is no endless economic source; and in this way the fish population will exhaust. Subsidies will eventually finance the depletion of our seas and oceans. How cynical is that.....So a few years ago I made the choice not to eat fish at all. We HAVE to do it in a different way. Think before you eat. And be creative; there's so much left to eat besides fish and meat!

Meet

2011-10-05T01:08:00.000-07:00

On a sunny Sunday morning, cycling through IJburg I was surprised to meet myself in a Range Rover......

Barbie

2011-09-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

Read my articles on the website of NPRio+20

Exchange

2011-09-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

In Amsterdam a new hotel cum shop cum restaurant will be opened on the 3rd of December. Hotel rooms will be dressed; not decorated. In the Stock restaurant breakfast will be served all day. And in the Options shop a great mix of fashion, fabrics, food items, toys, books, magazines, music and more will be on the shelves. Ina Matt are the interior architects, AMFI students have come up with the ideas for the rooms. At Inside Design an installation was made to introduce the atmosphere. The fabric used for cushions and specially woven in Tilburg's Textile Museum is gorgeous.I'm glad to be involved through Athenaeum Bookshop where I work as well; we will cooperate on the books and magazines. I'm looking forward to this place!

Autumn Light

2011-09-24T02:31:00.000-07:00

This is my balcony this morning. This light, it's stunning. So delicate, so intense. It made me think. The world is in turmoil, my good friend in Malawi, Chifumbi, had to go to the hospital yesterday with his youngest son who suffers from malaria, the planet is in a bad state, responsibility is enormous; this list can be endless.But still, there is this autumn light. We have to see its beauty. And be positive, inspired and courageous.

Message in a Bottle

2011-09-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

Today a friend sent me this film. It's so good I want to show it. Out-of-the-bottle thinking!

NPRio+20

2011-09-13T03:35:00.000-07:00

Next Monday I will join the NPRio+20 conference. NPRio+20 is the Dutch platform to prepare the UN conference for sustainable development in 2012. Aim is to get inspiration and knowledge from people in the field. Louise Fresco is chairwoman of the board. I'm looking forward to the conference on Monday. There is a website, but not very lively. there is also a linkedIn group with interesting discussions every now and then. The whole theme is rather broad, and, as I wrote on the website, there are more initiatives for a sustainable future such as the Millennium Goals. We have to integrate all those issues. If not we waste time and effort. Next Monday's theme will be 'towards a green economy'. Which priorities have to prevail? With a population on our planet of 6 billion and still growing that's an important question.For me keywords are FAIR | SUSTAINABLE | NEED | CONSCIOUS | FUN | RESPONSIBILITY | CREATIVE

Peter Blom

2011-09-12T00:47:00.000-07:00

The managing director of Triodos Bank said in an interview this weekend:"The real crisis today is not the current crisis in Europe or the debt crisis in the USA, the real crisis today is the lack of space we have on planet earth to fulfill our debts. Interests are low, but what can you lend if there is not enough to create value in the future? Economic value is the value of sufficient raw materials for production, enough food and enough water. We can no longer prevail 'more, more, more'; we have to face the reality. Therefore it is very important that sustainable development is encouraged. By companies as well as governments. It is the only way to move on."Long-term thinking, that's what it's all about. With a sense of responsibility for those who suffer most on our planet, for future generations and for ourselves.

Plastic

2011-09-06T09:06:00.000-07:00

Good to read in the local Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool that collecting separated plastic from the rest of the household garbage is succesful! People are willing to make the effort to go to the orange bins and bring their plastics. It is also cost-effective. So a big hurray to this experiment and hopefully the decision by the local government in December will be to continue. Recycling plastic is very important. The issue of plastic packaging and bags is an ongoing struggle. Consumers are so used to the convenience of bags in every shop, retailers are so used to the advertising effects of people walking around with the shop name on a bag; it's horrific. See what's happening in our oceans!We need a huge change in thinking. Together we can do it, so: Be a hero, always bring your own bag!

Afropolitans

2011-09-05T08:10:00.000-07:00

In Trouw this weekend I read an interesting article about Afropolitans: young, cosmopolitan people with African roots who are the messengers of a positive development of the African continent. Among them entrepreneurs, musicians, fashion people, scientists etcetera. They are rapidly changing the negative image of Africa that's mainstream. They feel connected, strong and they say things like: 'The investments our parents made pay off now; we have jobs and a voice.' Or: 'It's the era of Africa now; it's very relevant to be an African person'.It's a very positive spirit, and they are determined to change the future. They are aware of the brain drain that many countries in Africa have suffered -all development got stuck because talented people left- and some of them are thinking of moving to the country of their family's origin. Not many of them are interested in politics though, so the question of who takes the responsibility for a fair political leadership is still to be answered. I hope we will hear a lot from them in the near future!Read this blog by Minna Salami from Finland and Nigeria and Sweden and London.

(photo by Jean Pierre Jans)

Norfolk

2011-08-31T13:06:00.000-07:00

Memory, nature, traditional arcade fun, car boot sales and melancholy. Norfolk had it all this summer. The memorial I encountered on a walk along the coastal path. Who is Morris? Who is Charles? How were they related? Let them be themselves.
Nature in this area is stunning. Fun for the mass and car boot sales are colourful and everywhere. Even at eight in the morning. A house in Blakeney was named Cross Heart Cottage. Like the Dutch saying: every house bears its cross. Live happens at all times. So a cross in the first and the last image; it's the heart that gives value in everything.

Wool

2011-08-11T01:30:00.001-07:00

Which wool do we use for our wonderful cardigans, shawls and woven fabric? Wool that is produced by hurting the sheep with chemicals, such as much of the merino that comes from Australia? Or hand shorn wool locally produced? The everlasting dilemma; how much is needed and how do we produce? The use of wool for clothing dates back 6000 years. Its insulating and absorbing qualities have made it a very useful fibre. It is also copied in synthetic fibres, but they can never be as good as real wool. Cheaper however, that is.
It takes a year for a sheep to grow a fleece. Then it is shorn off, carded so that the fibres are easier to be used. Then it is spun, and either woven into a fabric, knitted or crocheted into a garment. The craft way to do this is very time consuming. Originally this was done next to all the other work on a farm, after the industrial revolution it became possible to do all this on machines. Which made garments cheaper. Good in one way of course; more affordable for everyone.
But it has gone out of hand. The clothing industry that is. As a result wool has lost its value and is often destroyed on farms. Sheep need to be shorn, but the market price for wool is so low it is cheaper for farmers to destroy the wool rather than sell it.
Only the better brands such as Rowan have their wool from local (British) farmers. I like working with their organic wool which is also organically dyed. I'm also happy to have found some farmers from whom I can buy fleeces for spinning myself or use as a filler for my knitted collection items. So wouldn't it be good if all designers and crafters that love wool go to the farmers and collect the wool before it is thrown away? And we should reuse recycled wool as well!
The amazing sense of the utterly natural product, the many possibilities to use it, the smell, the heritage.... it's my favourite fibre.
In the previous issue of Bloom (from which the images are derived) the mohair wool was celebrated. It's rare and not easy to produce, we should not forget that. But as long as it's don fair and organic it's fine .

Urban Green

2011-08-09T03:22:00.000-07:00

While cycling around in Berlin last week we came across the most amazing patch of urban green I've ever seen. Tempelhof flughaven. Originally built in 1890, the airport functioned as 'gateway to heaven' during the division of Berlin for West Berliners to leave the city or country, it is now a wide open space. Almost unreal as far and wide the view is. The buildings are still unused so they look creepy but also radiate a prospective future. Ideas start flowing as you see them. But the landing strips, the grasses, the roads; all is to be used by Berlin citizens. And they do! They cycle, run, play, barbecue in designated areas, have a beer in the 'Biergarten', fly kites, plant their flowers in their allotments, skate and watch. What a potential! 19 Projects are selected to help develop the area, and the 2015 flower show will be held in this 21st century space. Berlin made a leading example with this area. Sustainability, community and nature are key words. Hurray.
(the last photo is by Beau Trincia from New Public Domain who also likes this area)

The girl who silenced the world

2011-08-08T04:57:00.000-07:00

Through the LinkedIn group NPRio+20 someone sent this short film.
A brave girl, who speaks for her generation. She reflects her fear about the future of the planet, and addresses the members of the United Nations. Uncertainty about the future is also reflected in the painting above which I saw last Saturday when I was in the Neue National Galerie in Berlin. The exhibition Modern Times with their amazing collection from 1900 till 1945. In the exhibition design is clearly shown how development in society is paralleled with development in art.
The painting is by Lotte Laserstein and dates from 1930. It's called Abend über Potsdam.
Melancholy, uncertainty, threat and austerity we see, but also togetherness in this. Although every person is turned inwards their emotions, their arrangement as a group still portrays they are joint together.
So now watch the speech of the girl and feel the togetherness we need so desperately.

Refugees

2011-07-29T00:04:00.000-07:00

I read a figure to think about. In their short essay yesterday in Trouw Cecilia Malstrom and Antonio Guterres, members of the European Commission, mentioned that in the European Union 74.000 refugees are given shelter. In Kenia's Dabaab the number of refugees is 400.000. How can there be complaint about so-called 'mass immigration' in Europe ? Read these figures again.....
And know that a refugee is a human being in need. Especially now in the Horn of Africa.
Jeffrey Sachs said in The Guardian:
The Horn of Africa is the world's most vulnerable region, beset by extreme poverty, hunger and global climate change, notably a drying and warming of the climate during the past quarter century. These scourges are leading to the spread of violence and war, and war is contributing to global instability. Unless we confront the challenges of the Horn of Africa at their root causes – the poverty and vulnerability of pastoralist and agro-pastoralist populations – we will face burgeoning violence in the Horn of Africa, Yemen and beyond. The world would be gravely endangered and the trillions of dollars that would eventually be spent on military responses would prove useless to stem to unrest. Hunger cannot be overcome with violence.
Besides working on a long-term solution we need to act NOW. So don't think your gift is unnecessary, it's very valuable. Donate!

This is the current drought in Somalia, part of the famine problem.

Rewind

2011-07-28T04:20:00.000-07:00

Also in Antwerp; a shop with an interesting concept. In their statement they raise all the questions that matter in today's design.
However we also need to ask ourselves: do we really need this? How does it add to our daily life rather than just fill our home?
I train myself to be very critical, and it's interesting to discuss this issue with others. For occasionally we can treat ourselves to something beautiful or nice. And we don't have to be a hero every day. Just reconsider every now and then: what do I really need?

Unravel

2011-07-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was in Antwerp with friends. We visited the knitwear exhibition in the fabulous Momu; the fashion museum in this lovely city. I always like their exhibition design. This one is beautiful as well. Through history and through use of material knitwear is unraveled. I much liked the old stockings; so delicate! Historic fashion is combined with today's design from Margiela, Rykiel, Missoni and Yamamoto a.o. Style, technique and colour is abundantly visualised as well as influences of society.
We liked!

Seasons

2011-07-18T02:39:00.001-07:00

Country, the beautiful book by designer Jasper Conran is a celebration of rural life. He spent a year travelling around the English countryside where he documented traditions, nature, gardens and stories. In an interview Conran said:
The countryside belongs to all of us, or rather I should say, it belongs to none of us. It is merely entrusted to our keeping, to be tended, watered, nurtured and handed on to the following generations in good condition. We need to cherish it.
He also writes about how much he loves seasons. That in the country the seasons are felt in the unfolding of each day. Well, the summer right at this moment doesn't feel like summer at all so you would almost forget about that season-feeling. Rain, storm and the occasional clear moment. But this is part of summer as well, so he is right. We all have chilhood memories both of hot sunny days as well as days like these now. And nature is lush and green at the moment. And there are still lots of camomile flowers to pick and be stars on my table...

Amartya Sen

2011-07-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

Currently I'm reading Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen, the Nobel-prize winning economist. It's a book from 1999, but a real classic so still an important read. In chapter 8 he writes about the importance of development of women. Something closely related to what I try to do in Malawi through my colleagues at the foundation and with the local women. Their empowerment and development influences the whole social structure around them. It gives them a voice, and not just that. Health, child care, decision making in the family and around the family, education levels of the whole family, improved food access etcetera.
Sen writes:
These different aspects (women's earning power, economic role outside the family, literacy and education, property rights and so on) may at first sight appear to be rather diverse and disparate. But what they all have in common is their positive contribution in adding force to women's voice and agency- through independence and empowerment. For example, working outside the house and earning an income tend to have a clear impact on enhancing the social standard of a woman in the household and in society.

All this is very important for a sustainable, equal future.

Still Life

2011-07-12T00:22:00.001-07:00

Treasures I found while travelling in Scotland, displayed in my window frame.
The striking resemblance between the lobster shells and the ladies' dresses on the photo; is that historic design thinking or just coincidence?

Ma Ke

2011-07-07T05:36:00.000-07:00

The V&A is one of my favourite museums in London. Here's their fashion curator Oriole Cullen at an event in 2009:
Today's Fashion in Motion is by Ma Ke whose clothes are on display in our China Design Now exhibition which is currently showing in the temporary exhibitions space. We really wanted to tie in with that and showcase some of the emerging designers coming from China.

Ma Ke is a very well established designer in China. Her brand, Exception de Mixmind, is one of China's most popular brands. In 2006 she set up Wuyong, her artistic label. Wuyong means 'useless'. The idea behind the brand is that Ma Ke looks at objects which are discarded, sometimes regarded as useless by people, and then takes a different viewpoint and fashions them into some of the amazing clothes that we have seen here today. So, for instance, the idea of recycling an old tarpaulin or a paint-splashed sheet or ripped, ragged clothing and creating something new from that.

So the message really that's coming across is sustainability in fashion. Also very much about the individual's point of view, and that's something that Ma Ke really values.

So the idea of sustainability, ethical fashion, is very much in the headlines at the moment. It's something that the Museum has been engaging with and so we were delighted to be able to welcome Ma ke here today for this event.

The usual format for Fashion in Motion is a catwalk show in the Raphael Gallery space and the audience is seated either side of a long runway, but for this show, obviously, we've really departed from that. So we've taken a bit of a gamble, in the sense that it's audience that are in motion, but the idea of showing fashion on a live, breathing model is still there; that's inherent in the display, although the models themselves aren't moving.

I find the work of Ma Ke very inspiring. Ma Ke has an original voice, and a skill to make the ordinary into something special. The ugly into something beautiful even. The sense of craft is very strong in her work. We have to look around us and see what we really need, what we can re-use. It doesn't have to look unfashionable; it can also look like couture!

Zissisnotaglossy #5

2011-07-05T00:33:00.000-07:00

Today in Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum the fifth issue of this photo paper by Serge-Henri Valcke. He himself is, next to being a well respected actor, a very good photographer who has an eye for beauty in decay. His reportages are colourful and sometimes funny but there is also a certain sadness in them. There is so much ugliness that it becomes very beautiful indeed.
This issue's 'red carpet' is for Lucas Hillen, a recently Rietveld-graduate and for myself. I'm very honoured to being in this issue with rather contrasting photo's.

Experience

2011-07-04T02:29:00.000-07:00

Leafing through my Harris & Lewis diary of 7 years ago I came across this lyric I scribbled down while at an exhibition. From the Scottish band Runrig whose texts are their own combined with local songs from the past. This one is a perfect description of the relation between thoughts and place. I took the photo on Barra, having climbed to Heaval, the highest hill, and facing south towards the uninhabited islands.

I'm lifted where I stand
On the never ending land
I'm coming to a sense of home

Standing in the face of the gale
A raging night on the island

Sundown on barren words
That can't describe
Your island paradise

All questions and answers
Flowing down the river
To the ocean

As Catherine Duncan wrote in her preface to Paul Strands' book about the Hebrides: "There is a moment of reflection, a sudden stillness when everything stands on the edge of discovery. For those who live them such moments are outside time, when the view is detached from the surface of things and restores to them their essential meaning."
Outside time- moments; a beautiful expression of a real experience.

What's Up

2011-06-30T10:26:00.000-07:00

Today I attended the 'What's Up' event by Fuse! Incentives.High above the city on the 32nd floor of the Rembrandt Tower. An amazing view, and an amazing morning. Fuse! Incentives does marketing in an innovative way. It's about understanding, passion and a smile.
George Parker was there. He's also amazing. A great speech about the magic of communication, and what's underneath the surface. What a great storyteller he is, and a magician in his own communication.
The energy of change, the challenge of not-knowing, and the power of sense.
By the way:
From now on I will be involved in Fuse! Incentives as their CSR-developer.

Get Real / Real Self

2011-06-29T01:14:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I went to Arnhem, the Fashion Biennale. The best exhibition was in the MMKA; Arnhem's modern art museum. Curated by Joke Robaard and Giene Steenkamp, the exhibition is an interesting research of the relation between fashion and language. In fashion magazines we read statements like:'time to get real', 'gold is the new black' or 'red is the new black' etcetera. What is real, and what makes a garment into fashion? The very first garments were just large pieces of woven fabric wrapped around one's body.
Later they became 'dresses, coats, skirts' etcetera. Based on philosophical quotes from Roland Barthes about 'real' the exhibition explores how functionality and beauty relate to each other in fashion.
According to Barthes 'real' clothing is divided in 3 layers: the real, tangible garment, the written garment and the imagined garment. In a fashion magazine the 'real garment' is absent; all we see is a representation of it in images and words. The curators keep asking during the exhibition: what happened to the real, woven garment? The chosen items show a great sense of craftmanship, with beautiful elements; very real.

Mars der Beschaving

2011-06-24T02:59:00.001-07:00

The well of revolt has sprung. There are initiatives against destructive budget cuts all around.
This is the so-called 'March of Civilisation' due Sunday till Monday.
Be civilised; support!

World Refugee Day

2011-06-20T01:39:00.001-07:00

These images ( Getty, AFP, Reuters) are taken in the world's largest refugee camp in Kenya, along the Somali border, and in Europe. Europe is not taking care of refugees but seems to be fighting them. Every person however has a story to tell.
Today in the Dutch paper Trouw the story of an Eritrean man living in The Netherlands for 20 years. He had to leave his country during the war with Ethiopia. His son grew up with his grant parents. For years the father tried to get his son with him. A DNA-test was needed to prove they are father and son. Five years ago the son received a permit for a visum. The Eritrean government though refused to give him a passport. Since being a young adult he faced the most gruesome circumstances while having to join military service, after leaving school. He couldn't stand it any longer and fled. No papers, no help. After a horrible journey through Sudan he reached Greece after two years. Now he desperately wants to join his father but is stuck in Athens. Continuous stress, and living in an open prison; that's what his life is like. Till when? Refugees are not people who go for some more luck in another country, but people who have all the reasons to get away from danger and despair. And have all the rights to do so. Amazing how the boys on the last photo can have so much fun. It's human resilience, and that's hopeful.

Budget cuts

2011-06-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

I came across this poem which the Dutch poet Jaques Perk wrote in 1881. It's in a beautiful collection of his work, published in 1907; introduced by Willem Kloos. Many of his poems are sparkling and full of life, such as the Mathilda-cyclus, but his subtle touch of language also made him write about threats and darkness. It made me think of the unfair budget cuts we face in this country. In culture, care, education and environment. The poem is in Dutch...

De Bouwval
't Is alles nu met duisternis omtogen,
En 't starren-dak zendt stilte op 't glanzend puin,
De verre trots weleer van rots en kruin, -
Het maanlicht glipt door holle venster-bogen;

Geen sprankje mos wordt door een zucht bewogen,
Geen leven slaakt geluid in 't kil arduin
Slechts in den onkruid-ruigen bouwval-tuin
Schiet, klaterend een springbron naar den hoogen:

En 't lage dal blikt op, met vreeze en beven,
Naar 't slot, waar zang- en zwaardgekletter klonk,
Toen willekeur bevel vermocht te geven,-

En 't ziet, in schemer-schijn der nacht-zon, zweven
Het schimmen-heir, dat in den dood verzonk
Doch in den doodschen burg der nacht bleef leven.

We should revolt, and be like the well in the poem...

How to sell and buy food.

2011-06-16T01:33:00.000-07:00

In the RSSfeed of Chris Blattman this morning was this short film of a market in Thailand. Just how absurd people's life can be! An incredible situation, dangerous and not very healthy I would say. But also here is visible how resilient people can be. And very efficient in using space....

Food Rules

2011-06-15T00:28:00.001-07:00

This is a really simple manual by Michael Pollan. Food journalist and specialist from the USA. he wrote about 6 books about the food issue. Today's food matters are complicated. There is an abundance in our shops, there is a shortage in many parts of the world and we have obesitas as well as hunger problems. And many more issue to solve such as biodiversity, extinction of species, etcetera. Pollan can't solve all this with his ideas, but he raises questions we should all raise. He questions quality, complexity and industry. His rules are summarised in these 7 words: eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
Just one of his many rules in this book, which is a Chinese proverb:
Eating what stands on one leg
is better than eating what stands on two legs,
which is better than eating what stands on four legs.
In today's debate he is a sparkling voice.

Tree of Life

2011-06-14T00:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend I watched the new film by Terence Malick Tree of Life. There are films and films. Some films you watch and either like or don't. You go home, put it on your list of 'seen it' and get back to normal. There are also films that are an experience, that you can't just watch. This is such a one. It got me right under my skin and in my heart.
The photography is stunning, the images of nature are stunning, the music is stunning. All this supports a simple story of a childhood in the USA Fifties, with 3 brothers, a loving poetic mother and a loving, strict and frustrated father. One boy dies. We don't even know how or why, and it doesn't matter. This film get incredibly deep into the essence of life, love and loss and that's enough. Surrealistic, heart-breaking, poetic and beautiful. The story is told through fragments mostly. We see the eldest son as an adult, trying to get grip on his memories. The tree of life is filled with memories, with those who are among us and those we had to let go. But still love.

Blossom

2011-06-10T02:21:00.000-07:00

Fragile though resilient this bog blossom is one of my favourite flowers. The soft cotton-like white blooms on strong short grassy stems are dotted in the landscape of Scotland. When it's raining they look rather sad, but with dry weather they proudly move in the wind. And sunshine makes them sparkle and glimmer....

How wonderful is a
perfect day of
Midsummer in the isles!
The horizons seem
limitless. There are no
trees to shade the sun
and the light is brilliant.

Seton Gordon 1926

June

2011-06-09T00:51:00.000-07:00

'In June the St Kildans used to round up the sheep on each of the islands for wool gathering. All the dogs and most of the islanders used to take part in the exercise, which was known as the 'ruagadh' and involved chasing the sheep round and round the island till they were trapped.'
Charles Maclean 1972

I've seen much of the contemporary way of sheep gathering on the Hebrides. It's less spectacular, but the wool is from a high quality. The landscape though, is still as spectacular as in those days. This image I took on Canna, one of the so-called small isles. Sheep walk around by themselves over the fields, and loose their left-over wool in the grass and on heather bushes. I use the beautiful pieces of wool to make the felted necklaces that are part of my collection. The regular wool I use to fill the flock of hand-knitted lambs in my collection.
www.renyvanderkamp.nl

World of Giving

2011-06-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting book. About giving, as the title says. From compliments to donations. From a piece of bread to emergency aid. From philantrophy to governmental policy. It is written by Jeffrey Inaba and C-Lab at Columbia University.
It's a very helpful guide through the flow of aid and money. Designed as a design book which improves the readability.
What motivates giving? Is it altruism, is it a religious duty, is it reciprocity? This book shows all aspects playing a role in the world of giving and receiving. Why do NGO's compete with each other, what is the history of giving, how is giving embedded in our society? With cases that explain daily aid situations. With quotes from the Bible, the Koran, the Baghavad Gita. With good graphics about donation flows and the relation between give and receive, expenditures worldwide etcetera. Aid Capital is the term for the power of giving.
About the challenges we face towards the future. About the misinterpretations of facts and numbers. What struck me most was the clear explanation of the structure of aid. Being involved in development cooperation I'm aware how much can go wrong, and how important it is to care and share.
'Giving is any act that improves the capacity of another person. A gift can be as little as a nod of encouragement, or as great as taking a bullet for a friend.......Everyone is a giver. Every person gives to himself, many also give to others.'

Could we here?

2011-06-06T02:58:00.000-07:00

This small film shows the joy of women and children when having guests. In the village of Utabwalero in Malawi. I was there with a colleague from 'Friends of Dickson' for the agriculture projects we do in the area.
Singing and dancing is in their genes so it seems. I was invited to join, which I did of course. It was hilarious and special. It made me wonder; how happy are we when having guests? How do we show that? How do we share happiness? Is happiness related to wealth? The answer to the last question is 'no'. For these people are among the poorest in the world; living from less than 2$ a day. I think we can learn from these women never to take anything for granted, and give more attention to our relationships than to our possessions. As Epiphano Chifumbi, a Malawian cathechist, expresses: a human being is a human being in relation to others.

Belonging

2011-05-31T00:57:00.000-07:00

Another way of getting the same message about the importance of community living and caring for our environment is this children's book by Jeannie Baker.
In a great sequence of the same view through a bedroom window we see the neighbourhood develop. We first see a kind of decline with half-broken advertisement boards, damaged walls and more concrete than green. Suddenly we see more children, more friendliness and an increase of green. A communal garden, a playground and elderly people as well as families. We also see the child who's window we look through grow up. We see how she develops her identity, individuality and.. a sense of belonging.
And the images are so wonderfully made; each is a collage a made with mixed materials. Textile, wood, carton, clay etc.
A brilliant idea and a brilliant design. With a simple, important and positive story about (urban) life.

My Green City

2011-05-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

Th subtitle of this book is back to nature with attitude and style. And indeed it contains a great attitude and a strong style. It's full of urban initiatives that bring nature back into cities. Guerilla gardens, pop-up outdoor restaurants, a vintage plant shop, rooftop beehives, educational projects....it makes you, me at least, want to be part of every page! It's such a great development, and it's growing fast. It makes people think, it makes people smile, it brings a new way of neighbourhood living, a sense of community and it makes you feel a sustainable lifestyle is actually easier in a city than in the countryside. That is good news, for urbanisation is also a fast-growing development.
This book should be on the desk of every urban developer, every city councillor and every designer. This green city is the city we should aim for.

Flora Celtica - plants and people in Scotland

2011-05-26T05:41:00.000-07:00

This book is a wealth of information. And a source of inspiration for me. The evolving relation between humans and plants. In my continuing research for crafts and lifestyle in the remote Western Isles of Scotland I encountered many of the issues described in this book.
Weaving with twigs, dying wool with leaves, flower buds and roots, insulating and thatching with grasses, enriching nutrition value with seaweeds, ropes made from heather etcetera. The use of plants has a rich history and a wide variety of uses.
The book is clearly divided into chapters about the elements in the ongoing relation with plants and trees. Food and drink, homes, transport, health, culture, farming, economy, crafts and environment. lavishly illustrated. It's also a treasure, for much is in decay.
The authors are William Milliken and Sam Bridgewater; both (ethno)botanical specialists.

• Which type of lichen makes the best orange dye?
• What plants did our ancestors use for healing wounds?
• How do you make a traditional dish from carrageen seaweed?
• Why is it still considered unlucky to cut down a rowan tree?
• When is the best time to cut heather for thatching a house?

With books such as this some of the knowledge and skills may be kept for the future. And will hopefully get back into bloom. Not for being nostalgic but for being aware of the richness around us, and the need to take good care of our planet.

Threads of Feeling

2011-05-25T01:02:00.000-07:00

Occasionally the catalogue of an exhibition is better than the exhibition itself. To my belief that's the case here. The theme of the exhibition, which was in London's Foundling Museum in the early spring, is heartbreaking. Textile tokens from the museum's archives. Tokens left by young mothers who brought their babies to the foundling hospital in the eighteenth century as the only trace for possible future contact. Most children stayed in the hospital for the rest of their lives until they went to work somewhere. If contact between mother and child ever was restored is hard to tell. The museum has around 5000 swatches, stapled together with a letter in which was written the age, the possessions and the sex of the baby. The catalogue gives an in-depth view into the historical background and is written by John Styles. The beautiful photographs and details of eighteen-century prints are a great illustration of the story.
5000 Swatches means 5000 heartbreaking stories of lost love, despair and hope. In the swatches you can see the sign of the times. Symbols, fashion, living standard, crafts. All kinds of fabric such as silk, wool, cotton and linen. Ribbons, embroidery, patterns; all so delicate!
In the eighteenth-century song 'Oh dear, what can the matter be' we hear about the emotional significance of ribbons:
He promis'd to buy me a pair of blue stockings
a pair of blue garters that cost him but two pence
he promis'd to bring me a bunch of blue ribbons
to tie up my bonny brown hair.
Ribbons in favourite colours were worn as material emblems of attachment.
I'm very attached to this book!

revolution

2011-02-03T00:53:00.000-08:00

What's going on in Egypt and other countries in the Middle East is amazing. From here it seems as if it's a revolution of the people. Men and women of all ages, levels of education and religions are together in this. Democracy, freedom of speech and an end to corruption is their main demand. It turned into a chaos yesterday, and we do not know yet the result of this. It's still hard to read anyway.
I found a Welsh proverb which expresses the hope of all this:
A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible.
(photo's by Liza Crowley Judson)

TEDxWomen

2010-12-20T06:22:00.001-08:00

It was great to be part of TEDxWomen recently. Here's my speech. In Dutch.

TEDxWomen talk 8 december 2010.

Een artikel in NRC, ruim 5 jaar geleden. Over een dorp in Afrika, en hoe je daar leeft. Van 1 dollar per dag. Het raakte me. Ik wilde iets doen. Naast veel ben ik ook textielontwerper en ik startte een ontwerpproject. Met stylisten en ontwerpers hier, om iets nuttigs te maken voor de mensen daar. Vanwege het nut, en vanwege de verbinding.
Daarna werd ik door de schrijver van het artikel als bestuurslid van een nieuwe stichting gevraagd, en konden wij het geld besteden wat binnenstroomde vanwege het artikel.
Sindsdien zit ik er tot over mijn oren in de agrarische ondersteuning en ben ik inmiddels 2x afgereisd naar het afgelegen plattelandsgebied in Malawi. Naar Dickson, zo heet het dorp.

Het betekent veel praten, veel huisbezoeken afleggen en akkers bekijken. We logeren in het dorp. Ik in mijn piepkleine tentje, en mijn collega Dick Wittenberg met de tolk in iemands huisje.
We blijven een week, want na een week voel je eigenlijk teveel. Want zonder dat je het merkt heb je als gast een hele hofhouding achter je. Die voor je koken, je badwater verwarmen, je afwas doen en je afspraken regelen.

Ik nam de eerste keer wat breipennen en wol mee. Malawi is geen land van ambachten, 80% van de inwoners zijn boeren. Maar ik wilde het gewoon proberen.
Vrouwen hebben een nogal ondergeschikte positie in de samenleving, en het leek me goed en leuk om op een andere manier met hen in contact te komen.

De eerste breiles was op een middag dat het zachtjes regende. Vanwege de regen vond de les plaats in een tabaksschuur. Al snel zat de schuur vol.
Ik leerde ze steken opzetten, de eerste steken breien, en foutjes herstellen. Vrouwen van alle leeftijden sloten zich aan, hielpen elkaar en we hadden enorme pret. Toen er niet genoeg breipennen meer waren werden fietsspaken gehaald.

Gedurende mijn verdere verblijf was er elke dag op een andere plek een breiles; gewoon waar al wat vrouwen zaten. Ik sloot me aan, en dan sloten steeds meer vrouwen zich aan.

We zagen als we door het dorp liepen ook vrouwen samen zitten breien.
Dat samen, dat maakte me blij. Want wie in het dagelijks leven weleens met de nek wordt aangekeken omdat ze gescheiden is, of bij het armere deel van het dorp hoort, die zou je zomaar kunen leren hoe je steken op moet zetten. Allerlei standsverschillen vallen weg.
Tijdens het breien voeren we lange gesprekken. De tolk Chifumbi, in zijn dagelijks leven cathecheet, is een man, maar hij is zo’n kameleon dat de vrouwen gewoon openhartig kunnen zijn over vrouwenzaken en we werkelijk onze levens uit kunnen wisselen.

Bij vertrek de eerste keer beloofde ik dat ik voor wol en pennen zou zorgen, maar niet voor de rest van mijn leven. Dat zou ook niet goed zijn. Maar ik vroeg na thuiskomst aan alle mensen om mij heen om overgebleven bollen wol en breipennen. Het stroomde van alle kanten binnen. Enorme hoeveelheden, wat geweldig was dat! Ik stuurde alles op naar Willem, onze contactpersoon, een geweldige Witte Pater die al 39 jaar in Malawi woont. Ook stuurde ik basispatronen mee voor een vest, trui en muts.

Afgelopen voorjaar gingen we weer.
Het was fantastisch om terug te komen. Om mensen opnieuw te zien, om contacten uit te bouwen. Ik kreeg bij aankomst dit mutsje op mijn hoofd, wat de vrouwen voor mij hadden gebreid!
Het gaat goed met het dorp, en de dorpen in de omgeving. Door de ondersteuning zijn de oogsten verdubbeld, is de kennis toegenomen en kunnen er buffers worden opgebouwd voor magere tijden.
Er werd overal gebreid, en ik kreeg een modeshow met wat de vrouwen allemaal gemaakt hadden.

Het project is bijna klaar, na 5 jaar wilden wij overbodig zijn en dat lijkt te lukken. Het is een project geworden om trots op te zijn, mensen om trots op te zijn.
Maar die vrouwen, daarop ben ik nog het meest trots. Ze hebben elkaar geholpen, ze breien van alles wat ze niet van mij hebben, ze zijn bezig hun eigen kleine business op te zetten door in opdracht te breien, en ze maken zich als groep ook sterker.

Je plant zaadjes, je weet niet of ze tot wasdom komen, maar deze zijn in goede, Malawiaanse aarde gevallen, en ze hebben ook mij voorgoed veranderd.

a messag for the climate summit in Cancun!

2010-11-24T07:43:00.000-08:00

Great actions through 350.org. More on their website.

we need fair fashion....

2010-11-16T08:54:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday I read an astonishing article in the Observer. About the tough matter of our fashion habits and what's behind that.
We all like our own style, we like to change our look somewhat every season and change into brand new. Some people even buy clothes every week. Possible because of incredibly low prices. A cotton short sleeve t-shirt of € 4,95 at H&M is normal to most people. Let's buy 4 different colours, and just dump them after 4 washings!
But think about the route until it's in your closet:
Cotton has been seeded, grown and harvested. Then it's transported to a mill and prepared for spinning. Spun, dyed and transported to a clothes factory. Cut to the design, sewed into a dozen different sizes, labelled, packed and transported to the shops all over the world. Put on display in the shop and waiting to be sold. Still; the price is € 4,95!
Who is being mistreated, wrong out and underpayed?
First the cotton farmers. They are farming all over the world. The ones in the USA and Europe though are receiving millions of subsidies. This causes an enourmous overproduction, a rise of 'disposable 'fashion such as the t-shirts mentioned above and an artificial lowering of wholesale prices for cotton.
Now read the story from The Observer by Elizabeth Day:

From a distance, the cotton field appears to be a single patch of colour stretching to the horizon, its thickets of foliage merging into a dense blanket of green. It is only when you get closer that you notice the other colours: the brownish tangle of twigs and weeds and the balls of cotton ready for harvest.

As you walk to the edge of the field, you begin to make out the pickers: men in yellow overalls, shoulders stooped forward, plastic sacks hanging from their waistbands. They work silently, breaking off the buds by hand with smooth, quick efficiency as the afternoon sun beats down.

Closer still and you can see the tall silhouette of Moussa Doumbia, 45 years old, father of nine and a cotton farmer from the village of Mafélé in Mali, west Africa. He is bent over, wearing a dirty beige shirt, fingers snapping together as if keeping time with some syncopated, internal rhythm. After a while, he holds out his hand, revealing several balls of bright white fluff.

This is the cotton fibre that will be sent abroad to be processed, eventually ending up in the T-shirts, skirts and jackets that hang in our high street shops. But Moussa has no sense of pride in his work. "I don't want my children to be cotton farmers," he says, his voice emotionless. Why not? He gives a short, bitter laugh. "Because they will have no future."

Despite the fact that cotton prices are running at a 15-year high after crops in China and Pakistan were hit by floods earlier this year, Moussa lives on the brink of poverty, the victim of an iniquitous global trading system. There are some 16,000 cotton farmers like Moussa in Mali, a country so impoverished it is ranked 160th out of 169th in the United Nations Human Development Index. Life expectancy here is just 49.

A landlocked, semi-desert nation, Mali depends on cotton for its survival. Half of its export revenues come from cotton – it is the second-largest producer in Africa after Egypt – and it is estimated that more than 3.2 million Malians, 40% of the country's rural population, depend on the crop for their livelihoods.

Moussa, who started growing cotton 17 years ago, farms two hectares of land, which yield 500-800 kilos a year. Yet despite the quantity and quality of cotton he produces, he is barely able to feed his children.

"Sometimes, the young ones cry because they're so hungry," he says, his face impassive. "I become very angry when I'm not able to get enough food for my family. All the time, I feel sad." Last month, two of his youngest children contracted malaria and his three-year-old son almost died because Moussa couldn't afford to buy medicine. "That made me very afraid. It makes me feel ashamed because I am the chief of the family but I am not able to protect them. In our culture, this is unacceptable."

Moussa's life is being buffeted by forces beyond his control, put into motion by industrialised, wealthy nations thousands of miles from this dry, hot corner of Africa. In the United States, the scale of government support to 25,000 cotton farmers has thrown the international trading system out of kilter. The political lobby for cotton is one of the strongest in US agriculture, a legacy of the post-Depression, dust-bowl era, when embattled farmers had to be helped back on to their feet.

But while America's economic landscape has changed, the practice has remained: in 2008/2009, cotton producers were awarded $3.1bn (£1.9bn) in subsidies, which, astonishingly, exceeded the market price by around 30%. The EU and China award its farmers similar grants, albeit on a lesser scale.

The result has been overproduction, the rise of fast, disposable fashion and the artificial lowering of world cotton prices. The consequences are felt most deleteriously by the poorest farmers at the end of the supply chain, men such as Moussa, who battle each year to eke out an existence. The price of west African cotton has fallen every year since 2003 and despite the recent spike in prices, there has been a long-term decline in real terms since the 1950s. Today, Moussa sells one kilo of cotton for 185 Central African francs (CFA) – about 24p. That translates to a maximum annual income of just £200.

It has been left to the charitable sector to pick up the pieces. The Fairtrade Foundation has been working in west Africa for the past five years. It has introduced a minimum price for its growers that covers the cost of sustainable production plus a premium equivalent to 4p per kilogram, used to fund reinvestment and community projects, such as schools, clinics and wells.

But the organisation has struggled to make inroads in the UK. Fair trade cotton still makes up only 1-2% of the domestic retail market and last year sales actually dropped 35%. The recession is part of the problem; for years, Fairtrade has concentrated on T-shirts priced higher than most chain-store options, and with less money to spend, consumers are reluctant to pay extra. We have become used to disposable fashion and lazy in our habits. Corporate buyers are unwilling to commit to bulk orders where there is little demand. And farmers such as Moussa, at the bottom of the supply chain, have been horribly failed.

Now Fairtrade is encouraging up-and-coming designers to use fair trade cotton in higher-end clothes, which buyers expect to pay more for. "We've got to move on from the idea that fair trade cotton is all about the basic white T-shirt," says Rachel Hearson, head of Fairtrade's commercial relations team. "People in the UK are having a tough time, but perhaps they will begin to think, 'There's someone in the developing world having a tough time too.' It's about developing that feeling of affinity with the producer."

It is hard to ignore that sense of affinity when someone such as Moussa is standing in front of you. Moussa, who is not a fair trade farmer, did not even know that US subsidies existed. He greets the news with a despondent equanimity, as though he is accustomed to disappointment. "It's really unfair because we cannot get a good price for our cotton on the international market. Life is hard."

The injustice is exacerbated because the American economy does not rely on cotton to anything like the same extent. In Mali, cotton is such a valuable commodity it is known as "white gold". According to Vince Cable, the business secretary, the elimination of global subsidies would raise cotton farmers' incomes in sub-Saharan Africa by 30%. That would make a substantial difference to producers such as Moussa.

When the sun goes down, Moussa takes me back to his home, a mud hut overlooked by the sprawling branches of a large mango tree. A slow fire is burning in the makeshift stove outside his house. Inside, his wife is preparing dinner, pounding maize in a wooden bowl with a long-handled stick. Moussa's children stare at me silently, their mouths open, with uncertain expressions on their faces.

Sitting down on a low bench in front of the fire, Moussa takes a strip of paracetamol tablets from his shirt pocket. "I have a headache all the time," he explains. "Working with the pesticides makes you sick; it makes your head sore, your stomach ache." He tells me that a packet of eight paracetamol tablets costs him CFA400 (52p). So he has to sell two kilos of cotton to earn enough money to buy a single packet? Moussa nods. Why does he not become a fair-trade producer, I wonder, or start growing organic cotton, which fetches a higher price? "At the moment, I don't have enough manpower or time," he says. "It takes a lot of effort, a lot of commitment."

A small boy emerges from the shadows, his gait slightly unbalanced, wearing a pair of raggedy shorts. "This is the one who was sick last month," says Moussa, pushing him forward. "The one who almost died." The boy looks at me with big, doleful eyes, then turns away, scared, and hides behind his father's legs. Somewhere close by a baby starts to cry. Tomorrow, Moussa will get up with the sunrise and start his long day's work all over again.

Some 20 miles away, Daouda Samake sits in a metal-framed chair outside his family home in the tiny village of N'Tentou, Kouroulamini, his eyes squinting in the early morning sun. The ground around us is dry and dusty, the parched earth scattered with goat droppings and chicken feathers. In the background, his three youngest children are playing, rushing around in bare feet and hand-me-down clothes. His fourth child, he tells me proudly, is at school.

"I used to have a lot of problems," Daouda says, pushing up the sleeves of his checked white shirt and gesturing with his hands for emphasis. "I didn't have enough money to pay the fees to send my children to school or to buy them food. Now I can. That makes me proud." He gives a small smile, half-embarrassed by the confession.

Daouda is one of the luckier ones. The general secretary of an organic cotton farming co-operative based in the village of Madina, he has seen first-hand the benefits that come from working with fair trade. "We can work together to make the picking lighter and quicker in the field," he says. "We can help each other. I feel more like I am part of the community. It has really changed life in the village. Before, we didn't have any school or health centre or wells but since fair trade, we've been able to build all this."

The American subsidies, he says, are "really discouraging. Many of our cotton farmers have given up because they cannot get enough money for their crop". In fact, the Mali government estimates that 16,100 hectares of farmland were abandoned this year – almost double the amount in 2009.

"It makes me sad because it's unjust," Daouda continues. "Instead of giving these grants, why not take the time to get all the world's cotton producers together and discuss the problem?"

It is a fair question. But, depressingly, efforts to tackle these glaring inequalities have faltered. Next year marks 10 years since the launch of the World Trade Organisation's Doha Development Round, a process of talks held in the aftermath of 9/11 that were intended to lower trade barriers and reduce poverty, the seedbed of terrorism. At the time, the west African cotton farmers of Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso and Chad were held up as the most vivid example of trade injustice. But a decade later, the plight of the so-called "Cotton Four" continues to be ignored, despite the US subsidies being ruled discriminatory by the WTO in 2008.

When later I meet Ahmadou Abdoulaye Diallo, minister of industry, investment and commerce in his office in the capital, Bamako, he presses home the point that Mali's cotton farmers "are not asking for a favour. All we're asking for is an equal market for the whole world. We're asking that the rules be kept by both the weak and the strong. At the moment, the weak respect the rules and the strongest don't. That is unacceptable. We can't construct world peace while there is trade injustice."

Does he believe that the problems facing cotton producers and the existence of American subsidies will fuel resentment amongst Mali's rural poor? "If things don't change, people are finally going to do stupid things," he replies. In northern Mali, there are already pockets of radical Islamic activity connected to al-Qaida.

Then there are the threats posed to farmers such as Moussa and Daouda by climate change. Last year, Mali experienced a severe drought that stalled cotton production because, unlike the irrigated cotton fields of America or Europe, Malian producers depend entirely on natural rainfall.

"It is a big problem," says Daouda. "The change in climate makes us worried because it can lead to unexpected results: you never know what kind of crop you will get, whether you will get rain. If it continues this way, farmers will be poorer and poorer."

As a result, cotton production in Mali has dropped sharply in recent years – from 620,600 tonnes in 2004 to 232,947 tonnes in 2009 – which has a knock-on effect: an individual farmer with a decreasing income cannot scrabble together enough money to buy medicines or to send his children to school and communities begin to collapse. If children are not educated, they, too, will end up toiling in the cotton fields; in fact, many of them already do.

One cotton farmer I meet, Daouda Diamara, 38, has at least six children under the age of 10 working in his fields – some of them are his own; some are the offspring of his father's second marriage. As we talk, the children emerge sporadically from a field scattered with white buds, hoisting full sacks of cotton on to a rudimentary scale rigged up to a nearby tree. When they return to the picking, their heads disappear from view – many are too short to be able to see above the plants.

"I want this to change," the farmer says, arms crossed, head bowed as he talks. He has patches sewn on to his threadbare trousers and his shoes are falling apart at the soles. "I am going to start growing organic because then I can get a better price and then I can look after my family."

Next year, he says, he hopes to become one of the 1,600 fair trade cotton producers in Mali. Fair trade co-operatives have sprouted up in rural areas, providing farmers with access to loans, technical advice and agricultural training. Although the Fairtrade Foundation does not insist on organic production, it does encourage more sustainable methods, which brings long-term benefits both to the quality of the soil and the health of the farmer. There are more tangible advantages too: in 2007, the fair-trade price for a kilo of cotton was, on average, 46% higher than the norm.

The fair trade premium is then ploughed back into the local community. In the hamlet of Soron, a new well provides fresh water. In the village of Brian, the school now has textbooks, chairs and desks. In Mafélé, where the women used to give birth in their huts by the light of an electric torch, there is now a maternity clinic. "More babies survive now and fewer women die in childbirth," says the midwife, Solona Bagayoko, whose salary is paid using fair-trade profits. "We give vaccinations for polio, measles, yellow fever and meningitis. This clinic has changed women's lives."

More women, too, are becoming cotton farmers under the fair trade initiative, because they do not rely on pesticides and fertilisers, the sale of which is controlled by men. Out of 220 producers in the Madina co-operative, 100 are women.

Bandia Doumbia, a 36-year-old mother of six, is one of them. A tall, thin woman with a ready smile and wearing a purple printed sarong, Bandia remembers a time before she started growing organic fair trade cotton, when she did not have enough money to take her sick child to hospital. "There was no clean water when the pumps broke down in the village because there was no money to repair them," she says. "It was also difficult to get enough money for clothes. I couldn't look after my family. I was very poor."

Now, things have improved. "My children are in school, I get a good price for my cotton and I've also learned a lot of skills. I have become very happy – so much so, that next year, I am going to grow a bigger crop."

Yet despite the good it does, fair trade attracts its share of criticism. In the past, it has been accused of skewing free-market forces and, earlier this month, the Institute of Economic Affairs suggested the fair-trade premium was of negligible value for the world's poorest. But in Mali, it is hard not to feel such arguments are crudely abstract. After all, American subsidies already make a mockery of the idea of a "free market" and speaking to people such as Daouda or Bandia, you rapidly realise the gains that come from fair trade are not only the kind that can be drawn up on a balance sheet of profit and loss.

There is something in both Daouda and Bandia's manner that is lacking from Moussa's worn-down demeanour. It is there in the smallest actions: the slight straightening of the shoulders, the smallest curve of a smile or the fact that they look you in the eye as they speak. It feels as though Daouda and Bandia believe in their future. By contrast, what I see in Moussa is the absence of hope, a lack of faith that anything will ever change or that he will one day be able to shape his own future.

"I have to believe that God will find a solution," he says as I leave his village, shaking his hand for the final time. The sun has set and the silhouette of his mud hut is barely visible through the thickening darkness. As he walks back towards the flickering embers of the fire, he turns and adds, almost as an afterthought: "Who else will?"

...images from www.fairtrade.net/home.html

autumn in scotland

2010-11-02T23:49:00.000-07:00

plastic

2010-10-26T00:56:00.000-07:00

An alarming article today in P+. 50% Of the plastic that's collected separate is not being recycled at all. It ends up in German ovens and is burned. The substance of the plastic is too different to use it properly as raw material for a new lifecycle. The CEO of Gansewinkel, one of the biggest waste-processing firms in Europe, suggests chips so that the reusable plastic can be recognized by the machines.
That's stunning. Finally people are willing to make the effort to separate their household and company waste, and realise how much plastic we produce and try to reduce that; and is it all fruitless?
Producers of plastic should be forced to only produce plastic that's recyclable. It's shocking that half of it can't be used. Chips to separate for different purposes is fine, but we must make sure that all plastic is reusable. What to do now with the enormous amounts of plastic we collect. Just dump it in the bin? Or keep it separate so that at least half of it is recycled? But the burning; that can't be good for the environment. A deposit on plastic is an option too. But that needs strong agreements with companies and governments. Companies should take their responsibilities and act quick. Now.
Meanwhile I collect my plastic separate.

Tichelaar

2010-10-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

A great book has been published about Royal Tichelaar in Makkum. Their history, their philosophy and their wonderful designs. The design of the book is by Irma Boom. This company is everything a contemporary company should be. Taking a rich history to the future, valueing the crafts and skills not just of the designers but also of the makers, and creating an environment with a wonderful atmosphere in their shop and their corporate identity.
The book is called 'RePresent', and there is a Dutch and an English version.

It all comes together sometimes

2010-10-21T04:08:00.001-07:00

Last week I was in Scotland. The westcoast; source of inspiration for my textile collection. Yet again, it struck me. The sheep everywhere, the wind-resilient flowers, the views, the peacefulness. Even the foam on the ocean west of Barra was like my wild wool beads. I was able to collect wild wool again, for new beads!
For those who want to see them: on sale in the Textile Museum in Tilburg.