Threads of Sustainability

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We dive into intimate conversations around mindful practice for soothing the mind, and how intention can create inspiring work and help ground us. We talk about favourite tools for deconstruction along with some of the processes Eliu Hernandez embarks on through his up-cycling, recycling and recreating with denim, from the large panels,  right dow to the pockets and thread.

Eliu is a textile artist specializing in and obsessing over reclaimed materials. He uses original designs. Sewing and quilting seem to help keep his itchy hands and itchy brain in check.

You can find his work here:
Instagram: @madeorremade

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Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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Patty Grossman and her sister wanted to have safe fabrics to use for their family. They realized it was missing in the industry and have spent the last 15 years researching ethical and sustainable production—how it’s done, and what the implications are to us (and to all living things)  and to our planet.  They even put it in their mission statement, a goal “to change the way textiles are being made”.

In this episode we talk about the issues behind sourcing ethical fibres, the challenges production faces with regulations, apathy and access to raw materials as well as some of the challenges we are facing with looking to small sustainable production for the answers to toxic textiles. It's not a simple solution; we can't meet the fibre needs with natural and organic production. Consumer behaviour is what needs to change as well as possibly the production of new sustainably produced man-made fibres.

"All of us live intimately with fabrics each day.  Fabrics are all around us.  Your fabric choices are incredibly important. You can have a dramatic positive impact on greening our world and keeping your family optimally healthy through your fabric choices. We want you to be confident that the fabrics you choose will ensure your health and happiness – not undermine it."

Website: www.twosistersecotextiles.com

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Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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Sourcing linen to make her own products for her family launched Marketa Kopal on an interesting journey. She had no idea she would be connected back to her family from a time before they fled the Czech Republic when she was a child. Building business relationships and exchanging values with the community that appreciates and relates to the tactile nature of linen is what motivates her to continue to share. She focuses on the little things to lead by example. 

In this episode, we talk about the textile industry in Canada, options around natural materials, flax production experimentation, recycled content mills that are making inroads, zero waste design, end-of-life material use and circular products. We cram a whole lot of meaningful conversation into this chat. 

Maison Lenko - Marketa Kopal
An avid learner and curious by nature, she follows a path that is as linear as a bundle of tangled threads. Marketa started Maison LenKo in 2017 in order to surround herself with healthy textiles. Linen is her jam, there is nothing you can’t do with it!

• Instagram: @maisonlenko
• Facebook: @maisonlenko
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIurbZAExMphupu_gMcCslg

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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A love of textiles, colour and patterns is behind what Ming Hsu Lees produces in her custom, bespoke memory quilts and handmade projects. Living in a country where textile waste is prominent and quilt stores are few, she decided to explore sustainable options. We dive into a conversation about textile and food waste, keeping busy during the pandemic, and creating space for the healing and nurturing practice of slow stitching and a connection to family and community through textiles.

Ming lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Her quilting journey started 10 years ago, like so many of us,  with her daughter's request for a small quilt - a "sushi" saddle pad for her horse saddle and that ignited her passion for all things related to fabric and patchwork. Growing up, she was always told not to waste. Learning that over 2,000,000kg of textile waste end up in Malaysia's landfill daily,  prompted her to embrace quilting sustainably. She is passionate about up-cycling and tries to adopt that in all her work.

You can find Ming Hsu Lees on Instagram @itsybitsybespoke

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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Rose Moses is Ojibwe, from Henvey Inlet First Nation Band. She is a self-taught artist and has drawn on the inspiration of other First Nations artists. She up-cycles a lot of her materials when working on a project. We meet at her farm and she takes me on a walking tour of her seemingly endless work. From crazy quilts to doll making, beadwork, collages, painting, furniture rescue and restoration. She walks me through building after building and room after room filled with all of her projects. We talk about her deep passion for saving furniture from landfill and her support of youth and First Nations projects through sales of her art and furniture donations.

We also have a very open and honest conversation about the work she does with high-school students. She shares mixed media collage art that is filled with symbolism of the pain and process faced by residential school survivors, her first-hand experience with her loss of culture and her own connection with her mother's experiences of residential school. It's a very moving and meaningful conversation that I was honoured to experience.

Both Beading and Doll making has been part of the First Nations culture for a long time and it possesses great beauty, Rose considers working on them as sacred work. She has been making dolls for over 30 years and goes to schools to teach doll-making. She just recently taught herself how to bead and has enjoyed putting bead-work in frames, on her dolls and even on her own clothing.

You can buy her work at https://indigenousartscollective.org/rose-moses/

• Henvey Inlet Powwow, Pickerel ON
• Kirk Kove Cottages, Arden ON
• Kuriosity Shop, Northbrook ON

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/rose.moses.5    

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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Lorraine Turner works diligently to advocate for endangered animals. It started with a meditation session where she had a vision of Calico Horses. That launched her on a journey of learning to communicate with animals, creating textiles and building a community that is inspiring. Her advocacy work helps several different animal organizations globally.

We dive into a conversation about the why behind her work, the legacy of textiles she has recently discovered in her lineage, techniques, and how she shares her knowledge as well as the many projects she has on the go. We have a shared technique in using thread painting  and we talk about our experiences as professional artists, Lorraine even takes an opportunity to ask me about my journey!

Lorraine burst into the world of textile art in 2018 with a 26-piece special exhibit at IQF in Houston, just two years after creating her very first art quilt! Since then, she has become a Benartex fabric designer, BERNINA Ambassador, Aurifil Designer, Aurifilisopher, been featured in major quilting magazines, and seen on Quilting Arts TV and the Quilt Show with Ricky Tims. She is also a professional animal communicator and uses this as inspiration for her work.

A commercial artist for forty years, Lorraine won two Emmy Awards as a lead designer for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and is the recipient of multiple awards at the San Diego International Comic-Con in her role as Art Director of the Library of American Comics.

She combines her varied experience as a watercolorist, commercial artist, and television animator with her love for all things fabric to create exciting multi-textured fabric designs.

Lorraine also teaches and lectures internationally, and is an author and motivational speaker who strongly believes in moving thought into action.

She has yet to meet a fabric embellishment she doesn’t like!

Lorraine works from her studio in Clearwater, Florida.

Business Name: Calicohorses.com

Website:https://calicohorses.com/

Social Media handles: 

• Instagram: @lorraineturnerartist
• Facebook: Lorraine Turner Textile Artist
• YouTube: Lorraine Turner

You can find me, Bridget O'Flaherty - The Sustainable Quilter here:
www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Instagram: @thesustainablequilter
Facebook: @thesustainablequilter
Youtube: Bridget O'Flaherty The Sustainable Quilter

Support the show buy me a cuppa tea!
https://bridgetoflaherty.com/product/support-the-podcast/

Music Credit: Thanks to Isaac Matthews for his incredible talent.
You can find and follow him on Instagram @hesjustakid for more of his music. 

Support the show

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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Visiting the Vancouver location of Maiwa to talk with founder and owner Charllotte Kwon was one of those pinch-me moments. I was surrounded by beautiful textiles in a warehouse/office/store while we talked about the history of the company, the connections and research they are doing with farmers in India, and the many many projects they have in the works. Maiwa has a 30-year history in the natural dye industry and the focus has always been on sustainable practices. 

Thirty years ago Charllotte Kwon formed a company and opened a shop. The shop was located in a new community of artisans that had formed on Granville Island. The Island, through its concentration of fine artists, printers, bookbinders, papermakers, potters, theatres, retailers, students, and industry, redefined itself as the cultural heart of Vancouver. The company was called Maiwa. In Cantonese and Mandarin “maiwa” is a word used to name the language through which art speaks. Maiwa. Beautiful language. 

Natural dyes are more than an ecologically smart way to add colour to yarns and cloth. Natural dyes embody the idea that there is a relationship between creativity, skill, what we make, what we wear, and the natural world. For Maiwa, natural dyes are evidence that colour can be a cultural force linking individuals to history and tradition. They work directly with farmers and run a full-time natural dye studio.

Charllotte Kwon is the owner of Maiwa Handprints Ltd. and the director of the Maiwa Foundation. Through Maiwa, Charllotte also runs a textile archive and research library located on Granville Island in Vancouver, Canada. Under her direction Maiwa has produced four documentary films and a number of print publications. She also guides Maiwa’s substantial web presence.

Charllotte travels extensively each year to research handcraft and to supplement her natural-dye research. Always looking to extend natural dye use, she also teaches dyeing workshops with artisans around the world and has planned a series of natural dye master classes to bring exceptional practicing artisans together. In 2014 she was awarded an Honourary Doctorate of Letters from the University of the Fraser Valley for her work in promoting the continuation of traditional textile techniques and cultures. In 2017 Charllotte was awarded the Robert Jekyll Award for Leadership in Craft (Canada). The same year she was an organizer for the Indigo Sutra Conference in Kolkata, India.

Maiwa Website: https://maiwa.com/
Maiwa School of Textiles: https://maiwa.teachable.com/

Maiwa Handprints Ltd.
1310 Odlum Drive 
Vancouver BC V5L 3M3
Phone 604 669 3939 

You can find me, Bridget O'Flaherty - The Sustainable Quilter here:
www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Instagram: @thesustainablequilter
Facebook: @thesustainablequilter
Youtube: Bridget O'Flaherty The Sustainable Quilter

Support the show buy me a cuppa tea!
https://bridgetoflaherty.com/product/support-the-podcast/

Music Credit: Thanks to Isaac Matthews for his incredible talent.
You can find and follow him on Instagram @hesjustakid for more of his music. 

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

Send us Fan Mail

Did you know that every year the average Canadian throws out 80lbs of textile waste and up to an average of 44 t-shirts? Gemma Smith was shocked to see her landfill contained so much textile waste and is on a mission to save t-shirts from heading there. She created t-shirt blankets that save precious memories as well as keep them out of landfill. So far she has diverted over 10,000 shirts and made over 400 blankets.

We talk about sourcing new materials that are sustainable as well as sharing stories of some of the clients that want to have memory blankets and custom quilts made.

Re-Vive the Tee
An affordable and Canadian way to up-cycle old clothing that celebrates life, achievements, and adventures. Gemma Smith discovered her passion for sewing after having children and wanting to be able to stay home with them, while earning an income. So, for the past 10 years she has been creating special memory keepsake items for family and friends. 

The idea initially came as her children grew far too quick and she was having a hard time getting rid of their baby clothing. Gemma started to think of how she could keep their baby clothes in a way that wouldn’t take up unnecessary storage space, and she would get to enjoy and look at them often, reminiscing on the baby age. Her first ever quilt was created from an assortment of her daughters clothing.

Website: https://www.revivethetee.ca/
Instagram: @revive_the_tee

You can find me, Bridget O'Flaherty - The Sustainable Quilter here:
www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Instagram: @thesustainablequilter
Facebook: @thesustainablequilter
Youtube: Bridget O'Flaherty The Sustainable Quilter

Support the show buy me a cuppa tea!
https://bridgetoflaherty.com/product/support-the-podcast/

Music Credit: Thanks to Isaac Matthews for his incredible talent.
You can find and follow him on Instagram @hesjustakid for more of his music. 

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

Send us Fan Mail

Micro fibres and microplastics can be dangerous for our health when we are going about our hobbies at the sewing machine. Julie Moore recognized this early on in her quilting career and set out to make a change in the industry. She was determined to bring organic threads to the quilting world and has worked for the last 20 years or so to make a difference in the lives of farmers, sewers and quilters. I talk with Julie about her journey to creating naturally dyed threads and her continued interest in improving access to healthy and safe cotton threads.  

Julie Moore founded Fiberactive Organics more than 20 years ago with the mission of bringing organic textiles into the mainstream. Fiberactive now manufactures organic cotton sewing thread for retailers and textile manufacturers around the world.  Julie is passionate about living lightly and with purpose.

You can find more about Julie and her thread here: 

• www.fiberactiveorganics.com
• Instagram:  @fiberactive
• Facebook: Fiberactive Organics, LLC

Show links
GOTS
Organic Trade Association
YLI Threads

You can find me, Bridget O'Flaherty - The Sustainable Quilter here:
www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Instagram: @thesustainablequilter
Facebook: @thesustainablequilter
Youtube: Bridget O'Flaherty The Sustainable Quilter

Music Credit: Thanks to Isaac Matthews for his incredible talent.
You can find and follow him on Instagram @hesjustakid for more of his music. 

Support the show buy me a cuppa tea!
https://bridgetoflaherty.com/product/support-the-podcast/

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

Send us Fan Mail

The way plastic is managed globally is problematic. In some regions, less than 8% of plastics are actually recycled. The rest are sent to landfills to slowly break down into microplastics, or release chemicals into soils and watersheds. Natalya Khorover has embarked on using waste in her artwork. She has always been driven to be thrifty and using found materials in her art seemed like an obvious path.

Links from the show: 

Quilters Take a Moment: Quilt Alliance Event
beyondplastics.org

Natalya Khorover

Natalya is an artist who uses repurposed materials and she helps other artists who struggle with knowing where to start using these materials to achieve their creative vision. She uses meditative hand stitching and mending of vintage linen, alongside her industrial sewing machine to stitch and collage layers of translucent single-use plastics which would otherwise contribute to litter pollution. The transformation she subjects them to makes these materials unrecognizable.

You can find her here:

Website: www.artbynatalya.com

Social Media handles: 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artbynatalya/
• Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/NatalyaKhoroverArtist
• YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ0ZWXG0nIeMLXfOgau360Q
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/artbynatalya

You can find me, Bridget O'Flaherty - The Sustainable Quilter here:
www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Instagram: @thesustainablequilter
Facebook: @thesustainablequilter
Youtube: Bridget O'Flaherty The Sustainable Quilter

Music Credit: Thanks to Isaac Matthews for his incredible talent.
You can find and follow him on Instagram @hesjustakid for more of his music. 

Support the show buy me a cup of tea!
https://bridgetoflaherty.com/product/support-the-podcast/

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar