Just walking my talk...

The main point I make about sustainable living is that it starts at home and radiates outward into a larger society. The more harmoniously I choose to meet my own needs, the more balanced and positive my life becomes! The reason my business is named Baisebeige Studios is because there are often times in my life when I branch out into other areas of creativity other than textiles and clothing. I believe this is part of sustainable living which involves using and developing many skills and using all of the resources available.

I, however, believe that I must keep editing those resources and have an annual yard sale with my neighborhood at the WOODRUFF PLACE FLEA MARKET which is unquestionably the best community FUNdraiser ever! Each year, on the first full weekend of June, 20,000 people come to our historic neighborhood to buy our junk and everyone who sells junk tithes 10% back to the neighborhood.

Junk is a form of potential energy and the opportunity to convert it to kinetic energy in the form of money is awesome. Keeping congruent with the idea of releasing things we don't need to get things we do want is inspiring! The neighborhood spends their portion on restoring the historic prettiness of the common areas. That's how we raise money for costly repairs to our beloved fountains such as the one you see here. Our picturesque town hall in the background has also benefited from past sales. There is always something needing attention in an old neighborhood and we are willing to do the work to make it work!

I notice that as my life stays in motion, I am constantly making junk. As I grow, things fall out of usefulness. As I think and act, things become needful! My junk sale this year helped fund my new project, the BathroomFarm. Ever since my neighborhood grocery store closed a few years ago, my life has been difficult. Since I choose to walk and ride the bus everywhere, it is difficult to obtain those five-a-day-the-color-way fresh fruits and vegetables for better health. So, I have decided to grow my own

in a year 'round vertical garden. In My. Bathroom.

So, here's the blank canvas in the form of an altered painted wall that is now becoming my BathroomFarm. This exercise in personal sustainability will reinforce my values and enhance all areas of my life. I am applying textile knowledge in this project by constructing fiber trellises and making some wall pockets for plants from upcycled materials such as canopies from discarded umbrellas.

I am completely optimistic that I'll be energized in my textile work as a result of doing this project by virtue of the increase in the general harmony in BEing. After all, this is completely about my view of personal sustainability. I am using my skills and resources to provide what I need!

Vintage Clothing and Textiles Are The Best Green Thing!

Although I do feel especially fortunate to be living in the 21st century and to have the particular set of skills and values I have, I am still a bit hesitant about jumping on the sustainable textile bandwagon just yet. Like any aspect of "greening" lifestyle, clothing and textiles certainly have their points of compromise. I feel like I am reliving the earliest days of nuturing my passions when synthetic fabrics and fibers were flooding into the market in the late 1960's and early 1970's. I see the same problems emerging.

I'm like any human and prefer the avoidance of drama, and, for that reason, will focus my work for awhile on vintage and salvaged materials. I expect the things I make to last forever and I think there's a lot of competition for the "green" greenback right now. I'm going to wait until I see some proof that materials are better. I want assurance that textiles are produced with respect to human rights. I want to see standardization in labeling and identification of fibers.

I will reuse and recycle and repair for awhile. I will buy new materials with caution. I use a lot of cotton muslin fabric. It's the workhorse of my studio. I do have a bolt of organic muslin fabric and am glad the obscene amount of agricultural petrochemicals typical for cotton production was avoided. However, I am displeased that organic cotton production uses significantly more water. And, I do not rest easy that the fabric was made in Pakistan not known for positive human rights policies and practices.

Lucky for me, I live in the United States of America where there will never be a shortage of junk. A lot of the junk is textile in nature. So while industry is becoming saner, I will make use of what's already here. This is the happiest way for me to work because I will get great exercise stretching my creativity and imagination. On the downside, profit is in replicable product and that's not possible from random supply. Lucky for me I can measure true wealth and worth in terms other than dollars and cents!

Paper Beads

During the 1990's, I taught myself how to make quilts. Also during the 1990's, I subscribed to a lot of quilting magazines. I discovered that the problem with having a lot of quilting magazines around the house was that I was spending too much time looking at pictures of other people's quilts and not spending enough time making my own quilts! I decided to sell the magazines at the neighborhood yard sale. I sold exactly one of them!

Not wanting to send the magazines to the landfill, I decided to cut the pictures of quilts out of the magazines and recycle the rest of the magazines at the neighborhood branch of the public library. While at the library, I checked out a book on paper jewelry making.

Making paper beads was a popular craft during the Great Depression and I thought a paper bead curtain between my bedroom and bathroom would be just fun to make.

So, I starting cutting the pictures of quilts into triangular and rectangular shapes. When rolled up, triangles make barrel shaped beads. If the ratio of the width of the base of the triangle to the height of the triangle is very small, the bead will be round. I also cut rectangular shapes

which make a cylindrical bead.

I inserted the cut shapes between the legs of a cotter pin and rolled the paper around the pin. It is wise to not roll the paper too tightly because that makes the bead difficult to remove from the pin. A spot of craft glue held it together. Then I painted a paper coating product over the surface of the bead to protect it.

I suspended the cotter pins on a vertical surface to let them dry. I used a cookie pillow for lace making held upright in a plate stand. I protected the surface with wax paper before inserting long pins each one holding a cotter pin with bead still attached. When they were dry, I slid the beads off of the pins. And repeated the process over and over, ad infinitum until I had thousands of beads.

I love the look of the beads made from pictures of quilts! The designs abstracted by rolling are interesting. You can see the pieces of the quilts and the patterns of the fabrics. You can even see some of the quilting lines! Although I am pleased with the beads, I decided not to make the beaded curtain.

So...I have thousands of beads and a lot of pictures of quilts. I may be making paper beads for awhile! Over and over ad infinitum!

The Dare of DIY... and Beyond

The best part of being an Etsy seller is all of the resources available to us from Etsy itself. In fact, it can be a little overwhelming to absorb everything and still engage in the business of DIY. Creative people have absolutely no problem engaging in activities related to the creation of things even when there are great unknowns about the technical processes and uncertainties about the outcome of the project. When it comes to our businesses, however, we expect there to be rigid step by step instructions that exactly meet our needs. What a shift in attitude from our normal way of being.

Tara Gentile presented a workshop in the Etsy Labs on 04/19 called "The Dare of DIY". If you missed this presentation, you can watch the video and download the worksheet at this Etsy Success Workshop Link. This is a must-see event for Etsy sellers as well as any creative individual. Shortly after opening my Etsy shop, I discovered Tara Gentile and all of her resources which are perfectly tailored to creative people and their businesses. Please become familiar with and subscribe to both of her websites where you will find a wealth of information and resources to meet your needs. At taragentile.com you will become acquainted with this amazing woman and her uplifting and motivating philosophy of creative living to help passionate people produce and profit. There are many, many useful resources on this site.

Be sure to download the FREE Spacious Goals Guide and Workbook while you're there. This tool will help you set goals as big as you can think and, best of all, to not fear your goals. After watching 'The Dare of DIY" workshop you may already be examining greater possibilities for yourself and your creative business. Why not put those goals on paper... And ACT on them!

Don't worry about the ACT concept because Tara has plenty of guidance prepared for you in her new book, Making Motion. In just seven simple steps she will help you take your goal and set it into action along a path designed for creative people toward a destination of successful fulfillment. I had the opportunity to preview this book and I am so excited about it, that I am offering it for sale on my blog. Just click on the title above or the button in the sidebar to download this e-book for just $8! It will absolutely be the best investment you can make to accelerate your dreams.

You'll find plenty of support for your exhilarating journey toward your spacious goals at Tara's scoutiegirl.com site where passionate creatives connect, converse and commune! This is where I discovered how Tara Gentile helps you "turn your big ideas into a creative life-well-lived through a generous helping of practical philosophy, a few kicks in the pants, and a signed permission slip to reach your goals!" Her words, not mine. I couldn't be more in agreement with them, nor could I be more grateful for the resources and knowledge shared!

WINNING! I've "Got it in the Bag!"

I have been taking my own bags to the store and everywhere else for approximately 30 years. I simply prefer having my own bags and simply prefer to not have a mess of disposable bags at home. It was a behavior that I developed during punk rock because I had noticed that people are very connected to luxury store bags. Funny. Even beyond the consumerism mentality of BEing your stuff, some people actually seemed to BE the bag the stuff came in!

Taking my own bag to the store has historically caused a LOT of problems. Being sensitive to the issues connected to retail loss prevention, I always surrendered my bag upon entering the store. However, it seemed sometimes that retailers were displeased that I didn't voluntarily advertise for them by displaying their mini-billboard bag logos out and about in public places. I began to accept the fact that having my own bag meant that I packed my purchases into that bag. Just because I have my own bag does not mean that I do not expect the same service as everyone else!

Good things are happening and environmental awareness has inspired a revolution of reusable bag-toting in America. The same stores that hassled me are trying to sell me their own brand of bags. Furthermore, entire communities have BANNED the use of disposable

bags. The recycling triangle is a lie. Most plastic bags, after their average 12 minute use end up in the landfills or littered in the environment. Now is the time to decide to use your own bag and to get used to it before the behavior is required.

I have an entire wardrobe of reusable bags, each one suitable exactly to meet my needs. This is my newest bag and already my favorite! I WON THIS in the Green Gifts Guide EcoMonday giveaway on twitter and couldn't be happier with it! The bag was designed by Aubrey Lenyard at Fashionable Notes who is a genius! Please browse this site for an amazing selection of beautiful and useful totes to stylishly assimilate into your everyday life!

I walk my green talk and walk everywhere or ride transit. I do limit myself to one trip per month to the grocery store in a passenger vehicle, however I do need to make numerous purchases of fresh foods in addition to that and carry them home on the bus. Look at the roominess of the Fashionable Notes market bag! This is my personal weight limit for a grocery trip and the bag still has plenty of room! It's study enough to handle all this weight and I like the Velcro closure on top to keep the items under control.

The bag is washable which is a BIG consideration because I an perpetually bringing sometimes messy food items home in totes. Another feature that is well designed is the length of the handles. They are long enough to comfortably fit over coat sleeves because my green lifestyle is an everyday occasion and not a fair-weather game. Plus the handles are long enough to shift the bag to rest against my back in case my purchase is heavy. Sometimes, I am lazy and wheel the cart around the store instead of carrying the basket which is useful in helping me gauge weight and volume of items.

My Eco Chic tote from Fashionable Notes is going to be my ideal companion for every outing requiring hands-free carrying which is seriously just about everything. Perhaps, I also develop attachments to my tote bags but it believe it's different from the collectors of store bags past. MY Bag is always about function, comfort and sustainable lifestyle. Now it can be more stylish, too! Watch for "EcoChic ME" at a farmer's market, public library or cultural event sometime soon!

About Clothing, Fire and Ethical Fashion....

One hundred years have come and gone since the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City on March 25, 1911. Since then, we have been on a roller coaster ride of changes in the industry of clothing manufacture and have arrived at a point actually worse than where we started. Because the industry has shown no interest in evolving itself in a positive way and unions have transformed from apolitical entities into political powers feeding only the egos of their bosses, the mechanism for change lies presently within the hands of the consumer.

Fashion consumers are an interesting group. They are willing to starve themselves to ill-health and even death or self-destruct financially with insurmountable consumer debt. Curiously, as a majority, they drive a price-driven market fueling sweatshops and the institution of slavery. Misery must beget misery and, perhaps, this is an example. With society's increasing interest in all things "green", this is the perfect time to evaluate our thoughts about ourselves and our relationships to other people as we strive to save the planet. That is exactly why I always describe my work as both friendly to the planet and to humanity.

Knitting girl is the "face" of American textile workers at the turn of the 20th century. The majority of the laborers were young, immigrant females with little or no education and worked

long days in dangerous conditions for less than 25 cents/hour. Most of the 146 fatalities in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire were teenagers and women not unlike this girl.

Labor unions were becoming powerful in the textile industry and it is interesting to know that there was a failed attempt to unionize Triangle shortly before the fire. One of their biggest labor/management disputes was about fire safety. They wanted the fire escape door unlocked and the exterior fire escape repaired.

The fourth largest industrial accident in American history not only accelerated the causes of the labor unions but also inspired all levels of government to focus on labor and

occupational safety lawmaking. The result is that American workplaces are among the safest and fairest in the world. There is one problem with this utopia for workers, though. The manufacturing has moved out of this country to countries with less regard in the 21st century for their laborers than the greedy factory owners had for them in the 20th century.

This is the "face" of the 21st century international textile worker. Separated by a century of time and the distance across the international dateline, it is essentially the same face as knitting girl. Because we are growing in cultural and social maturity throughout the world, we have the opportunity to change this face. We need to decide as a group that whatever we want for ourselves, we want for everyone else.

I named my business after a French slang term which I explain in the blog header and I want to challenge the 'baisebeige' consumer, the consumer who thinks he or she is truly all that, to consider adopting alternate ways of acquiring clothing. Please consider buying clothing from only fair trade workshops in countries with positive human rights policies and practices, buying vintage or modern previously owned clothing, buying handmade clothing, or making clothing yourself. As a result, your style will shine and you will truly be beautiful beyond imagination!

About Competition...

I have a personal moratorium on competition. Competition is a limiting belief and is an affirmation of scarcity in our universe. We are too focused on winning and losing and being 'better than' those who are 'less than' which is wrong thinking. There is plenty for everyone. I tweeted exactly that in July and that tweet was cached in a live twitter feed in England about the season premier of Project Runway. I enjoyed that!

I entered a little competition last Friday not because I have changed my thinking at all, but because something I have done for years is relevant to this particular contest. The Rit Dye Company sponsored an 'Upcycling With Rit' contest where unusable things are given new usefulness using Rit Dye. I have been very loyal to Rit since I started making rag knits in 1982 because their products are easy to use and safe to handle in my kitchen. I can create appropriate fabrics from almost nothing and the company was very helpful and sold me some colors I was lacking for an intricate dyeing project for dance costumes in 1983. Their factory is located in Indianapolis and I am extremely loyal in supporting my local economy! Rit Dye is a brand that has been so important to fueling my fire for many years that I am proud to show my support for this product and possibly inspire others to think beyond conventional materials and blaze new trails!

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY CONTEST ENTRY!

This entry includes a tutorial on how to make this sweater. I will be including additional tutorials about designing and constructing with rags soon. This contest was a great first step on getting this part of the blog started and also helps me confront the issue of a different kind of competition - the business one. Again, I believe there is plenty for everyone.

On the surface, it doesn't seem wise to give my secrets away. It, however, makes perfect sense to me. I do not believe that you actually own any thing. I also know that the things I make fall into the category of objects resistent to commodification. This is not something that can be reasonably produced in a factory exactly like this. Things that will evolve from this sharing will make my product more desirable because it is in fact infused with the peculiarities of the maker. This was a basic premise of the Situationist International Movement and this link connects to an article connecting Situationist International and Punk.
The Consul is a particularly good glimpse into the life of S.I. founding member Ralph Rumney. I also recommend reading punk productions that explains the evolution and influences of punk with discussion about Situationist International. Both books are available at Amazon.com and I have included links below for your shopping convenience.

I have a regular Baisebeige Studios Amazon store which I am cloning and restocking with merchandise relevant to blog posts. The first store with mask - making materials can be accessed through a link in
'Happy Halloween Part I'. The current store is in the sidebar of the blog and contains tools and materials for DIY Rag Knits. Of course there's plenty of Rit Dye there. I also have specialty tools such as very large diameter knitting needles and ecofriendly materials to substitute in case you are lacking garbage fabric and junk yarns to upcycle. I think it's important to maintain the earth - friendly spirit of these articles. From my own Amazon shop I was able to obtain the 'holy grail' of rag knitting tool! I absolutely love these bamboo size 35 circular knitting needles, shown below. It is also possible to enter all of Amazon.com from my shop and do your 'one stop shopping'. At the top of the menu on the left side of the page, click on 'Powered by Amazon.com' and you will recognize everything!