Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th October are the launch dates for the One Bag Project at Lewisham Arthouse. Come along, see (and buy) art on shopping bags by resident artists and designer makers.
Buy an ethically sourced plain fabric bag to decorate and personalise with paint, print, stitch. We have a choice of two types – long handled and short handled – at £2 each.
Email a photo of your finished bag to the Arthouse and we will add it to a gallery on our website.
M&S recently reported 80% reduction in the use of plastic bags in their stores through the introduction of a 5p charge. In the ten weeks that the scheme has been running, M&S believe that 70 million fewer bags have been used by customers. It has sold 10 million bags – donating 1.85p profit on each to Groundwork. M&S wants to cut waste to landfill by 2012.
The village of Overton was one of the first to go ‘bag free’ following the lead of the village of Modbury in Devon. The local Co-op in Overton charges 5p for a shopping bag if customers request one and these are made of GM free cornstarch. The bags are bio-degradable & compostable. They encourage their customers to bring their own bags but also provide re-usable fabric bags. Leaflets are diplayed at each till with the title ‘Why say “NO” to plastic bags?’
Some of the facts listed include:
Poster in Overton shop window
When I was in Overton last weekend I saw the Co-Op’s policy in practice when they charged a customer for a bag – he wasn’t very happy about it!
A couple of Saturdays ago I went to Islington to pick up equipment & materials from The Make Lounge where I’ve been teaching mosaic. I wandered around stalls selling vintage china in and around Camden Passage sourcing some china plates for mosaic. I then went to Cass Arts to buy some art supplies & finally found Loop nearby which is a knitting shop (with a difference). I really want to do one of Julie Arkell’s workshops there & dress a papier mache rabbit with knitted & hand stitched clothing!
There was a Good Food Festival on Islington Green where I discovered crochet bags by Plastique Bague. Hand made from recycled plastic bags in a range of styles, they are available to buy on Etsy.
I bought a knitted shopping bag a couple of months ago from a wonderful shop in Brighton. It’s knitted from plastic bags. Apparently they stretch alot once there’s shopping inside so have to be made smaller in size!
Why not make your own fabric bag. This month’s issue of Selvedge magazine has instructions for making a canvas bag or check out the Japanese website wwww.lin-net.com for some ideas and patterns to buy (the instructions are in Japanese!). They also sell some lovely linen fabrics and accessories. You can use vintage fabrics, recycled fabrics, unbleached calico….. or buy a plain fabric bag & customize itself yourself.
I went to Hastings yesterday & enjoyed the music festival & carnival in and around Warrior Square Gardens. There were market stalls too & I spotted some handmade fabric bags made by locally based Carry a Bag. I’ve seen them before – they are made from donated & recycled fabric & printed on or appliqued. I almost bought one but instead added to my fabric bag collection with one sourced from a charity shop.
Giant willow & tissue paper flowers in St Leonards street
The Drawing Tent in Warrior Square Gardens, St Leonards-on-Sea
Artist Charlie Pi returns to Lewisham Arthouse with an exhibition looking at all his work. Not so much a ‘Retrospective’ as an ‘Introspective.’ A very personal view of work, past, present and future.
Gallery Open: Wednesdays to Sundays 12 – 6 pm
Admission Free – Disabled Access
Close up of crochet coral made with plastic bags
A must-see exhibition this summer, The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef is a large-scale replica made out of wool, textile, fibre and plastic. It is on display at the Southbank Centre until 17th August. The project was initiated as a mathematical piece of research by the LA Institue of Figuring and as a response to the plight of the world’s coral reef from pollution and global warming has become an international and interactive work in progress.
The Exploding Plastic Inevitable Reef, Bottle Tree Grove, and the The Toxic Reef have been made from plastic waste. A team from the Hayward Gallery joined in a search for plastic bags along the Thames. They cleaned up the bags they found so that they could be used in workshops for the UK crochet coral project.
Last Sunday I went through Newington Green on my way to Finsbury Park’s RISE festival. There was a spot of whale building going on (using willow) and free reuseable and fairtrade fabric shopping bags were being distributed with ‘I love plastic bag free Newington Green’ printed on.
Children were busily customising fabric bags with pen drawings and there was a live jazz band playing in the background!
Also, the local Tesco Express had a poster on the window saying that they were going plastic bag free for a week.
Poster in window of Tesco Express, Newington Green
Jimmy Cliff was fantastic singing on stage at the RISE Festival as the sun set over North London!
