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| Nest - Natural Elements Selected Thoughtfully |
Nest thoughtfully selects the companies with whom we work. We believe that the best way to support the increasingly global economy and protect the Earth is to support smaller, independent companies rooted in their community. Nest supports artisans, rather than mass production. Nest chooses companies that produce environmentally conscious products and utilize fair-trade principles, ensuring that the workers receive fair compensation for their handiwork.
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EARTH CREATIONS
Earth Creations uses sustainably grown fibers, like hemp and organically grown cotton, for their fabrics. All of their production facilities are in the U.S., and they abide by the labor laws set forth by our country. Because all of their garments are made in the U.S. they are able to visit their factories on a regular basis and make sure that the factory workers are satisfied and that high quality standards are met.
Most important is their commitment to using eco-friendly dyes. Nature is amazing. Throughout millions of years of geologic development of the Earth, a variety of colored clays were created. Some of them are very abundant and present on the surface and some of them are rare and you have to dig deep to get to them. The south eastern section of the US is rich in geologic history and provides a variety of colors.
Earth Creations’ clay dyeing process eliminates artificially produced chemical dyestuffs. Conventionally produced dyes, and even more frequently the by-products of producing these dyes, are toxic. Additionally, many conventional processes use amazingly large quantities of salt. Salt, although tasty in our meals, causes irreversible harm to the ecosystems in our rivers, lakes, and underground water sources when released from a commercial dyehouse. Earth Creations’ clay-dyeing process does not use any salt. All other components are of natural origin or biodegradable. Earth Creations is trying their best to make a difference by bringing social consciousness to the apparel industry.
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FIRE & LIGHT
As a country, the United States throws away enough glass to fill the Empire State Building every day. Fire & Light turns some of this trash into treasures. Conceptualized by a small group of people in a recycling-minded community, Fire & Light utilizes a once wasted resource and recasts it into beautiful glassware. The process begins with community members recycling their bottles and jars. After the recycling center delivers them to the Fire & Light factory, employees clean and crush the glass. They then add colorants to the glass and load it into the furnaces where it melts overnight at 2400 degrees Fahrenheit. The next morning the molten glass is ladled by hand and poured into graphite molds.
From crushed glass to final art takes three days. Each and every piece is hand made, one at a time. Nothing is automated. Nature takes time to create extraordinary beauty. So does Fire & Light! The result is a unique line of beautiful glassware. Subtle variations in color, texture, and shape are the signature of this handmade process. Created for both form and functionality, Fire & Light glassware is known for its vibrant color and texture.
Fire & Light glassware is a product whose history is a kind of future, where age-old craftsmanship meets innovative manufacturing, utilizing post-consumer glass as a resource. BACK TO TOP ^ |
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GREEN GLASS
Green Glass is the brain child of entrepreneurs Sean Penrith and Philip Tetley, both originally from South Africa, who hold a worldwide patent on the unique conversion process they invented. Late one night while clearing the table after a dinner party, Sean's wife, Mara, mentioned that it was a shame there was no further use for the attractive empty wine bottles they were about to toss in the refuse bin. As soon as she said it, inspiration struck…turn the bottle upside down…remove the base, twist the neck closed …and voila…a drinking glass. And with the striking colors and shapes of many glass bottles, the result is unique stemware that combines environmental consciousness with exquisite taste.
Though the initial idea came in a flash, the first experiments weren't exactly a "smashing" success. The bottles had to be severed, the lip of each glass smoothed and the neck twisted to permanently seal and the mouth flared open to form the goblet foot, without shattering the bottle.
They smashed literally thousands of bottles in attempting to develop a prototype, but eventually developed successful techniques and applied for a worldwide patent as soon as they were sure it would work. Machines separate the bottles into two components, after which the 'tops' are polished, twisted and flared and the 'bottoms' made into tumblers. These are then joined and sandblasted with designs.
Green Glass has established a North American manufacturing facility in Central Wisconsin. The new facility is equipped with state-of-the-art machinery created by Tetley with the capacity to produce over 200,000 glasses a month. BACK TO TOP ^ |
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TOTALLY BAMBOO
Several years ago, in a nook in the "NoHo" Arts District of North Hollywood, California, Tom Sullivan & Joanne Chen owned and operated a small design and manufacturing studio, focusing on luxury customized director chairs for the movie industry. In their quest for a lighter chair, they experimented with bamboo, long known for its strength vs. weight ratio. The resulting chair was not only lighter but much stronger than the oak they had previously used.
In the design process, Tom made mountains of scrap bamboo planks, one of which Joanne took home to use in her kitchen as a cutting board. After a year of constant use it still looked almost new. Intrigued with such a renewable, ecologically friendly material they set out to design and develop the world’s first bamboo cutting board. Shortly afterwards, Totally Bamboo was born, launching as the premiere manufacturer for bamboo house ware products.
Bamboo is actually a grass that grows to a harvestable height of 60 feet in about three to five years, growing as much as two feet per day. It has an extensive root system that continually sends up new shoots, naturally replenishing itself. It does not require replanting, making it one of the most renewable resources known. Bamboo is 16% harder than maple, making it perfect for a cutting surface.
Totally Bamboo cutting boards are made of flattened strips of the hardest Chinese mountain timber bamboo called “Moso,” which is not a food source or a habitat for the Giant Panda. The strips undergo a series of specialized procedures to sterilize and cure them, which further tightens and tempers the bamboo to the perfect hardness. The strips are glued with a specially designed food-grade glue which is completely non-toxic, and formaldehyde free.
The Color of Bamboo: Functional bamboo comes in two colors, light, which is the natural color of the bamboo and dark, which is a honey color. The dark color is achieved by steaming the bamboo, bringing out the natural sugars, caramelizing it. This color is permanent and will not fade or wash out.
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UNDER THE NILE
Under the Nile brings a little green into your child's life with apparel and toys made from 100% certified organic Egyptian cotton. Produced in an environmentally friendly manner that's easy on the earth, they offer a beautifully made alternative to conventional apparel that not only looks and feels good but is good for your child.
Under the Nile was created out of concern about the pollutants that our children are exposed to, which includes the clothes they wear. Under the Nile garments are safe, pesticide-free, comfortable and naturally dyed. Accessories such as buttons and zippers are made for organically friendly elements like wood, shell or nickel-free metals.
The farm that grows their cotton and makes their apparel focuses on fair trade and provides a worldwide model community for organic agriculture along with a supportive work place.
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ZULUGRASS
The Maasai are a pastoral group of people that live in the magnificent Great Rift Valley of Kenya and Tanzania. A tall, proud, and graceful people adorned in colorful clothing and ornaments, the Maasai still keep their traditions intact - herding cattle and living off the land as modernization changes the world around them.
A terrible drought that ended in 2001 lasted several years and devastated pasture lands. The Maasai's livelihood disappeared as their cattle died. The men had to drive the few remaining cattle hundreds of miles away to search for better grazing and it became evident that the women desperately needed a way to obtain medical supplies, and to feed, clothe, and educate their children.
Philip and Katy Leakey, who live among the Maasai in the Kenyan bush, wanted to help their neighbors and to provide work opportunities without changing their culture. They came up with an imaginative idea that would utilize the excellent beading abilities of the Maasai women, and it used grass, an available sustainable resource, as the primary element.
Soon the women were harvesting grass, one blade at a time. The long grass was dried and cut into bead-size pieces and dyed lovely hues - blues, greens, reds, yellows, pinks, purples, earth and natural tones - which were then strung into necklaces and bracelets. The Leakeys added brilliant Czech glass beads to their designs, mixing them with the soft luster of the grass beads and giving sparkle and a contemporary flair to the jewelry.
In short order, the women learned that they could bring their babies and toddlers with them and they would be paid by the piece as they chose to work. As word passed through the Maasai community, women started walking as much as two hours each way to have their first chance to earn money. Now over 400 hundred Maasai women are making Zulugrass while continuing to lead their lives in their traditional life style, and they can use their income to better their lives as they wish. Some have been able to reunite their families after earning enough to purchase cattle to restock herds and one woman has bought her own goat herd. Zulugrass continues to provide much needed and desired opportunity for these wonderful women and their families.
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GALBRAITH & PAUL
Since 1986, Galbraith & Paul have been designing and creating fine lighting and textiles that strive to meet the highest standards in design and craftsmanship. In their Philadelphia studio they hand block print onto silk and make all of their lamp shades.
The studio is the heart of their business. Everything is made to order, one yard and one shade at a time. They care about the process of creating as much as the product.
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MAYTA CLAY
A small village nestled in the hills between the volcanoes Masaya and Mombacho, San Juan de Oriente has been known for centuries for its beautiful pottery, its ceramic tradition dating back to 1,000 BC.
The village is still primarily inhabited by the indigenous descendants of the original Nahuatl Indian tribes who settled the Pacific region of Nicaragua and Costa Rica some 5000 years ago. Though the Nahuatl were contemporaries of the Olmecs, Mexico's oldest culture, they developed their own unique styles and traditions.
The ceramics of old were made by coil, decorated with locally found mineral oxides and then fired in pits in the ground. Today some of the pottery of San Juan is still made using the coil method, but most is done on a kick-wheel. The pieces are dried and decorated, then low-fired in beehive style adobe kilns using wood fires for fuel. Many of the pots are in the style of design they call "inciso", or incised, a traditional technique dating back more than 2500 years and many are still decorated with traditional Pre-Columbian designs. It is only recently that some of the potters have begun to supplement the traditional pre-Colombian motifs for more modern forms of expression.
Some of today's potters have been taught in a chain passed from mother to daughter and father to son for centuries; others learn through apprenticeship and plain hard work. The potters are still using designs and techniques handed down from one generation to the next, reaching back centuries before Europeans ever set foot in the New World. They painstakingly make one delicate piece at a time and dry it in the tropical sun. The fact that this village of less than 3,000 people produces such extraordinarily talented artists is a testament both to their skill and to the ancestral gifts left by generations past.
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ELISABETHAN
Elisabethan: Clothing with a History, a unique line of new clothing and accessories constructed from old fabrics. Here draperies become skirts, sweaters become mittens, prom dresses line purses, and grandma's button jar is raided regularly.
Designer/recycler, Elisabeth Delehaunty leads a small but hearty team of stitchers. Rooting among mountains of forgotten things, Elisabeth unearths treasure--past fabric gems awaiting rediscovery. An obsession for finding these "experienced textiles" compliments her desire to not add any more "new stuff" to the world. In 1996, the obsession joined forces with her background, a B.A. Art from Dartmouth College as well as a series of jobs costuming for theatre—and Elisabethan: Clothes with a History was born. Now the studio works year round to create the line of clothing and accessories in rural Western Colorado.
"The nature of our raw materials makes each Elisabethan piece unique. Fabric, trims, and buttons are harvested from existing items (new materials are used oh so sparingly) collected at auctions, estate sales and thrift stores. They may have previously been a dress, drapery or vintage yardage stashed in your grandmother's sewing room." Elisabeth travels all over the country to collect the eclectic supply of materials in out of the way places. Fabrics are selected with an eye for quality; they use mostly natural fibers, but an occasional irresistible synthetic does get thrown in the mix. Fabrics are washed and dried before sewing with them.
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| LION POTTER
David and Junko Young have studied pottery with masters around the world and currently live and create in Gettysburg, PA. Inspired by the Japanese saying, "The eye needs to eat also," they handcraft each piece to be both functional and beautiful using their own designs and glazes.
All pots are dishwasher and microwave safe.
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