Beautiful, functional, sustainable, innovative

Images from Robin Wood's blog - shamelessly borrowed.

Went to see Robin and Nicola Wood in Edale yesterday evening.  I've already blogged about Robin's bowls and spoons, but when I saw their new timber framed building I knew I had to write a quick post about it.

The proportions are beautiful and the quality of joints and woodworking is extraordinary.  This is a building that is functional, personal, quirky and has an organic quality that is so at odds with conventional modern building techniques.  It's been designed so that it can be dismantled and rebuilt if necessary as the joints are all pegged rather than nailed or screwed.

One fantastically clever feature is the little round porthole windows at the gable end, which are made from the glass from old washing machine doors.  How clever is that?

If you want to watch the building being made go and have a look at the YouTube video.  Whilst there, take a gander at Robin turning bowls and hand carving spoons.  Mike and I are on his spoon carving course for the next three days - greenwood carving is wonderful and Robin is a great tutor - can't recommend it highly enough.  Here's the link to course information on Robin's site.

Solar Manchester

You know how sometimes you hear about something and are amazed you weren't aware of it before?

Well, it just happened to me. Mike (hubby) turned to me, slightly smugly I thought, and asked 'Where is Europe's largest solar array'. I plumped for Spain but he shook his head. 'Manchester' he said. 'What, Manchester, Italy?' (note the feeble attempt at humour to mask my surprise). 'No Manchester, Manchester!'

Apparently, The Co-operative Insurance have covered their impressive building in photo-voltaics and are making the claim that Mike so cheerfully waved in my face. According to a factoid on the CIS website, the array produces enough electricity every year to make 9 million cups of tea. Sorry, make that billion! Nine billion cups of tea.

And do you know, I had no idea. We live only about 25 mls from Manchester (this is Manchester in the UK by the way) and are account holders at The Co-operative Bank, but I'd never heard about this until now. Of course some of you are now casually studying your fingernails and saying 'Oh yes, that's old news' but I was genuinely surprised. I must have been asleep in 2007.

For those of you who want to read more take a look here, although the site doesn't appear to have been updated for quite a while - not even with the details of the completion and official opening a couple of years ago.

So all this is lovely and positive, but I have to confess that I shudder every time I see a glass clad building. The death toll for wild birds that crash into these shiny towers is horrifying. Thank heavens that some architects are now awakening to that fact and are planning to do something about it, shame that the movement is based in the USA - read more on Treehugger.

* sunshine *

nacre, originally uploaded by Scoobymoo.

When did we all become afraid of the sun? In the 1920s and 30s sunbathing was seen as health-promoting and people would pay for sun therapy. Now we slap on the factor 50 and scuttle for the shadows; no wonder we all have vitamin D deficiency.

There's increasing evidence that Vitamin D plays a vital role in health but the best source is from exposure to sunlight and today's lifestyle doesn't encourage exposure. Many of us only feel the sun's rays on our skin as we rush from house to car, from car to work, or into the shops. Then when we do decide to sunbathe so many of us overdo it, damaging the skin and increasing the risk of skin cancer.  In fact, researchers are finding that vitamin D actually reduces the incidence of cancers.

Seems to me that the sensible path is careful sun exposure. So here are some tips:

* Don't sunbathe during the hottest hours (how many times have you heard THAT?)

* Vitamin D starts to be formed in the skin after about 15 minutes exposure (depending upon intensity of the sun's rays). A good guide is to let your skin start to turn a little pink and then cover up well.

* How can you check if your skin is burning? Press a fingertip onto your skin and hold for about 5 seconds then remove. If a pink mark appears shortly after then your skin has had enough.

* I believe that skin cancer is caused by repeated sun damage - please notice that last word - careful exposure to the sun is healthy; being silly and going beetroot and peeling is NOT.

* Shock! According to some sources, if you wash sun-exposed skin with detergents within 48 hours of exposure you are washing Vitamin D off! Apparently Vitamin D3 is formed in your skin through the conversion of a cholesterol derivative but it takes a couple of days to be absorbed into the bloodstream.  You can always use soap for armpits, groin and feet but just rinse the rest of the body with water.  Read more at Mercola.com (you have to register).  Even if this isn't quite true it makes sense not to wash off all your skin's natural oils every time you shower or bathe.  No wonder the big bodycare companies sell so much moisturiser - it's to compensate for the loss of natural skin protection by the overuse of their detergents.  Nice trick.

Have fun in the sun and increase your vital vitamin D levels. Don't be scared of it.

Ta Daaaa!

recycled wrap - available on the Eco Eco website


Well here it is, and isn't it beautiful?

Our first Eco Eco product - we're so proud. As is the designer Lucie Summers!

We spent ages with the printers and Lucie to get this right. We plumped for double-sided printing so that you have the option of colours when wrapping - no need to keep loads of different wrap around the house. It's available in two colourways: fire engine red which is just as it sounds, backed with powder pink, and chartreuse which is a lovely appley green reversing to a deep seafoam turquoise.

The paper is cracking quality too - a hefty 130gsm FSC 80% recycled content - printed with vegetable based inks, by Severnprint here in the UK who are powered by renewable energy provided by Good Energy.

It's available on our website and in our shops already - we couldn't wait to get it out there.

The design is so versatile you could use this paper for all sorts of covering and craft jobs; I'm planning to make some bunting for the shop window (keep an eye out for the blog post in a few weeks). In fact, we love it so much we're working on getting it printed onto organic/fairtrade cotton in the next few months. We're even vaguely muttering 'Wallpaper' under our breath.

Watch this space!

Sign and Save

Whale, originally uploaded by LinkTree.

An opportunity to add your voice to a call for a global whale sanctuary. As The Humane Society International says 'Commercial whaling is so last century!'

Petition here

heritage

To most people 'heritage' means The National Trust, castles, museums, and perhaps morris dancing or other local tradition. However the newly formed Heritage Crafts Association highlights the unique contribution of makers and craftworkers to our cultural legacy. Do follow the link on the right to register as a supporter (it's absolutely free). Makers of traditional products as diverse as trugs, besoms, hurdles, baskets and scissors need our support. Most of the items these talented craftworkers produce are sustainable in the best sense; using local timber and materials they manufacture on a small, personal scale, and the things they make have an inherent beauty and practicality that can last for generations rather than being discarded and replaced at a whim.

I use the bowl and spoon above every day at breakfastime. The bowl is wonderful to hold, cradled in the hand with the thumb supporting it securely. It's a replica of an Elizabethan porringer that was found at a dig near the Globe in Southwark, and the spoon is inspired by German medieval illustrations. Both items were made by Robin and Nicola Wood of Edale, just a few miles away from where we live. These are truly sustainable pieces; made by a 'Robin-power' pole-lathe from local wood they should last far longer than comparable ceramic bowls.

Both Mike and I have our own individual bowls and spoons - you tend to become very propietorial! They are just as practical, if not more so, than ceramic and metal versions. They wash easily in hot soapy water, and the wooden bowl is naturally insulating when you eat hot meals. They don't tend to break if you drop them either. I think I may follow an ancient tradition and ask to be buried with my bowl and spoon.

It seems a shame that some of our makers, such a Sheffield scissors company, are going through hard times trying to compete with cheap imports. If only more of us would take a little longer to think about purchases and choose to buy products made in the UK that use local skills rather than rush off to B&Q or department stores to buy the cheap, inferior versions from abroad.

We need to broaden our concept of heritage to include traditional skills or we will lose them.

sneak preview

Here's an exclusive preview of our wonderful new wrapping paper. This is the first product that Eco Eco has commissioned and it won't be the last.

This stunning paper features a pattern by the extraordinarily talented and versatile designer Lucie Summers who is currently swanning around on a beach somewhere in Portugal (are you blushing yet, Lu?). It won't be printed in black and white as in the printer's proof above, well not yet anyway; I think it looks rather tasty as a monochrome design.

The paper we're getting printed will be double sided in two different colour combinations: pink/red and apple green/turquoise so customers will have more than one option when wrapping gifts. It's being printed on a recycled/FSC paper in a really good weight so it's not like some of those nasty, cheap papers that rip the moment you start wrapping. It's being printed with vegetable based inks at a factory powered by renewable energy. I'm in two minds whether to tell the printers not to trim the sheets but leave on the extraneous marks around the edge which would eliminate waste. What do you think? Would you like to have the extra margin which might help with wrapping or even be used for other things? Perhaps we'll do that next time.

As a further teaser I'm willing to reveal that we are looking into printing this design and possibly others onto fairtrade organic cotton, and even wallpaper. Watch this space!