Isn’t it lovely? A slightly eccentric English lady bike. I’ve named it (her) Mary Poppins, since as @angelzilla pointed out, she’s the Mary Poppins of bikes. The fellow who sold her to me (thanks Chris!) told me she was from the 1960s, has her original finishes and a coaster brake, and was built by Phillips, who were bought out by Raleigh later on.

She does need a little TLC, mainly rust removal and paint touchup, but not much. Her basket will need a liner, as there are a couple of little breaks in the metal – but since it’s vintage, it’s not current standard dimensions (15″ x 10″ top, 5.5″ deep, and smaller at the bottom than the top), so I can’t just order an already-made one from Lucky Find Designs or Betty Bike Basket Liners on Etsy. Since it needs to be custom, I might as well dust off my sewing machine and make it myself – watch for a future post on that. I’ll also need a bell and some lights for her, and eventually I’d like to add an aluminum rack to the back and attach a wooden crate or a sweet vintage-style covered box pannier. I’ll also need a helmet, since I have no idea what has happened to my old one in the intervening years, and a lock, since that was stolen with my old bike. I love the idea of a D-lock cozy that I saw on the Lovely Bicycle! blog. For my helmet, since I can’t possibly afford that Yakkay helmet that looks like a fedora right now, perhaps I’ll take some inspiration from RidingPretty and spiff up an off-the-shelf helmet with a strategically glued-on flower.

I did a little research online, and here’s what I learned about Miss Mary:

This headbadge may date her to about 1965, according to a Flikr set of another Phillips bike. Phillips was purchased by Raleigh in 1960, and from the Spring of 1961 on the bikes were made in Nottingham at Raleigh’s 40-acre factory instead of the Phillips bikeworks near Birmingham. Raleigh continued to make Phillips-branded bikes for export until the 1980s (the wiki page implies), and some collectors look down on them as poor cousins to the higher-quality Raleigh-branded bikes. Whatever. By today’s standards, the build quality is impressive regardless.

Note the chrome trim on this mudflap – mmmm. This style of mudguard was made by Speedwell and date the bike to the 50s or 60s, according to the information in current eBay listings and Flikr posts. A lot of the steel frame, and the tyre rims, is chromed. The tyre rims are marked STURMEY ARCHER *ENGLAND F250 28 x 1 1/2* (ie, they’re 635mm), and the tyres are marked SEMPERIT, Made In Austria, Super Elite (so they’re probably not original – would likely have been Dunlop when the bike was first sold). The two-tone vinyl mattress saddle was made by Brooks (who were also owned by Raleigh’s parent company), and the white plastic grips were probably made by Dare. The kickstand is marked PLETCHER, who were/are a Swiss manufacturer. The basket isn’t marked, and appears to be made of aluminum. All of this will mean much more to vintage bike collector types than it does to me, I suspect. (Collectors, if it would be helpful to you for me to add more photos of specific bike parts to this post, please just let me know in the comments.)

For local historians, it bears a green “repairs” sticker from Premier Cycle & Sport Shop. Anyone know of them?

I haven’t seen any photos online of similar full-rubber chrome-edged pedals yet. The figure in the middle has an R marked on it, so they’re probably 1960s-era Raleigh pedals.

If my bike were a three-speed, this article from oldroads.com would help me identify it much more easily. But a single-speed mechanism with a coaster brake means I’m out of luck unless I can find a serial number that matches what’s in the article. [Update: there is a serial number stamped onto the frame below the saddle: 3464230. Sadly that tells me nothing. The coaster brake has a plastic-stoppered hole for adding oil, and is marked: ENGLAND STURMEY ARCHER SC (in the bottom triangle) 11   6 (running perpendicular to the 4-triangle logo; if this is month/year, she was probably made in November 1966). SC would be the model number based on the illustration in this article by Sheldon Brown, and according to the official Sturmey-Archer history site, it's the SC single coaster brake hub, introduced in 1963 and retired in 1978.]

Here’s a shot on Flikr of a bike that’s very similar to mine, down to the aluminum front basket, although the frame isn’t as curvaceous.

Next I need to clean Mary up and touch up her paint. Any advice on how best to do that would be greatly appreciated!

Update: I found a genius post on Old Bike Blog on how to Green Clean Your Bicycle. I’m also thinking about DIYs, and found some helpful posts I’ll link to here for my future reference (and maybe yours): link is AWOL, but Bust magazine ran an article on Pimping Your Ride that I’ll need to look up in print (2008?) as it includes a seat cover pattern – if I can’t find it a PDF is available. For attaching to a rear rack: hmm, wine box, or fabric-covered milk crate? If I decide I need a child seat for my little guy, here is inspiration for a DIY child seat spiff-up. I’m also coveting a DIY skirt/coat guard.

Update #2: This is clearly going to end up being a huge project, so I’ve created another blog to document it, called Loop-Frame Love.

Let’s be clear. This isn’t about politics; it’s about facts. Ice doesn’t care how you vote or what you believe, it will melt regardless, as long as it’s above 0 degrees Celsius. Fact: at the current rate of melting versus snowfall, Glacier National Park (USA) will have no glaciers left by 2020. The glaciers of North America’s interior mountains are melting at an astonishing rate (I highly recommend taking the walk to the edge of the Athabasca Glacier to get a sense of how fast it’s happening). This should be a huge concern to citizens of cities like ours that rely on rivers whose source is those glaciers. How will our communities change when glaciers no longer feed those rivers?  Fact: the Arctic pack ice is also disappearing, with the last three summers marking the three lowest extents of Arctic sea ice since 1979, and totally ice-free summer conditions now expected within 20-30 years. And a must-read report on prehistoric carbon dioxide levels using ocean floor sediment samples in this week’s issue of Science may explain why that is happening way faster than previously predicted, and indicates that our current political targets for emissions reduction are probably not stringent enough.

The consequences of climate change will be felt everywhere, in ways we don’t yet appreciate as a society: people are aware that the extinctions of large numbers of vulnerable species is one cost of inaction (save the polar bears!), but tend to think less about human problems like floods, droughts, famines, wars, and refugee migration. Google have used their Maps app to create stunning visuals of how different our planet could look with conservative estimates of temperature changes worldwide and flooding in coastal regions – go watch if you haven’t seen it yet.  The military are already using these when-not-if scenarios as part of their strategic planning, and so are the agribusinesses who’ve led the rush to buy fertile land in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.

What can we do? I mean, apart from becoming survivalists living on off-the-grid communes on high ground – good luck to you if that floats your boat, but personally, I like city living.

Well, we can mitigate these consequences by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and slowing down the rate of global climate change. (We’ve made a change that big before: think of the 1980s ban on chlorofluorocarbons to save the ozone layer. And most experts agree that we have the tools and technologies we need – see TED.com and worldchanging.org – we just need the political will to apply them.) This means asking the Canadian and Albertan governments to kindly stop cowtowing to the interests of multinational businesses (many of whom are already quietly investing in biofuels and renewables), to sign treaties and adhere to them, to create provincial building codes and municipal guidelines that value density and energy efficiency, to work to integrate renewable energy generation as a major component of the grid, and to create programmes to retrain workers and retool industries. Well-drillers can become geothermal experts, and machinists and electricians can learn how to build and install solar and wind microgenerators.

On an individual level, this means becoming engaged citizens, asking tough questions of our representatives (especially here in Oil Country), and making appropriate choices for our families. It means looking hard at our homes and habits, then making honest efforts to do what we can to reduce our environmental impact. Locally, lots of organizations are working to help us do these things – signing up for E-SAGE’s newsletter is a great way to keep abreast of all those groups’ events and projects.

After figuring out what our homes’ and businesses’ carbon footprint is and doing what we can to make it smaller, the best (although still flawed) way to mitigate the effects of our remaining emissions is still to buy carbon offsets – thankfully the David Suzuki Foundation has recently created an independent report on offsets that helps us navigate that minefield and figure out which offsets do the most good.

Am I a total nag? Good. In graduate school, we scientists are taught to use language carefully, to always provide context and not jump to unwarranted conclusions. You don’t ever want to appear alarmist or unprofessional. It’s very difficult training to break. So when I read the statements being made by climatologists, ecologists, and wildlife biologists about climate change and its consequences, I’m startled by their urgency and directness.

We’ve already unwittingly changed the world. Now it’s time to change our course.

Lately, I’ve been really intrigued by Slow Design, which is a cousin of the Slow Food, traditional skills, and voluntary simplicity movements, and the Zen Buddhist concept of wabi-sabi. The published Slow Design Principles (Strauss and Fuad-Luke, see www.slowlab.net) are couched in academic language, and the case studies cited mostly involve the design of objects or artistic installations. However, the principles and practices of Slow Design are tools that are useful to sustainable designers, decorators, and artisans of all disciplines. To summarize (and loosely quote) that document’s main points:

Slow Design:

• facilitates ’slowness’ and provides a balance to the industrial-consumerist model of design.

• seeks to shift the user’s awareness and attitudes about materials, processes, time, and natural environment.

• reveals experiences and materials that are often missed or forgotten.

• strives for truthful, exposed use of materials and process (so the hand of the maker is visible).

• facilitates creative interaction between the user and the object or its location.

• makes users think about where the object came from, inducing contemplation & ‘reflective consumption’.

• allows the object to change, grow, or alter over time to reflect its history and usage, and continue to be used; and reflects its history prior to its current usage.

• comes from open-source, collaborative, transparent, and evolving processes.

• focuses on localness and community, through collaborations and co-design with the local community and local artisans, mapping and using local knowledge, reflecting local values & visual vernacular, and using affordable local materials, to give the finished design an authentic sense of place.

• celebrates diversity and pluralism by engaging a large range of stakeholders in the planning process. (For example, the charette process used in LEED building projects.)

• recognizes the urgent need for stewardship of the natural environment and resources, as well as honoring local knowledge and traditions, and encouraging engagement with place.

To try to illustrate what these ideas mean in everyday life, I brainstormed this list:

Slow Design is: Slow Design isn’t:

authentic                                                                    mannered, artificial, phoney

heirloom-quality                                                      semi-disposable

refurbished Victorian homes                                NeoVictorian subdivisions

modern (while respecting the past)                     like living in a museum exhibit

gardens                                                                          outdoor living rooms

rain barrels & watering cans                                     automatic irrigation systems

clotheslines                                                                  tumble dryers

timeless                                                                           trend-driven

cedar shakes                                                                 vinyl siding

handmade                                                                     machine-made

reupholstering & refinishing                                   buying new

Etsy                                                                                  Ikea

personalized and creative                                         impersonal and off-the-shelf

local                                                                                  imported

reduce, reuse, recycle                                                   buy, buy, buy

limited-edition or one-off                                            mass-produced

renewable                                                                      fossil fueled

So, what do the principles of slow design mean to you? What would you add to my list? How are you incorporating slow design into your home or decorating projects?

This isn’t a trivial question. Reimagining existing suburban neighborhoods (as in the current ReBurbia contest from Dwell and Inhabitat, deadline for entry is Friday July 31st) is a crucial step toward building more sustainable cities. Furthermore, decreasing the environmental footprint of our existing housing stock is critical if we’re going to tackle the  anthropogenic climate change crisis. (Our buildings are currently estimated to be responsible for 35% of North American greenhouse gas emissions, with about 20% of emissions coming from home energy use.)

There’s also another factor at work. Many, perhaps most, of us North Americans purchased our current homes with a single phase of our lives in mind, intending to move from house to house as our lives changed, with return-on-investment meaning a simple extrapolation from point-of-purchase to point-of-resale. The current economic heebie-jeebies mean we have a new frame of reference. We’re thinking harder about operating costs now, and return-on-investment has come to include the payback period for installation of energy- and water-saving devices. Many of us will be living in our homes for considerably longer periods than expected. It’s no longer desirable or acceptable to treat our dwellings as disposable commodities – if it ever was.

So, in this series of posts, I’ll round up some of the most inspirational eco-reno case studies available online, ones that fit a handful of criteria. A crucial renovation goal will have to be active conservation of resources – which means doing that energy audit and implementing the auditor’s suggestions for improving your home’s insulation, but also means going deeper with energy & water efficiency measures, and when possible planning to add microgeneration to the mix. Renovating sustainably also requires minimizing our use of materials by reusing and recycling whatever materials we safely can from our existing site, and by not increasing the home’s square footage but instead using smart design principles (like those covered by Sarah Susanka’s Not-So-Big books and website) to meet our needs. We also need to renovate our homes with an eye for suitability for lifetime use, which means both durability* and timelessness, and easy & (relatively) inexpensive customization & alteration of colour and texture. I think it’s especially important to show strategies that work in cold climates, and that can be implemented a little at a time.

* Here’s a thought-provoking discussion of the pros and cons of durability in building materials.

My favorite case study that I’ve seen online (via JetsonGreen) to date is a Boulder, Colorado 1960s-era split-level, with a similar floorplan to the suburban 1970s model I grew up in, and all the changes they made are doable on a limited budget, in several stages, over time. Here’s a fairly complete list of what they did, gleaned from following all the links and studying the photos:

• not popping the top allowed renovation on a much lower budget
• the altered roofline appears to include rainwater/greywater collection as future option
• improved envelope with new windows and icynene insulation
• improved HVAC, plumbing, wiring, and lighting
• new metal siding and exterior stucco
  
• removed some interior walls to open the floorplan – but did not gut the home and start over
• (urea-formaldehyde free?) cabinetry from Ikea
• Forbo’s Marmoleum in kitchen and bathroom
• refinished oak floors with FLOR carpet tiles used as area rugs
• natural wool carpeting in bedrooms? (not sure about this, no pics)
• low-VOC paints and coatings
• recycled glass mosaic tile
• dual-flush, low-flow toilet
• Energy Star appliances
• In the photos and video tour linked from the article, the front-yard relandscaping hasn’t been completed. I’d expect that they’re doing permaculture, and probably facing the concrete planters with reclaimed brick to match the rest of the home.

JetsonGreen also profiled a more ambitious (LEED Platinum!) green gut-renovation of an 1959 home in Portland, Oregon, including geothermal and solar PV, and moving an internal staircase. As part of the renovation, they replaced the windows, reinsulated, added an air exchanger, and used FSC-certified wood and Energy Star appliances. (I’m pretty sure those are Bedrock’s Blazestone recycled-glass tile used as the kitchen backsplash. Yum.) LEED-for-Homes-certified renos are almost always going to be gut jobs, since they need to have their outer envelope exposed from either the outside or inside to meet LEED’s stringent documentation requirements, and it’s often easiest to do both. But, as Preston writes, this house offers some great lessons:

Just look at the before and after photos of this green home and you’ll see a couple critical renovation strategies: (1) get rid of water-sucking grass without making your landscaping look crazy, and (2) keep the same size and scale of your home rather than building it into a monstrosity.

Green Building Advisor also profiles similar LEED-certified green renovations from time to time, like this gut renovation of a 19th-century home in Ann Arbor, Michigan. For this renovation, the team reinsulated, replaced windows with argon-filled low-e models and exterior siding with fiber-cement siding, and installed a ground-source heat pump and a tankless hot water heater. A small addition was built using ICF blocks, and the lot was relandscaped using permeable paving and rain and vegetable gardens.  I found the reuse of wood (salvaged from walls removed during the reno) to build the new floating staircase really inspiring.

But it really isn’t necessary to gut-renovate a home in order to do a deep energy retrofit. I was fortunate to see a local renovation of a 1949 stucco bungalow typical of many of Edmonton’s inner-ring postwar suburbs on the 2009 Eco-Solar Home Tour, and the owners have also documented their renovations year-by-year online. To summarize what they did:

• installed geothermal heat pump, and relandscaped
• replaced aging water heater with efficient solar (not tankless) model
• installed heat recovery ventilator
• improved envelope with argon-filled vinyl windows, new doors, blown-in cellulose insulation, new roof, draftstopping membrane
• LED lighting in backyard that runs off a solar panel on the detached garage

Also via Green Building Advisor, this is a 1970s ranch home in Boulder, Colorado that has undergone a deep energy retrofit and the addition of solar PV and hot water on the roof to create a net-zero-energy home. Impressive.

Finally, I’d like to call attention to the Humphrey House blog from Chicago, Illinois. The La Fleurs have been gradually renovating their 1912 Craftsman bungalow to an eco-envy inducing state, without sacrificing its historic character (swoon) or overspending, have done most of the work themselves,and have blogged every step of the way. Their home now features tubular skylights, salvaged interior doors and appliances, water-efficient fixtures, low-VOC paints and stains, Zodiaq recycled-content kitchen counters, soy-foam insulation, a tankless water heater, and an air recirculation system (a complete list of their green features as of last Sept is in this post). Their current project is relandscaping their backyard to include a veggie garden, reclaimed-concrete pavers, compost area, and more rain barrels. Oh, and do you notice what’s not in the list? Expensive big-ticket items like solar PV or hot water, or geothermal heating.

Now that’s inspirational.

What eco-renovations are you planning for your home?

A collage of photos I took at my favorite sidestage sessions of EFMF'08.

The Edmonton Folk Music Festival is already one of the greenest events on Edmonton’s packed summer festival calendar. Here are some ideas for things to put in your backpack to make it even greener, inspired in part by UK site ecotopia’s green festival kit designed for multiday campout events like Glastonbury. (If you’re heading to a multiday campout festival, may I suggest this more exhaustive checklist?). I suggest visiting a combination of Carbon Environmental Boutique, Earth’s General Store, and our local MEC outlet to get all of these items while supporting our local economy and avoiding the extra carbon footprint of shipping from across the Pond.

- windup LED flashlight – if I was headed to a campout I’d consider making this a flashlight/radio.
- a solar charger for your cell phone and camera: ecotopia have the Freeloader Solar Charger in their kit.
- a large stainless-steel refillable mug, thermos, or water bottle
- cutlery set or chopstick set
- refillable toothbrush (Preserve or another)
- natural/biodegradable wipes (Tushies), tissues, menstrual pads (NatraCare), lip balm, toothpaste (Kingfisher), sunscreen, bug repellent – and shampoo and deodorant if you’re camping, too

plus the usual:
- tickets, ID, cash, cards
- cell phone, camera
- MP3 player. book, magazine for down time
- umbrella, shoes that can get wet and muddy, emergency rain gear
- sun hat, sunglasses
- tarp (or collapsible tent if you’re at the top of the hill), tentpegs, location marker
- chair
- programme
- notepad, pen, highlighter
- comb
- first aid kit (esp with kids), advil, pepto bismol
- food and drink in a small cooler

You know it’s going to be hot, for at least part of the day, so I’m planning to try this to restyle a tshirt while I’m on early morning tarp lineup duty, since all I’ll need to pack is my scissors (and a needle and thread just in case).

Detail of one of the upcycled bulletin boards I've made. Read on to learn how.

Lately, I’ve been inspired by cork. Why, you may ask?

Well, I found a huge, huge stash of wine corks at the fabulous ReUse Centre run by the City of Edmonton. Nearly half of them were those horrible plastic-and-foam abominations – which is a terrible shame, since making wine corks is both a traditional employer and a sustainable industry, without which the unique cork oak woodland ecosystem would be irreparably damaged. Contrary to rumour, cork is not going extinct: making wine corks or cork flooring actually prevents the extinction of cork oaks. So, I wanted to repurpose the old wine corks in a way that would be functional, while celebrating their traditional purpose and history.

I’ve also been trying to think of a good way to upcycle the dated, disposable ‘art’ that’s readily available at any charity shop or thrift store (The ones pictured below all came from Goodwill).

Consequently I’ve been working on a line of upcycled cork items for the home, which will be available for sale locally and through my Etsy shop (in the Quirks N Corks section). Here are instructions for how to make a couple of different styles of upcycled corkboards.

Before: thrifted framed print

1. Disassemble frame; use flat-nosed pliers to remove any staples.

Removing the staples holding the print in place using flat-nosed pliers

2. Set aside any glass – this can be used as a dry-erase board, or recycled.

3. Paint the yucky old frame. I spray-painted mine matte white.

4. Glue cork to the cardboard backing. I used part of a roll of cork sheeting, some heavy books to keep it flat, and glue for this project (I like Weldbond because it’s 0-VOC, nontoxic, bonds to nearly anything, and dries clear – oh, and it’s Canadian). If you had a deep frame, you could use cork bulletin-board squares, or reuse wine corks, instead.

5. Once your paint and your glue are dry (say, after waiting overnight), put your cork-covered backing into the frame, and fasten into place (I had to use a staple gun for this part, but your method will depend on the frame you start with). Now it’s ready to hang and use.

After: the completed corkboard.

This is actually hanging in my home office/studio, and works really well in a room with antique or cottagey elements.

Speaking of wine corks, here’s another option:

1. Start with a thrifted poster or print that’s laminated onto MDF. Lightly sand the glossy surface so the glue will bond properly, and wipe it down to remove the dust.

Poster laminated onto MDF, before

2. Glue cork onto the sanded backing. In my case, I used a layer of cork sheeting first (so bits of the image wouldn’t show between the wine corks), then constructed a frame out of those wine corks from the ReUse Centre. For the basketweave pattern used here, it’s helpful to sort your corks into matching pairs first.  (No boxful of collected wine corks waiting to be reused? No ReUse Centre in your town? No problem. Ask at local restaurants, or plead with friends to save their wine corks from parties and wedding celebrations for you.)

3. Once the glue is cured (again, after waiting overnight), your masterpiece is ready to hang and use.

The nasty inspirational poster, after its' quirky corky makeover.

If you have more corks, or a smaller surface, or both: you can also cover the whole darn thing with wine corks. I’ll warn you, it will be way heavier than you expect. I think this cork mosaic is destined to become a tabletop, if I can’t figure out how to hang it safely:

A largish sheet of MDF, totally covered with wine corks, is surprisingly heavy. But pretty nice, yes?

Or, if you have even more corks, you can cover the surface with them on end instead of laying on their sides. This photo is from New Modern: Creative Living Spaces by Carla Breeze (via Terramia). LOVE IT. But I wonder how heavy it is?

<Update: image of cork artwork deleted due to copyright. I encourage readers to go check out the book though!>

Here are some other wine cork projects on the web: Michelle Kaufmann’s wine-cork mat project video, which ends up looking similar to the artwork in the photo above; cork-craft roundups on Crafting A Green World, Love To Know, and Wine Intro

Here are some other artisans & designers doing amazing things with cork: Daniel Michalik (I love his cast-cork bowls and Cub Chair), Steven Leslie (are they vases, or scupture?), Jan Elftmann (incredible art car), Jasper Morrison for Vitra and Moooi and Vitra again (more cast cork, so covetable).

1. Enrol your kids in summer camps and classes for budding naturalists, like those offered at Edmonton’s Devonian Botanic Garden or John Janzen Nature Centre. My daughter was at camp at the DBG in the rain this week and LOVED it.

2. Plant a fruit tree or vegetable garden together: you’ll be growing memories and your own food. Yes, many garden centres and some farmers’ markets still have transplants available if you didn’t get it together to start from seed. This year, we’ve planted corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, and a pumpkin plant in the sunny back corner of our yard.

3. Set up rain barrels and a composter – kids especially love composting with worms. Here are two sets of instructions for how to make your own inexpensive vermicomposter.

4. Build a solar oven from an old pizza box, then cook something fun in it, like cookies or pita-bread pizzas.

5. Spend a rainy day choosing old clothes, toys and books to donate, then choosing more age-appropriate ones at a second-hand store or the library. Or, organize a swapping party with friends.

6. Collect a bunch of plastic bags, then laminate them to make a tough, cool fabric for lunch and tote bags: there are good tutorials archived at Etsy Labs and on eclipse.etsy.com’s myspace page. I’d suggest doing this outdoors if possible, to minimize any exposure to fumes from the softened plastic.

7. Make art from your trash: www.resourcefulschools.org have lots of great craft ideas for reusing household garbage before it hits the recycle bin. The ReUse Centre is also a great spot to collect reuseables for arts and crafts. Here are some other great recycled kids’ crafts roundups: Alberta Egg Producers’ egg carton roundup; Craft Jr’s recycled craft roundup; makeandtakes’ earth day craft roundup; Family Fun’s Recycled Crafts Contest; and the wonderful blogs Fun In The Making and The Long Thread.

8. Another great rainy-day project with little kids: make some home-made green cleaners and test them out. Preschoolers love to role-play, so give them their own spray bottles full of water with a splash of vinegar, and let them wash off their toys, the windows, or the (unwaxed) kitchen floor. If you don’t have any homemade cleaner recipes handy, the Women’s Voices For The Earth “Green Clean Party” website is a great resource.

9. Plan a road trip to a number of local U-picks and farm stands.

10. Mix up some organic play-dough using the following recipe. (If you don’t need it to be gluten-free, substitute wheat flour for the corn starch and rice flour.)

Gluten-Free Play Dough (adapted from http://www.glutenfreeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=22445)

3/4 cup rice flour
3/4 cup corn starch
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 cup hot water
1 tsp. cooking oil
food colouring – use lots to make the colours vibrant

Mix all ingredients together in saucepan until smooth, then place on low heat, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula for at least 5 minutes (10 minutes if recipe is doubled, about 15 minutes if tripled) or until it forms a ball. Remember to scrape the bottom of the pot as you stir!

Remove from heat, let cool for 10 minutes. Scoop into a large bowl, add at least 1/4 cup more rice flour, and 1/4 cup more corn starch, knead until well mixed and no longer sticky. (The kneading can be done partway in a food processor – or can be a project for your child, if you have extra flour and cornstarch (it’ll be messy!).) If it gets too dry, add a few drops of water. If it’s too sticky, add more rice flour and corn starch in equal amounts.

Store in airtight container.

For enough for a Kindergarten class (probably 10 kids can play with it at a time), I triple the recipe (which uses a whole 500g package of corn starch). You can also put all your ingredients in at the start, but I find it harder to get a dough of consistent texture when I do this.

SCOOPED limited-edition pendant lamp, 1/20, colour: Spring, of discarded laundry detergent scoops, photographed without flash

SCOOPED 2/20, colour: Stripe, installed in its permanent home at Lucid Lifestyle

I’m excited to have recently added handmade pendant lamps created from upcycled materials to my portfolio. (Most materials are “downcycled”, degrading in quality and value, as they are recycled into new products – an oft-cited example of downcycling is the recycling of paper fibres from cardboard into office paper into toilet paper. “Upcycling” is the opposite of this, creating an object of beauty and increased value from a material that would otherwise be discarded.)

VESSEL:FLARE limited edition pendant light, 1/30, colour: Clear

While my creations are available in my Etsy shop, I’m only one person, and there’s a lot of discarded plastic and glass out there waiting for a new life. So, to celebrate Earth Day, I’m posting photos and instructions for creating your own lamps created from reclaimed materials readily available in your local thrift shops and reuse centres.

Credit where it’s due: my lamps are inspired in part by the upcycled objects themselves, and in part by works created by Propellor Design (see their Dram Chandelier at IDS’09), Stuart Hayworth, Paprika, and Kathleen Hills.

Materials and Tools

• a large number of transparent or translucent objects to act as the diffuser (The larger the number, the better – too few and your cluster lamp will look sad and unfinished.)
• Dremel tool or electric drill with appropriate bit for your material
• fishing line, invisible thread, jeweller’s tiger-tail beading wire, or craft wire, depending on how heavy the items are that you’re hanging and your personal preferences
• scissors or wire cutters (depending on which stringing material you’re using)
• jeweller’s crimp beads, and needle-nose pliers (for flattening the crimps)
• a pendant lamp kit (I used Ikea’s plug-in HEMMA pendant lamp cord set, cost Can. $6  (Note: it’s also possible to create your own kit using salvaged lighting parts and old computer power cables for the wiring, if you have a qualified electrician inspect it to ensure its safety.)
• small thrift-store lamp shade that fits your lamp kit (check this before you proceed!) (I found a couple of Ikea’s SKIMRA shades and some clip-on shades in hard, hard shape at Goodwill for $1 apiece, but as long as it’s an open-top-open-bottom shade, and your cluster will allow a decent amount of air circulation through, it will work with HEMMA)

Stripped SKIMRA lampshade, and HEMMA pendant lamp cord set, disassembled to show threaded attachment point

For a tassel-style cluster lamp, like my VESSEL series created from thrift-shop vases:
(adapted from these directions for making a Chandelini-inspired wine-glass chandelier)

1. Use a doorknob or work on a large flat surface, to keep your project from getting tangled.
2. Use a Dremel tool to drill any holes required for step 5.
3. Cut the fishing line (or wire) into N/2 various (long!) lengths with the scissors (or wire cutters) (where N is the number of objects you have to form the cluster).
4. Group your lines (or wires) together so that the ends are even (or staggered, depending on the effect you want). Make a loop at the centre of the grouping, and either tie an overhand knot (for line or tigertail) or twist the loop together and wrap another wire around it (for craft wire). This loop will be used to hang the cluster in step 9.
5. At the ends of the line (or wire), attach the item you’re hanging (around the neck or foot of a vase, or through a hole you’ve drilled). Fishing line will be knotted then crimped; wire will be crimped, or twisted, depending on the type of wire you’re using.
6. Repeat step 5 until you have all your objects attached to the looped wires or strings.
7. Install the pendant lamp according to the directions that are in the pendant lamp kit.
8. Remove the paper/fabric cover from the small lampshade, and attach the exposed frame to the hanging lamp, then screw in a compact fluorescent bulb (low voltage = safer and more energy efficient, CFL = decent task light, LEDs are a great alternative if all you want is mood lighting). Or, if it’s a clip-on frame, screw in the bulb then clip the frame to the underside of the bulb. This optional step will keep the bulb in the centre of your cluster, and increase air circulation around the bulb if needed.
9. Hang the loop on the ceiling hook that you installed as part of the hanging lamp kit and arrange the objects around the hanging light fixture.
10. Et voila! One tassel-cluster pendant lamp.

The stripped clip-on shade, tigertail wire, crimp beads, and thrifted pressed-glass bud vases used to create a Vessel:Flare lamp. In the end I decided the clip-on shade wasn't needed.

VESSEL:FLARE limited edition pendant light, 1/30, colour: Clear, photographed without flash.

My VESSEL pendant light series is constructed from pressed-glass vases collected from charity thrift shops for about Can. $2 apiece. These photos show FLARE, a VESSEL variant made using trumpet-shaped clear glass bud vases; the tassel form of the cluster was chosen for its similarity in form to a bouquet. In other VESSEL pendants, large glass vases become diffusers after being drilled or wet-sawn, then fire-polished, and milk-glass vases are individually lit so that the patterns glow from within.

For a cylinder-style lamp, like my SCOOPED series created from discarded laundry-soap scoops:

1. Wash and hand-dry the scoops (or whatever the items are) (to make sure there are no water spots on them). Sort and stack according to size, shape, and colour. This photo shows 89 scoops collected from the Edmonton ReUse Centre after sorting, to give you an idea of the variability in shade and shape. 

Keep in mind that the colour of the scoops will alter the colour of light provided by the finished fixture, so if you need the lamp to provide task light, you’ll need to use clear scoops for at least the lower portion of the shade.
2. Strip the lampshade frame. In the piece shown in these photos, I used the top part of the SKIMRA lampshade mentioned and shown above.
3. Drill holes for hanging. I used a 1 mm diameter drill bit in an electric drill. After drilling, use scissors to clear away excess plastic extruded during the drilling process.
4. String onto your thread of choice. For the chandelier in these photos, I used discarded craft wire found at a local thrift shop, and standard wire-wrapping techniques to attach 3 or 4 scoops per thread. Fishing line, invisible thread, or nylon-coated jewellers’ wire could be used instead, in combination with crimp beads to keep any knots in place or secure any loops. Attach the strings of drilled scoops to the stripped lampshade frame. Stringing pattern will vary with the size of the lampshade frame used (and shape). For the small shade in these photos, I used 47 scoops in total (doubling up small scoops in some spots to fill the space where a large scoop would have been used if available).

5. Install pendant lamp kit and attach shade according to directions. This photo shows the completed shade attached to an Ikea HEMMA cord set. Put in a CFL (remember, warm white) and enjoy.

Completed SCOOPED pendant light (2/20, in Stripe), shown unlit with a 42-watt (150-watt-equivalent) CFL installed

My SCOOPED pendant light series is constructed from recycled-PET (#1 plastic) laundry detergent scoops, which are no longer used as frequently since soap manufacturers have begun the switch to liquid formulations more suitable for front-loading washers. SCOOPED was first created as a light sculpture for an organic clothing vendor (Lucid Lifestyle) on Edmonton’s trendy Whyte Avenue; the client loved the connection between their prior use and reuse. The name for this series comes from the use by both spies and research scientists of the term “scooped” for having strategic information used or published by a rival. Since the series reuses objects for a rival purpose, it seemed fitting. “Scooped” also refers to my reaction when I found the large cache of scoops at the Edmonton ReUse Centre, which became the first and second light sculptures in the series.

In January, online activism over the problems created by new American safety legislation prompted by the many recalls of childrens’ products reached a peak. The more I read about the unintended consequences of the US’s new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, the worse it gets for professional crafters, small businesses, used booksellers and public libraries, antique dealers, charities that rely on clothing and toy donations and sales, and parents trying to raise their kids within a small budget or within their noncommercial and/or environmental ideals. Not to mention the environment: all the products that can no longer be sold are being sent to landfills or burned in incinerators. Reportedly, many cottage-industry businesses are shutting down entirely due to the onerous requirements for lead and phthalate testing… not exactly the stimulus package the shaky American economy needs. Small Canadian businesses trying to export their products to the US are also affected by this legislation. TheSmartMama.com (written by a lawyer who is doing X-ray diffraction analysis of products for compliance with CPSIA) remains one of the best places to look for updated information about CPSIA’s requirements, amendments, and the issues it’s causing. Most of these issues have not been resolved, although the US Consumer Product Safety Commission is doing its best to answer questions, and it seems that amendments to the act may be on the way.

Following this story, naturally I wondered whether Bill C-6 (CCPSA, the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act), the successor to Canada’s Bill C-52 (not Bill C-51 as some alternative media have claimed), has the same problems as CPSIA? It’ll depend how the safety testing requirements are worded, in the end, and whether there are any exemptions put in place. Bill C-6 had its first reading in the Commons and is currently at committee. The current wording is available to read here. I’m no lawyer, but here’s how it looks to me:

- Exemptions are listed in Schedule 1, and mostly cover products covered by other legislation (such as foods, cosmetics, drugs, motor vehicles, firearms, and so on). There is no exemption or grandfather clause that I could find that exempts items produced before a certain date, so in theory the act would apply to used, vintage, and antique items.

- The wording of Section 12 indicates that testing of products (for, say, banned chemical content) may be ordered at the discretion of the Minister, so there is some wiggle room for the Act to be interpreted by federal officials as not applying to, say, homemade handcrafted items.

- Here’s the crucial bit: The regulations in Section 36 explain specifically that the Governor in Council (ie, the Governor General signing orders from Federal Ministers) may create regulations that exempt a class of consumer products or a group of people, the nature of the documentation required, etc, and how technical reference documents (such as those that set the limits for lead and phthalate content in children’s products) can be incorporated into the Act. So, provision is made for creating exemptions, prohibitions, and technical references later; it’s not clear to me when in the process this happens.

I imagine that existing federal specs and testing procedure guidelines will apply, but I’m not sure where to find this information, so I have no idea how the testing protocols and documentation requirements currently or will compare to the CPSIA regulations. My concern is that, generally speaking, these sort of regulations are written to ensure the best possible fit with the American regulations, so that industries do not need to meet multiple standards. We will need to stay vigilant to ensure that Canadian legislators do not repeat the mistakes made on Capitol Hill in drafting the CPSIA.

It surprises me that American bloggers have covered this issue in depth, and that Canadians have been so quiet. I’d love to know: how has the CPSIA affected your business? Are you concerned about Bill C-6?

New Year’s always means decor trend predictions. My predictions? People are hungry for meaning and security as we navigate the most turbulent economy in 80 years, and this means we’ll want our homes to reflect our deepest values. We’ll still be eager for style and beauty, but less impressed by fashion, and our luxuries will be smaller, more sentimental, more likely to be handmade. “Democratic decorating”, supporting emerging designers on Etsy (like Keith Moore’s bamboo clocks – mmmmm) and at local craft fairs, idiosyncratic mixing of styles and periods, and choosing the most Earth-friendly products will be as important as ever. We’ll still want our homes to be serene, abundant havens, and as a reaction to consumerism, many people will want to declutter and simplify.

Sadly, Domino magazine is no longer here to champion that vision of modern, eclectic, sustainable design; legions of decor bloggers are carrying that torch now.

I’ve been waiting to write about this story for months now. As reported on pages 40-41 of Green Living Online’s Fall 2008 edition, Canada’s Building Codes get only failing-to-poor grades on energy efficiency and sustainability issues, with Alberta failing with the second-lowest grade at 42% (after Nunavut at 40%). No province scored higher than a C. The report itself has not been released by Environmental Defence Canada to date, and I wonder now if it will be. Since it was drafted, parliament has been prorogued and reassembled, Obama has taken office as President, the North American economy has gone from having foreclosure jitters to a full-blown recession, and Environmental Defence appear to have concentrated their resources on the Alberta’s Tar/Oilsands and bisphenol A stories. Meanwhile, this page linking to their May 2008 Green Building Benchmarks seems to be the one to watch for further news on this front: http://environmentaldefence.ca/greencodes/index.php

Alberta’s building codes may not be green enough, but local business in Edmonton is getting greener all the time. The past couple of months have seen local mainstream media coverage of local & organic foodies d’Lish, green home decor & gift destination Carbon Environmental Boutique, and brand new eco-spa/salon The Beauty Parlour. The inexhaustible Jessie Radies (of Keep Edmonton Original and the Blue Pear) is starting to organize a local organic food co-op. E-SAGE hosted a series of fascinating talks by local economies expert Michael H. Shuman, available for download on their website, and are creating a sustainable business directory.

We’ve also seen prominent coverage of the CMHC’s NetZero demonstration homes, though unfortunately CBC emphasized how unaffordable green building is, instead of contextualizing net-zero as being part of a broad continuum of options. As inspiring as the NetZero homes and this LEED-Platinum reno of a 1915 Craftsman bungalow are, you don’t need to go to that extreme to make your home greener. But you knew that, right?

Reports of Compact Fluorescent Lamps causing migraines and skin rashes got a wide airing in late January. I’m still recommending them, for all the reasons I always did, plus one more: I’m skeptical of these claims. The idea that compact fluorescents cause migraines dates from the days before manufacturers switched to electronic ballasts for them, when once in a while you’d find one that flickered a bit – and the well-documented problem of the flickering of their non-compact relatives acting as a migraine trigger in some susceptible individuals. Newer bulbs don’t flicker. As for the skin rashes, it seems unlikely that they are UV burns as claimed, since the spirals are made of UV-blocking glass – and the bulbs I prefer (Philips Marathon in Soft White, and Ikea’s, which both have excellent colour rendition) have the spirals enclosed in frosted Edison-style glass bulbs to diffuse the light. I’m glad that it’s being investigated, though — it’ll be easier to discuss this once we have actual data instead of just anecdotes.

Furthermore, the UK recommendation now is to stay more than 30 cm from bare CFLs. How many bulbs in your house are naked, instead of hidden behind a shade or a frosted Edison-style bulb? How many are 12 inches or less away from you? There aren’t any that answer that description in my home, and chances are there aren’t any in your home either, so there’s no need to panic and change them all back.

Besides, have you seen the new LED LACK pendant lamps at Ikea? In another five-to-ten years we’ll probably be able to replace our burnt-out CFLs with even-more-efficient LED bulbs and this whole discussion will become moot. These ones have the nicest LED light I’ve seen yet, without that extreme blue tinge you so often see. If only they were bright enough to provide task lighting.

While the press widely reported the CFL anecdotes, the ever-reliable-and-inspiring WorldChanging noted that US media almost completely ignored the latest climate science predictions regarding business-as-usual global warming. Of course, science reporting in general is abysmal, but ignorance of the newest climate data has criminal consequences:

“That means ultimate sea level rise of 250 feet, with the best current projection being 5 feet by 2100, rising thereafter 10 to 20 inches a decade (or more) for centuries.”

Wow. Nova Scotia becomes a chain of small islands, most of the world’s major cities are gradually (or not so gradually) swallowed by the ocean, economic & social implications enough to keep anyone awake at night. Maybe Jon Stewart should go after the media’s willful ignorance of climate science next?

Finally, the planting of an organic vegetable garden at the White House has everyone thinking about starting seeds and dreaming of spring: let me leave you with inspiration from a less famous Victory Garden.