WIP Shots

Work in Progress Shot's, from a few nights ago. We had critique on Friday. I have some pictures of the final product as well but I wanted to post these first cause I thought they were fun. We had a few issues;

1. The t-shirt print out turned pink when we steamed it. All the white is now a rather aweful shade of pink. This is an issue with the printer at the moment it hasn't been properly calibrated or something to that affect.

2. When screen printing on denim, the pigment soaks into the material and rather disappears. However, the effect was rather nice in the end even if it wasn't expected.

3.  We decided to go with just one type of fiber for the display of blog information instead of a lot of different facts. We went with Cotton as it's one of the main fibers used in clothing and something that everyone knows.

4. We dumped down the mission statement for the project quiet a bit and made it a lot simpler. I think it worked fairly well in terms of tying everything together.

Alright that's all I'm going to say at the moment since I have other comments on the critique and a few points from coming out of that.

 

Cotton & The Environment

Did you know that the average tee-shirt will generate 28 times its weight in harmful carbon emissions in its lifetime?

Well you like me might wonder well, why and how is that? It comes down to a number of issues:

1. Methods that are used in farming the cotton.
2. The fact that most cotton is then transported across large distances to reach the processing/manufacturing plants.
3. Methods that are used to process the raw material, to the knitting and dying processes.
4. The later washing, drawing and packaging of the producting.
5. And the fact that most products once packaged for shipping then travel long distances to reach the place where they are then sold.

Transportation accounts for a large percentage of the carbon footprint that is given off. The fact that most materials are not grown where the product is made and the fact that most of our products are no longer made locally not even remotely so.

People might think that Cotton is a wonderful alternative to all the plastic fabrics out there such as polyester or nylon and other mixes there of. However, Cotton isn't always the great alternative.

1. Cotton is one of the most pesticide-intensive crops grown in the world.
2. Cotton farming and the production accounts for a quarter of the world's total pesticide use.

Links: 
- Harmonious Living, Your Carbon Footprint - Read The Lables: http://www.harmoniousliving.co.za/Environment/Eco-Friendly/Your-Carbon-Footprint-Check-the-Labels/
- Earth Trust, Carbon Footprint Reduction Table

Thank you Lwin

I received this email today and decided to share it. Thank you very much for your response Lwin, we appreciate it!

We're asking all visitor's to this site to tell us what we're wearing right now (or your five favorite articles of clothing):



a. The country are you from (for the US what state are you from)?
Burma

b. Pick out three to five items of clothing (shirts, jeans, etc)

1) Longyi (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Longyi.jpg)
   made in Burma
   made of cotton

2) Shirt (attached picture, the pants that go with the shirt is was actually bought in the USA (at Gap) and imported from China) :)
   made in Burma
   made of cotton

3) Shan Pants (this picture is of Thai pants, but they are pretty much the same. http://www.flickr.com/photos/peacefulbean/2686370513/)
 made in Burma
 made of cotton


Best,
Lwin
--
http://lwinmoe.friendsofburma.orgwas

A Shot!

So a while back I asked a question, not really expecting to get an answer. Well, I got up today and was checking through things emails, deviantArt and such. A friend of mine on DA gave my question a shot. *chuckles* Thank you, Rick. :)

Did you know that in North America alone, that around 1.4 billion cotton t-shirts are sound ever year? Talk about another big number that's hard to comprehend. I don't know about you but it's hard for me to wrap my head around something like that. If you took 1.4 billion t-shirts out into a field and piled them all into one big pile how big do you think it would be? If someone who knows how to do things mathematically and wants to give it a shot, please do.

" So... If you take 1.4 billion T-shirts and pile them up, figuring you can pile (my wild guess) 3 T-shirts per inch, the answer is 7365 miles.

1.4 billion T-shirts is ~4.5 T-shirts per person in the US.  

Hey, you're welcome. They'd make a tall stack, which would reach into "medium earth orbit", higher than the Hubble telescope. If it fell over, it would stretch farther than New York to Beijing." V.


I heard a guy give a lecture one time about people and their environments and... He got to talk about numbers somehow and how we have a hard time comprehending really large numbers or distances. This is rather like that for me. It's like whoa that's big and yet I completely and totally can't even picture it (accept in cartoon style animation ^^: Little people running away, random chicken little moment, "The Sky is falling!" and so forth.)

Eco-Friendly Fibers

One of the questions that Candace and I researched before setting up the table is, what exactly are Eco-Friendly fibers? Eco-Friendly seems to be a term that a great many people throw around, in order to make themselves sound good. It's rather like the word sustainable, people throw it around as well and yet no one seems to truly have any idea of what these words mean. I admit, I've been guilty of doing such things as well.

What was interesting about looking for the information for this post, was that I found out things that I didn't know and that I didn't expect. Perhaps, some of these are to be expected but what I expect as opposed to what someone else expects varies based on experience. Okay, not going into that philosophy any farther or we will continue to digress.

What exactly does Eco-Friendly fibers mean?

Eco-friendly fibers are not necessarily natural fibers. Natural fibers can be eco-friendly; however, man made fibers can be considered eco-friendly as well depending on the manufacturing processes. On the same note, natural fibers can be considered not eco-friendly. So, what makes a fiber eco-friendly or not eco-friendly? There are a few specific aspects that kept coming up over and over again:

- The use of chemicals and pesticides that are being used during cultivations.
- What land management/farming practices are being employed.
- Production processes adhere to fair trade practices.

So, what exactly does that mean? The first is the renew ability of the product. Renewable resources are something that can be replenished in a fairly short amount of time (unlike those which take thousands of years to build up again.) The next issue is the ecological footprint of the item being produced; so in other words, much much land is being used to support one individual plant from sprout to full growth. What sorts of natural resources are required by this plant to sustain itself. This refers to such things as the mount of water, minerals, and plant/animal matter that is used. The third thing that comes up is to consider which is briefly mentioned above is the amount of chemicals/what types of chemicals go into the growth and the later production and processing of the fiber in order to turn it into the cloth that your clothing is made out of. (6)

So for instance, did you know that growing cotton uses 22.5 percent of all the insecticides used globally? In order to grow enough cotton for one t-shirt you have to have around 257 gallons of water. As if that wasn't enough, bleaching and then dyeing the fabric creates toxins that to some extent end up in our ecosystems.

However, another term that came up through out our reading was the term, 'regenerated fibers'. When discussing man made fibers they are usually split into two categories, synthetic fibers and regenerated fibers. "Synthetic fibers are cooked up in large vats and are made entirely from chemicals. Some of the most common synthetic fibers are the thermoplastic, petroleum-based synthetic fibers such as polyester and nylon," (10).

"Manufactured regenerated fibers are made from the chemical-induced transformation of natural polymers and basically fall into two categories: protein origin and cellulose origin. Regenerated fibers of protein origin come from plant protein (such as corn, soy, alginate, and peanut), or from animal protein (such as casein from milk). Many of the new, hot eco-friendly fabrics – like Ingeo from corn and soy from soybeans – are manufactured from proteins found in plants," (10).

Well you might say, are regenerated fibers actually eco-friendly? As I've been reading stuff, I go back and forth on this question. After all Rayon is considered a regenerated fiber and yet, Rayon is made out of processed wood pulp (and there is a lot more information on the process that is used to turn Rayon into wood pulp if you follow link 10, in terms of the ecological impact.) The simple fact is that rayon is made out of wood, as if we don't cut down enough trees for other things we have to do it for fabric as well? It seems rather redundant when there are a great many other fibers out there that can be used.

Social expectations.

Source Links:

1. http://www.fuzbaby.com/articles/diaper-article_cant-duplicate-natural-fibers.htm

2. http://www.nonwovens-industry.com/articles/2002/06/harvesting-the-benefits-of-natural-fibers

3. http://www.teonline.com/articles/2009/03/all-about-eco-friendly-fibers-a-gift-for-environment-lovers.html

4. http://www.teonline.com/articles/2009/01/new-approach-of-synthetic-fibe.html

5. http://www.natural-environment.com/blog/2008/04/10/17-eco-friendly-fabrics/

6. http://naturalhealthcare.ca/eco_and_environmentally_friendly_fashion.phtml

7. http://textileacross.blogspot.com/2009/03/facts-behind-eco-friendly-fibers.html

8. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/summer-rayne-oakes/the-5-most-innovative-eco_b_195292.html

9. http://healthy-family.org/karenblue/1244/eco-friendly-fibers-not-always-allergy-friendly
10. http://organicclothing.blogs.com/my_weblog/2008/07/regenerated-cellulose-fabrics-facts-behind-the-fibers.html

On the Subject of Cotton

So what about Cotton? I'm sure probably everyone has at least one item in their closets--probably more--that is made out of cotton. A cotton t-shirt, cotton underwear (at least mine is, unless of course you prefer silky stuff but we won't go any further with that train of thought =P .) Well, let's start with the basic's, cotton comes from a cotton plant. The original cotton plants were only found in tropical regions between the 5th and 4th millennium BC (according to Wikipedia, I actually got a book out of the library to but it's out in the car and it is wet and nasty outside, so I will have to make use of it later.) The original form of the cotton plant, did not spread very far due to the fact that it could not survive well in harsh or colder climates. It's spread was limited to parts of India and into parts of Africa; this variety of cotton had a much shorter fiber then the longer Egyptian variety.

The second type of cotton was supposedly found in China, and had adapted to grow in a much harsher climate. This variety of cotton quickly spread from China across Eurasia and into parts of Africa. It was later that the American variety of cotton was also found. Through out a long span of time different kinds of cotton has been spun, woven and dyed. The seeds were also used for their oils. According to the article on Wiki, the earliest known cultivate that was discovered in the Americas occurred in Mexico, around 8,000 years ago.

Originally cotton was only used as a weft thread on the loom and linen as the warp, "Hundreds of years before the Christian era cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, and their use spread to the Mediterranean countries. In the 1st cent. Arab traders brought fine muslin and calico to Italy and Spain. The Moors introduced the cultivation of cotton into Spain in the 9th cent. Fustian's and dimities were woven there and in the 14th cent. in Venice and Milan, at first with a linen warp. Little cotton cloth was imported to England before the 15th cent., although small amounts were obtained chiefly for candlewicks. By the 17th cent. the East India Company was bringing rare fabrics from India. Native Americans skillfully spun and wove cotton into fine garments and dyed tapestries. Cotton fabrics found in Peruvian tombs are said to belong to a pre-Inca culture. In color and texture the ancient Peruvian and Mexican textiles resemble those found in Egyptian tombs." (Wiki)

Alright out of time, more on Cotton later.

Sources & Interesting Places:
Cotton Incorporated, http://www.cottoninc.com/
Cotton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton
Natural Cotton Council of America, http://www.cotton.org/
Miss MacDonald Had A Farm, Cotton, http://www.valdosta.edu/~clmcdonald/topic.html

A Side Note

So this project is part of a larger whole we are titling, "Covering our Body, Exposing our Society".

If you are interested in more information of this project we will be keeping a less formal journal, in tandem with the project. You are welcome to poke around in there if you wish: Cobeos

That's all I have time for at the moment. Suggestions or such are always welcome. *disappears*

On All That Is Hemp

What is Hemp and why is it illegal to grow in the United States? Well there are a few things to get out of the way first. The hemp can be confused with marijuana producing plants; however did you knot that are over 100 different varieties of basil around the world? "Strains of Cannabis approved for industrial hemp production produce only minute amounts of this psychoactive drug, not enough for any physical or psychological effects. Typically, hemp contains below 0.3% THC, while Cannabis grown for marijuana can contain anywhere from 6 or 7 % to 20% or even more." (Wikipedia, Hemp, 4th paragraph) Thus industrial hemp doesn't have any illegal uses, though I am sure that someone could come up with something. Would anyone care for the virgin joint? The problem is people do not realize exactly what Hemp is and what it is not. Visual association. We have a tendency to see something and think, 'oh, that's it' and yet we don't look any closer (what was Cinderella hiding beneath her ball gown?)

Hemp is fascinating it can be used for clothing, it can be used for food and the oils as well as other parts of the plant can be used for skin care, nutritional supplements and hair care. As I mentioned before the growth and production of Hemp is also more economical then say cotton.

It is one of the fastest growing biomass's that exists on the planet and is one of the earliest domestic plants known around the globe. The Hemp plant needs little to no chemical fertilizers (or any of that crap, that we don't really need anyone if we'd take care of the land properly), and it needs very little water. So inversion with me a hemp field, growing slowly over around 100 to 120 days. The little plants slowly get bigger, and the wind blows through them rustling the leaves. Storm clouds gather and rain waters the field, until the plants are large enough to harvest. Watch with me as nearly every part of the plant is used, the outer stalks for fiber, the inside of the stalks are often used for animal bedding due to their woodier nature and the silks for oils, papers, or other food supplements.

The production of wood pulp papers is still one of the productions that produces the highest carbon dioxide emission as an industry (it is second only to the production of concrete, just think how much of that is all around.) See here for more information on the production and bleaching of wood pulp.

Did you know that Hemp was grown in Asian more then 6, 000 years ago? It was the precursor to soy products and they contain three times the amount of vitamin E, twice the iron and magnesium as the flax seed.

Despite the fact that Hemp is three times as strong as cotton and lasts a great deal longer. Hemp can also be blended with other fibers (I mentioned the pretty hemp/silk blend on Dharam. Co.), slowly the use of Hemp is growing. The fibers from hemp are being added to make things such as jeans, shirts, pants, jackets, dresses, and other accessories (though so far I don't think we've had any hemp clothing submitted here. Most of the information in this article so far comes from, Living Touch - Hemp)

The United States is the only country in which it is illegal to produce hemp, because of fear. Other countries such as the UK, Canada and Germany resumed the production of hemp for commercial use in the 1990s; however China controls around 40% of the market. Hemp was made illegal in the US when Congress passed the 1937 Marihauna Tax Act, which was based in part on the testimony from articles in newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst. It was stressed that authors and inventors had significant financial interest in the forest industry, which helped to manufacture William Randolph Hearst's newsprint. From the 1880's to around the year 1933 hemp was grown commercially in the US; however it's use and acreage began to decline. In 1935 hemp began to make a come back when Hearst started his campaign against hemp, pushes stories through his news associations about the ties between hemp and marijuana. The result of this push was that the industrial production and use of hemp in the US was discontinued. (Wikipedia - Hemp, Paper)

Did you know that Henry Ford grew industrial hemp on his estate after 1937? He made plastic cars (the so-called Hemp Car) with wheat straw, hemp and sisal. Filtered hemp oil can be used directly to power diesel vehicles, and in the production of hemp biofuel the seeds/stalks can be used or the whole plant can be fermented.

Hemp can also be used as a purification or "mop crop", it can clean out wastewater such as sewage and other chemicals. Research is currently being done by an Eco-technologist Dr. Keith Bolton from Southern Cross University in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia; he's using hemp to clean contaminants at Chernobyl nuclear disaster site.

Alright well I could write a whole separate piece on the historic uses of the hemp plant in the past from the stone age onward. If you're interested, see the Wikipedia article it's really quit fascinating.

Links To Web Sites Used/Or of Interest:
- Image: The above image was borrowed from Wiki; here.
- EnviroTextiles
- Fabrics.Net
- Hemp.Org, Campaing for the Restoration And Regulation of Hemp
- Hemp on Wikipedia
- "(HEMP HEARTS From Canada )" Best Source of Protein, Essential Fats, Vitamins and Enzymes 1lbs Containers

Adaptation and Curiousity

So, I sent the link out to for the blog around facebook, trying to entice various people I know and people they know to come around. What I got back was not what I expected--this could be good and this could be bad, I'm not yet sure. Anyway, what I got was not an answer to my question but answers to the two rhetorical questions I asked at the beginning:

Do you know where your cloths come from?

Do you know where your cloths are made?

This wasn't what I wanted; however, I did find the answers interesting. I'm not sure what to do with this information but I'm going to share it. If anyone else would like to answer these questions please feel free to write a comment. This blog is open and even those of you who are not blogger members can post. :)

A few of the answers I got were as follows:

1 -- No, I don't know where my clothes come from. I just buy them without thinking about it.

2 - I don't know what they're made of, either, unless I'm looking for a particular fiber. I'm usually more concerned with fit than with fiber.

1-- I think about it sometimes. I'd like to do the work necessary to buy all fair trade or made in US clothing, but I'm afraid I generally don't. I'm a sucker for a good buy on cute clothes.

2-- I wear a lot of cotton, but I wear other kinds o fiber too. I usually take note of it before I wash it so I don't ruin it.

1- I'm a label reader and I notice that a lot of my clothes are made in China. I even got one from Indonesia. Rarely do I see a label that says "Made in the USA."

2- Most of my clothes are cotton, cotton blends. I have a few rayon dress shirts but mostly good 'ol cotton.

Now a few facts to go along with this. A lot of people think cotton when you say natural fiber. A lot of people just assume that buying cotton is better then anything else that is out there. After all it's natural, people have been wearing cotton for a long time. I read an ararticle last week while I was looking for information on rayon. The article happened to be about Hemp cloth, which isn't something I know a whole lot about (other then you can by this really fantastic hemp/silk blend of fabric on Dharma Trading Co. and I really want some. The hemp image was taken from, The Yarn Tree, Fiber, Hemp, Top)

You can read the article I was reading ("Sustainable Textiles urged at U.N. Conference," by PR Newswire, November 30, 2005.) It's fairly short and quiet interesting:

Did you know that in North America alone, that around 1.4 billion cotton t-shirts are sound ever year? Talk about another big number that's hard to comprehend. I don't know about you but it's hard for me to wrap my head around something like that. If you took 1.4 billion t-shirts out into a field and piled them all into one big pile how big do you think it would be? If someone who knows how to do things mathematically and wants to give it a shot, please do.

What does that big number of t-shirts sold in North American have to do with Hemp fabric? Well, if we stopped making things out of cotton--on a global scale--and started making it out of hemp instead. We would increase the yield, in essence we'd get more yardages out of a smaller area of land. By producing hemp instead of cotton we would free up an area of farmland nearly the size of the State of Florida (Florida is 2000 square miles. I found this from the Florida Quick Facts US Census Bureau, I never knew they kept all sorts of facts like that. It makes sense though I suppose, it does rather make feel slightly uncomfortable though.)

"With textile crops like Bamboo, Soy and Hemp, we have the ability to grow, harvest and produce textiles at a fraction of the environmental impact of traditional crops like cotton," said Hemptown CEO Jerry Kroll. "Pound for pound a crop like Hemp requires no pesticides, toxic fertilizers or fresh water irrigation and far less land and energy," (Article: Sustainable textiles urged at U.N. Confrence)

So there's a little bit of information. A sneak peak at what's hopefully to come in the future: Something more in depth on Bamboo as I've heard a number of different stories regarding the use of bamboo in textiles. I will look into that and see what I can find out. I'm also hoping to do a bit more looking into the history of hemp, other uses of hemp and so forth and so on.

Alrighty more about Hemp and Bamboo later. Have a good day. *disappears*

On the Topic of Fibers

So, a little while back I was unaware of just what Modal was and it was in one of my favorite pieces of clothing. Well, now I have some idea of just what that is thanks to the wonderful help of Wikipedia. Alright, I'm sure that everyone is just dying to know what Modal is (at least those who don't already know.)

Modal is a fiber that is designed to dye just like cotton; however, modal is a variety of rayon. Modal fibers are produced by spinning the reconstituted cellulose fiber from beech trees. Modal is much less likely then cottons to shrink or to fade it will also absorb more water then a cotton. Modal was created by an Austrian company (Lenzing AG), a company that specializes in textiles and fibers. The Lenzing AG company specifically looks at natural fibers made from cellulose.

Alright, this will lead us to the next question: What exactly is Rayon?

Most people have probably heard of Rayon but are not entirely aware of what Rayon is. Rayon is again like Modal a fiber that is manufactured out of reconstituted cellulose fibers. Thus making it not completely a natural fiber and not completely a synthetic fiber. The term for such materials is a semi-synthetic fiber. Rayon is popular because of it's highly shiny surface texture and softness that is akin to silk.

Rayon came into being and was first developed in 1855 though it was patented in 1894, where it was marketed as the first "artificial silk" or for a time the "mother-in-law" of silk. The first version of rayon was produced bu a company in the UK in 1905 (Courtauldas Textiles). It wasn't until 1910/1911 that Rayon was first sold and produced in the United States by Avtex Fibers. In 1924 the name 'Rayon' was adopted for the first "artificial silk".

So, what exactly is Rayon. Nathan Rosenstein invented a method by which a hard fiber (such as wood) could be turned into fabric. Rosenstein's method was found to be highly flammable and much more expensive to make. It wasn't until Paul Schutzenberger discovered the acetate method of doing the same thing that Ryon truly went into production.

In the early 1930's the production of Rayon was highly detrimental to the environment. The production, produced contaminated water waste by carbon disulfide. It wasn't until later developments in the production of Rayon in the 1940's. There are now two main types of Rayon in production, viscose rayon and polynoscis.

Links: Rayon - The Multi-Faceted Fiber, FiberSource, Rayon: How Products are Made, Rayon History Types & Manufacturing Process

Alright so a brief history on Rayon, we will come back later with more information on Rayon and current manufacturing process.

Clothing and Fibers

I'm starting this project out of curiosity. I started working with an older woman about a year or so ago who refuses to by any of her products--if at all possible--from other countries. Thus she spends a great deal of her time in grocery stores and other places looking at the labels on things. I was not aware in any real way of how many products within the greater United States, came from other countries until I met Wanda.

I would like to start a map of the world. A map that has lots of pin in it. Pin's that indicate where people's clothing is made.

While, I am speaking from within the United States, I am hoping to get the participation of people outside of the US as well. Hopefully I can get enough people to participate, that I can color code the pins based on country.

This blog will follow the progress of this mapping, information about various types of fibers that our clothing is made out of and what that implies. Hopefully along with this information, I can get feed back, stories and other things from people in other places. This may also involve into a project that myself and a fellow student/friend of mine are working on in-conjunction with a class being presented and taught by the Canary Project.

Alright so that's the bare bones of the idea for the moment. I will hopefully get this rolling and advertise for it more in the days to come. Thanks! disappears