Slippers and sausages

I'm up in Lincolnshire at the moment visiting my friend Alexa who I studied with at CAT. Two things about this visit have been especially inspiring.

Firstly, last year Alexa and Gavin got pigs. This was mainly because the garden of the house they bought was full of the wild version of comfrey, and pretty much the only way to get rid of it (without resorting to nasty chemicals) is with pigs. The problem with trying to dig it up, is that if you split the root, two plants grow in its place. However, pigs dig up and eat the roots, solving the problem.

 

So two little piglets were purchased, an area was fenced off, and the pigs started digging. Apart from a few minor mishaps and some escaping piglets, the pigs were a resounding success. The comfrey was eradicated, and the pigs had a completely free-range and happy upbringing. The pigs went to the butchers in January, with one pigs worth of meat going to Gavin's family, and the other pig being kept by Alexa and Gavin. Now, Gavin is a vegetarian, and hasn't eaten meat in 15 years, but decided that he couldn't possibly disagree with eating the pigs on environmental or animal welfare grounds. And so, he's been eating the pork. 

Best of all, they got given all the offal too, so Alexa and I are going to have a bash at making pork liver pate this weekend - I shall report back on the outcome...

Secondly, and perhaps more interestingly, Alexa makes slippers for a living. She made a pair for Gavin for his birthday a few years ago, and they worked out so well that the idea for Motties slippers was born. Alexa now makes slippers full time, making them out of a little  workshop in her house.

What's really inspiring about Motties is what they're made out of and how they're made. The leather for the slippers is rescued waste from the upholstery industry, where it would otherwise be thrown out. Likewise for the wool and the rest of the fabric that goes into a pair of the slippers, often made from unwanted blankets or jumpers. Material that is unusable or unsuitable for other parts of the slippers is used inside the inner sole, then layered with a suede sole and fabric inner. A top is crafted from a leather outer and wool inside, and then the slipper is stitched together. Each pair is unique as the stock of leather and material that Alexa has to work with changes week to week, and so the colours vary all the time. 

And there's some inspiring details behind the scene. She's currently experimenting with composting the wool, leather and cotton scraps that are too small to use, making sure any waste is recycled as much as possible. Added to that, the packaging that the slippers come in is minimal and reusable - simple brown paper envelopes that protect the slippers, but can be reused by the recipient or easily recycled. She's also currently experimenting with making removable inner soles for the slippers that can be bought to allow old Motties to be given a second lease of life, or be washed to keep your slippers smelling fresh. 

I love the fact that they're upcycled from reclaimed materials, and Alexa works with what she has available at the time. Plus they're super comfy and mine have lasted brilliantly. 

So, as well as catching up with a friend, I've had a lesson in ethical and happy meat, and upcycling and sustainable product design. 

Thoughts about clothes....

Whilst doing some completely unrelated research today, I came across the website Slow Fashioned and fell in love with their pledge. The same way that Tom's Feast summed up my thoughts on sustainable food, they've summed up the values I want to aspire to regarding clothes.

In their words:
"To practice concious consumption by:
- learning more about where my clothing comes from
- making decisions based on quality rather than quantity
- supporting handmade, local, sustainable, or secondhand fashion
- caring for my clothes to make them last"
And to live life better by living slower."

Amen.

Slipping up, almost slipping up, and missing out

All's been a bit quiet on the blogging front, mostly because I'm moving house today, and so the last few weeks have been a bit focused on that. There's been a lot of conversations and thoughts going on though - mostly around waste and our need for stuff.

A few quick updates though....

I bought a sandwich last week from the cafe across the road. Mmmmmmm coronation chicken. It didn't hit me for a few days that their chicken is not free range (I didn't ask, but given the price and the type of cafe, it would be pretty surprising). So whoops.

I almost accidently went to a supermarket yesterday too. I was in a restaurant/bar with some friends, eating tasty pizza and drinking some lovely red wine, and when I left realised I was in need of some milk. Oh look, there's a Coop across the road - excellent. It wasn't until I got to the til that I realised what I was doing. I blame the several glasses of wine for dulling my memory, but it shows how easy it is to fall into a habit, especially when you're somewhere unknown or different.

And then we move on to the missing out. I was in London last weekend and went to Camden with some friends on the Sunday. Firstly I found it a bit overwhelming - the sheer amount of shops and people trying to get you to buy things is incredible. I came across a lovely scarf that I fell in love with, and I was about to part with my money for it, when my friend Sian pointed out that it was made in China. To me, the scarf was a bargain, but at that price it couldn't pay the workers a fair amount. I realised then that each transaction is not just about me. Clothes and accessories is something I haven't really looked at in detail yet - I think it's going to be a hard one, as I'm not the skinniest girl around, and I'm yet to find somewhere that stocks ethical fashion above a size 14/16. But things like scarves etc are things that I do have control about, and therefore it's even more important that I make the right decisions with these items. I'm still thinking about that scarf though....

Consumerist tendencies...

Today I witnessed my inner consumerist tendencies in full force. In the spirit of working out my current position, I let this tendency roll rather than halt it at the first sign and observed it.

I needed a new pair of jeans. And by needed, I mean *really* needed. One of my two pairs died a death at the weekend (in an unrepairable manner) and the other have about a fortnight left in them before succumbing to the same fate. So a new pair of jeans were definitely on the "need" rather than "want" list. Plus one deconsumerism point for distinguishing between need and want.

Due to me not really liking clothes shopping, the chosen time for this was after work, to try to minimise the amount of people present during my shopping trip. I thought it was going to be a quick one shop trip. However, the first shop didn't have my size. In the time it took me to discover this, I tried on 6 pieces of clothing (none of them jeans - minus one deconsumerism point) and bought one top. It's really lovely and was a complete bargain at 60% off (or that's what I told myself). Minus one deconsumerism point.

Onto the second shop, where I tried on 2 pairs of jeans and 4 non jean items. Minus one deconsumerism point. I did however buy just the pair of jeans. Plus one deconsumerism point. I then went into the jewellery section and spend about 5 minutes looking for something that I liked that was reduced. I didn't buy anything, but still, minus one deconsumerism point.

And then I walked further into town on my way home. I promise you that if at least two other shops had been open, I would have gone in. And why? To find that elusive thing known as a bargain. Minus many deconsumerism points.

All the shops at this time of year have sales on. Racks upon racks of clothes that they're trying to sell to make room for the next season's stocks, usually at least 50% and often more off the original price. Things we wouldn't have bought at the original price, or couldn't justify spending that amount of money on suddenly find their way into our bags, and you can easily spend far more money on several items that you didn't really want than one item you did. But because they were a bargain, it seems ok.

And the question of why shops have so many items left over is brought into question. Fashion changes at such a high speed, and many of the items simply don't sell. Added to that, many more items are stocked than are needed, because a potential sale might be missed if the correct size is not in stock at that particular moment. Here we witness the result of our demand for immediate retail satisfaction. As a result of this, over a week after the sales started, most shops are still overloaded with sale items, which will presumably be disposed of if not sold shortly, which is hardly a sustainable solution.

In hindsight, I would have bought the top I bought at full price, because it's really really nice. And I guess that's possibly a question to ask myself when buying clothes in future. And whilst I don't "need" it in the sense of not having any clothes to wear, I will wear it a lot, it won't go out of fashion, and I don't have anything like it already. But it did come from a high street store that scores just 8.5 out of 20 on the ethical consumer "ethiscore" scale...

So it was an interesting experience, and one that raises a lot of questions about how I should approach clothes shopping in the future. I'm not sure banning any kind of unplanned purchase is the answer - many of my favourite and most worn items were unplanned purchases, but it's clear that the bargain hunting consumer needs to be held in check somehow...