Hot Ideas For Warming Your Hands This Winter With Gloves Made Of Organic and Natural Fibers

With one of the coldest and snowiest winters in decades, our winter gloves are going through a lot of wear, and I’ve found a lot of companies in the search for new gloves that are either made of natural or organic fibers, and are really warm and durable.

I found several boutiques – the Wild West Alpaca Ranch Store, Awaz Handcrafts, and Patricia Avenue – all specializing in handmade, natural fiber knit products.

Alpaca Driving Gloves with Leather Palms.

At all the outlets, the glove styles include those with and without fingers, as well as mittens.

The looks range from really rugged to highly elegant. Besides gloves, all of the outlets also have great natural and organic clothes and other apparel, as well as household items, but here we’re just going to look the gloves.

Wild West Alpaca Ranch Store

The Wild West Alpaca Ranch Store is a great place to find gloves and other apparel made of natural alpaca fiber, which include: hats, scarves, wraps, purses, and socks.

Alpaca Driving Gloves with Leather Palms.

The store is an outlet of the Alpaca Breeders of Arizona (ABA), which is a cooperative group of alpaca owners and breeders in state that collaborate to sell alpaca made products and promote awareness about the sustainability and health benefits of alpaca materials. All of the products are made in the United States.

There’s a lot to know about alpaca. The ABA explains some of the benefits of alpaca fibers, including that they are hypoallergenic, anti-microbial, and naturally odor resistant.

Also, alpaca doesn’t contain Lanolin oil, which many people are allergic to. Alpaca is also soft, naturally water-repellent, and non-itchy, unlike wool.

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Radical Recycling: Designer Brands Transforming Old Tire Rubber Into Beautiful Durable Shoes

Making footwear at Indosole.

Late summer and early fall are some of the best times for shoe fashions because they allow for such a diversity of styles, and always showing your love for the environment with your eco-choices in materials.

Sandals and beach shoes are still great, but you can also start on your fall styles with heaver materials like canvas, suede, and leather – and all made with rubber soles from recycled tires.

Always searching for the best variety of eco-made shoes, I found three fabulous companies – Indosole, soleRebel, and Yellow Port – that are worth taking a look at for their styles and commitments to the environment.

Indosole

Indosole is a fabulous Indonesian company that makes sandals and canvas beach shoes that all look great, and can be worn as part of everyday causal wear.

The materials used include banana leaves, burlaps, canvas, (man-made) vegan suede, and EVA-foam.

Photo courtesy of Indosole.

For those that don’t know much about materials, burlap is a woven fabric from the fibers of the jute plant, combined with other vegetable fibers. Canvas is a heavy-duty woven fabric usually made from cotton, linen (fibers made from the flax plant) or hemp fibers.

Vegan suede is made-made suede, usually made mostly of polyester and without using any animal products. Natural suede is a kind of animal leather.

Photo courtesy of Indosole.

EVA foam, also called ethylene vinyl acetate, has a lot of great qualities including that it’s soft and flexible, as well as really tough, crack resistant, and waterproof.

 All of the soles are made from repurposed motorbike tires. The company exclaims that, “Indosole is on a mission to salvage old motorbike tires and other trash from landfills and give them new life.”

Indosole also boasts that its “products are handmade by skilled Balinese artisans and the production process does not contain fuel-powered machines.” The company adds that it “conducts fair trade practices in its workshops.”

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HandCrafting Justice Wowed At NY Festival With Handmade Handbags From Recycled Materials

Thailand artisan woman. Photo by HandCrafting Justice.

Making people aware of the beauty of traditional artisan craftsmanship from around the world – often women from small, rural communities – HandCrafting Justice showed off at the NYC Green Festival last weekend with a collection of one-of-a-kind handbags made of recycled materials including telephone books, chip bags, and silk.

HandCrafting Justice is a nonprofit project of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd that markets over 1,000 different items through its website, wholesalers, and special events. Items sold include: handbags, clothing, jewelry, accessories, pottery, indigenous art, and toys.

HandCrafting Justice works with over 3,000 women in over 20 countries around the world, working within Fair Trade initiatives to make sure that they work in clean, safe environments and are paid fair living wages.

Featured at the festival were hand-woven handbags from recycled telephone books that were crafted by Filipino artisans from the Alay Kapwa Coop in Manila.

Recycled telephone handbags. Photo courtesy of HandCrafting Justice.

These unique handbags also featured bamboo handles and closed with wood bead latches. The bags were waterproof coated for stiffening and being safe in the rain.

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Vintage Fashions Theme For Opening Runway Show At Vancouver Eco-Fashion Week

Opening this season’s Vancouver Eco Fashion Week  (April 10 – 12) will be a vintage runway show presented by the mega-thrift store Value Village. The store also carries modern designer name brands including Calvin Klein, Banana Republic, Reitmans, and Eddie Bauer.

Value Village’s show was considered the ideal opening event because the store epitomizes many of the core values of the week, which include bringing new life to what already exists, keeping clothing out of landfills as long as possible, as well as supporting local community and global business initiatives.

The thrift store chain purchases its merchandise though “working relationships with 140 nonprofit partners across the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Over the past 10 years, we’ve paid more than $1 billion.” said Value Village.

The chain explains how they acquire their merchandise, saying, “Our nonprofit partners contact people in the community to ask for donations of reusable clothing and household items.

“We then pay our nonprofit partners based on the number of boxes and bags of merchandise they deliver to us. Additionally, we also pay them for donations delivered directly to our stores via our community donation centers. Our staff sorts through the donations to select the highest quality reusable items, then prices, and displays them.”

Besides clothes, Value Village sells merchandise includes: shoes, toys, books, kitchenware, sporting goods, infant products, suitcases, electronics, wicker items, furniture, and collectables.

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Green Sustainable Stocking Stuffer Ideas With A Whimsical Twist For The Christmas Season

Photo courtesy of Green 3.

For festive holiday stocking stuffers that are sure of making an impression, you might try looking at some of the seriously cute collections of hats, scarves, mittens, and handwarmers at Green 3.

Besides making things are cute and unique, Green 3 has turned the philosophy of being green and sustainable into an all-around business practice.

The company creates a variety of clothes and accessories using a combination of organic cotton, recycled cotton, and reclaimed materials. It also takes the extra step of making sure that from concept to the end product, its items are made in the United States – mostly in upstate New York.

This year, Green 3 has come out with a lot of great collections especially for the holiday season. The ‘Candy Cane Scarf’ is one of my favorite items from the company because of its cute and has a longer seasonal wear-life than many of the other holiday items.

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