abbiken

[abbiken]

rough draft 💙🌱 • experimenting with new techniques and refreshed goals big knitting needles fabric scraps • #knittersofinstagram #knitting #knit #knitter #sustainablefashion #sustainableclothing #blueaesthetic #mondayvibes #research #experiment #makedoandmend #reuse #recycledfashion #repurpose #reducereuserecycle #zerowaste #idontbelieveingarbage #imadethis #scandinavian #scandinavianstyle #plantlife #plantsofinstagram #beautifulthings

#knittersofinstagram #knitting #knit #knitter #sustainablefashion #sustainableclothing #blueaesthetic #mondayvibes #research #experiment #makedoandmend #reuse #recycledfashion #repurpose #reducereuserecycle #zerowaste #idontbelieveingarbage #imadethis #scandinavian #scandinavianstyle #plantlife #plantsofinstagram #beautifulthings

[abbiken]

Garbage is a concept perpetuated for convenience. It eases the mind to put “disposable” items in a bin and eliminate the sense of any additional responsibility to what becomes of them. I remember an awakening moment as a kid, passing a FedEx truck on the interstate and thinking, “Why do they drive the mail around? Why don’t they just mail it?” before realizing that a mailbox isn’t some contraption that transports mail using magic. People deliver mail. I had a similar wakeup moment the first time I ever saw a landfill: “Why is there so much litter on the ground, why don’t people pick up that trash and throw it away?” This is away. This is what throwing away is. 

“Garbage” is a name given to objects whose usefulness isn’t immediately apparent. Finding new ways to extend the life of single-use objects requires active thought and problem-solving, and maybe practice, but it is far from impossible. Everything can be repurposed, and a positive side-effect I’ve experienced in my efforts to use everything and throw away nothing is that I’ve been consciously accumulating less, or taking in only things that are worth the trouble to reuse. I feel responsible for everything I invite into my life. (Another side effect is that I resent any kind of superfluous promotional mail or gift I receive with excessive, non-recyclable wrapping paper or confetti. A local business recently sent me a flyer that said “WE WANT YOU BACK!” and they included a cheap plastic boomerang as a cutesie gimmick. The flippant frivolity makes me not want to return to that business. The idea of drilling crude oil made of ancient prehistoric animal and plant matter for the purpose of making cheap toys and disposable packaging is...what???? The complete lack of humility for nature that’s being displayed here is, uh, staggering.)

I’ve been steadily accumulating fabric scraps for almost 10 years, ever since I started making clothes. My collection of scraps predates my new philosophy on garbage by roughly nine years. The reality is, I’ve never been able to discern fabric that has value and fabric that is “trash” based solely on its shape or size. The byproduct scrap of a handmade garment is the same cloth I find worth wearing; why shouldn’t I keep it? A dandelion in the yard we call a weed is a delicious treat to a bunny. I have more scraps than I can possibly use as cleaning rags or for patching holes in jeans, but having it around me in my work space has been both a fun reminder of all the projects I’ve done and a constant reminder that fabric waste is an enormous environmental problem that needs a solution. I am overwhelmed by the volume I’ve amassed in 10 years. And I’m only one person. Keeping it in my life, storing the waste I myself have created, has kept me actively ruminating on a way to use it and repurpose it that doesn’t just put it into the ground. I’ve researched what’s recyclable and compostable (wool composts!). I’ve sought out waste facilities that take fabric and don’t just airdrop it into a different country so they can deal with it (so far, I’ve found none). I’ve read blogs on different craft projects using scraps (pillow stuffing is an okay solution, I’m medium on the pillows I’ve made). I’m not a quilter, I’ve tried. It does not spark joy. Finally I feel like I’m honing in on some things that work and I’m really getting excited. Calmly, slowly, steadily.  

I won’t belittle this endeavor by calling myself a hoarder, even as a joke; I don’t need to justify my keeping these things with phrases like “it comes with the territory” of being a crafter. I simply don’t believe in garbage. 

#art #artist #knitter #knittersofinstagram #knit #environment #environmetalists #environmental justice #garbage #antigarbage #compost #reduce #reuse #recycle #activist #activism #environmentalactivism #fashion #fashionforgood #knittingforgood #reducereuserecycle #solutions #creative solutions #problemsolving #philosophy

[abbiken]

state of becoming

Things fall together. The spider’s web, the bird’s nest, daily reminders of the simple, sustained actions that create delicate, enjoyable compositions. A raw material undergoes a transformation: a process of organization through use. The object we recognize is the result of the process resolved. All the pleasing organic structures of nature are in a living state of contradiction, housing juxtapositions. The simpler the gesture of effort, the more mastery is employed. Things fall together and come apart. To exist is to be suspended on some edge, not yet falling. Perfect imperfections, utility and design. Minimalism: not a nest twig too many. Or is it maximalism, a few delicate passes of spider silk more than necessary to create a stable structure? 

And how do we witness these contrasts? We see them on a macro level, recognizing sticks in the nest, but missing their fall from the branch. We miss the micro motion beneath the surface, the embryo change within the shell. Have you ever seen a robin with a beak full of mud or a homeless spider? The object as a living process is elusive. Things so simple, so common, are easily unnoticed in their state of becoming. And those of us existing as works-in-progress lean into the comforting discomfort by sharing the world with them.

nothing ever is. everything is becoming.

#rainyday #deepthoughts #thoughts #creative #creativeprocess #latenight #latenightdeepthoughts #spiderweb #contemplation