Whilst enjoying the muggy weather and taking a break from the watery world of the last few months explorations, Mike won an opportunity to sew with the sunny and delightful businessman Patrick Grant (see his superb TEDx presentation here). A very nice guy, one of the judges from the Great British Sewing Bee. Who wouldn’t want to spend and inspiring afternoon chatting to him, over some recycled rehashed garment and hearing all his initiatives like community clothing.
Mike had been seriously inspired by Patrick’s TV promotion in “Sewing Bee” about recycling and with our Anthropocene plastic sea pieces, to explore how to recycle non-organic fibre clothes which seemed a natural follow on.
Thinking about all the trend of using horrible plastic reusable coffee mugs got Mike’s creative juices going. Although the travelling reusable mug may come to fruition at some point down the road, mugs generally seemed like a great Earthwaves project to broaden our horizons.
Ceramic mugs are very durable and as reconstituted rock are a more natural thing to dispose of on land when they eventually need to be thrown and can make great hard core for building. But unless hollow – yes, you can get these from factory production – although they do break easily it seems, mugs are too hot to handle without a handle. Enter recycled non-organic fabrics into the creative crucible and jackets for mugs without handles have emerged. Add to this the Earthwaves ethic and ideas and some wrap around mugs have been born. We love these creative pieces and can see a future…..watch this space for your own jacketed Earthwave mug. Meanwhile Mike and Lance plan to get out in nature with the help of silicon rubber to take the project further.