Sustainability

My Packaging

When shipping my orders, I try to avoid plastic as much as possible. I use a combination of newsprint and paper bubble wrap to wrap products and use either cardboard boxes or recyclable padded envelopes to deliver them to you.  The packing paper I use to pad out the inside of delivery boxes are collected and re-used from deliveries I’ve received myself.

In terms of product-specific packaging, the backing cards for my pasta magnets & pin badges, and knob handles & coasters are printed on a recycled, uncoated paper stock. Likewise, the clear ‘cellophane’ bags I use to protect my prints and pasta magnet sets are made from a clear, plant-based biodegradable material and not plastic. The kraft retail boxes I use for packing my coasters are made from cardboard and while the foam inserts contain plastic, they can be removed and reused for your own purposes.

I encourage you to reuse any of my packaging materials for your own purposes or recycle them appropriately.

My Products

It is important to me whilst bringing new objects into the world to make conscious decisions in terms of sustainability and environmental impact at all stages of making work. This is a work in progress, and I am always on the look out for practical ways to improve this.

I currently have the following in place:

Materials

I try to source the materials and tools I use to make work as locally as possible.

The clay I use for making my ceramic fridge magnets, pin badges and decorations is produced in the UK.

I use Jesmonite to cast my products because it is considered an eco-friendly alternative to resin. Find more information about Jemsonite here

I source reusable or compostable materials for the studio where available, for example compostable gloves for when I’m casting, reusable sanding pads, reusable mixing sticks and collect used plastic tubs and pots to use

My coasters, furniture knobs and placemats are designed to last and are reinforced with fibre glass strands to strengthen them. Accidents happen though so if you do have an unfortunate incident and your coaster or placemat gets chipped, cracked or damaged, don’t bin them! Get in touch with me to discuss my repair and refresh services to either restore your pieces to their former glory or embrace the art of repair with my visible mending options similar to Kintsugi.

Please contact me should you ever require my refresh services.

For my prints, I used recycled papers and have them printed in the UK.

Waste

There is minimal material waste in my making process

When making my ceramic fridge magnets, pin badges and decorations, any leftover pieces of clay, or anything broken or tested before firing can be reclaimed and used again by soaking and processing the clay by hand. Once clay is fired, it is a long-lasting material and I hope that the works I make will be treasured for generations to come.

I have seconds for sale, or use them in the studio so that these go to homes or are put to use, rather than being thrown away. 

When casting my Jesmonite works (coasters, placemats & knob handles) I have a system in place where I pour any leftover jesmonite mix into spare moulds to make separate one-off, mixed colour pieces. I also collect leftover cured jesmonite from mixing pots, mixing sticks (and any spillages on my casting table) to make shards and crumbs for making my terrazzo style finishes.

Energy

Currently I have no control over the energy I use in my studio, being based in a large, shared creative office building. However, my electricity use is fairly minimal all things considered. I am blessed with a space which has a lot of natural light, so lights are only required at winter time in the late afternoon/early evening. I don’t tend to work past 5/6pm generally. I do use electricity for charging my phone/laptop and when using some power tools such as my sander, however many of my power tools are powered by recharge-able batteries. I do use a kiln for firing my ceramic works which is an Eco kiln, which has energy saving insulation to ensure that the maximum temperature is reached with low electrical connected loads.