More Bamboo Bad News!

Following the previous post about bamboo, I've been alerted to another website that has information on the processing of bamboo into fibre and ultimately into fabric:
http://green.wikia.com/wiki/Bamboo:_An_Eco-Friendly_Fabric%3F

Don't be confused by the advert for Honda at the top of the article!  It's well worth a read and gives an really good insight into the "horrors" of bamboo that I had hope wouldn't come true, but sadly has.

Anglesey Inspirations 2

The colours I saw in Anglesey have inspired me so much that I've prepared some colour selections.  I hope you find them as inspirational as me!

This first one takes the colours from the heathland at South Stacks on Holy Island.  The low growing heather and gorse were like a beautiful carpet of fresh greens, yellow and pinks.

"Colours of the Earth" takes it's inspiration from Parys Mountain, the copper mine near Amlwch on the north of Anglesey.

These earthy mineral colours reflect the range of ore that has been mined here for thousands of years and present a very warm palette.

Finally, our last morning on the beach at Aberffraw was the inspiration for this colour selection.

The contrast of the warm sand colours and the cool blues give a very fresh palette.

Anglesey Inspirations

We've just got back from a couple of days away.  We went to Anglesey where we visited South Stacks on Holy Island, Parys Mountain, which at one time was the larges copper mine in the world, and Aberffraw.

Although it was quite dull on the first day, the colours were really inspirational.  At South Stacks the heathland colours were lovely pink purples, yellows and greens of the heather and gorse, while at Parys Mountain the colours were of mineral blues, ochres, browns and pinks.

Today the sun shone and we were treated to the beautiful blues from the sea and the sky and soft sand colours from the beach.

The three images I've selected give you a flavour of the rich colours and textures we saw!

Just How Eco Friendly is Bamboo?

Just how eco friendly is bamboo, well there is a really good article on Ecouterre which explains the viscosing process of bamboo in nice simple terms.  Check it out!

Ever since Jane and I wrote Creative Spinning, we realised that most of these new "eco friendly" fibres, really are not friendly to the environment at all.  I've even turned down the chance of a commission to design bamboo fabric for a mail order company who were specialising in bamboo products, I felt so strongly about it!

The claim by the manufacturers that bamboo is the only anti bacterial fibre is really not true, wool also has these properties and for area's that have sheep it is the only sustainable fibre.  Here in the UK wool now has a champion in Prince Charles.  I'm not a monarchist, but I do applaude his sentiments  and if it takes his forthright views to get people to sit up and take note then I'm with him 100%!

Yarn Maker

I'm very please to have been asked to write a series of articles by Dot Lumb, of "Dots Fibre to Fabric" Blog, for her new Magazine, Yarnmaker.

This is a huge venture for Dot, but one that should be really exciting.  I know Dot has been working very hard on this for over 6 months, now, and I hope that you will all support her by buying the magazine, which is about to be launched.  It's about time we had a UK based magazine for spinners, as good as Spin Off is, it's quite frustrating for every one in this country and Europe when we want to buy any of the fibres or fleece mentioned in articles only to find they are from the States.

You can download an order form from the Yarnmaker website for a single copy or a subscription and read all about the first issue on Dot's blog.