I can learn a lot from Friday night dates with my husband.

For starters, I learned I can convince him to change out of his crumpled work clothes into something chic if I smile real big and hand him a martini when he comes through the door. Once the babysitter arrives and we are ready to roll, we don't just have to walk down to our neighborhood haunts on West Portal, but can actually venture out to new places in the City. Like...the de Young Museum at Golden Gate Park. Yes, on Friday we explored Friday Night at the Museum which a friend had told me about during a morning workout. From 5pm to 8:45, all exhibits are open, including the amazing glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly, which we explored after a glass of wine and observing some very serious tango dancers closing their eyes and strutting across the lobby.

But what is a date without shopping, you ask? Naturally, I had to do my EcoSalon homework (what an excuse) and hit the museum gift shop, where I was blown away. One standout: The baskets woven from telephone wire by Zulu weavers from Aita Design ($300 for the large one). Apparently these fabulous spiral baskets are crafted with methods passed down from generation to generation, including weavers recognized internationally for their work, which is largely done at home. I also learned just because I drool over something and find it fabulous doesn't mean my husband will buy it for me, even if my birthday is just around the corner. Maybe next week I should deliver that martini in baby doll pajamas. What do you think?

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Recently we've spotted a new trend in eco-chic decor. Let's call it Things That Make You Slightly Uneasy. (Like this, for example).

The latest items to raise the hairs on the back of your neck are those of the Witches' Kitchenware range. No doubt about it - the sustainable two-tone Guatemalan wood looks gorgeous, and reaffirms my belief that plastic kitchen utensils are thoroughly last-century. But....it's the prongs, the spikes, the tangs. The dagger. There's also a gorgeous-looking cauldron - sorry, casserole dish, and a set of witch-inspired gloves and aprons.


If you're happy with feeling like your kitchen belongs in the world of a certain boy-wizard (or, more likely, if young children have out-voted you on this matter), keep an eye on Artecnica's site - they seem to be looking for a new distributor at the moment. And when you're equipped, you could even try out a few "authentic" recipes from Kate West's book here.

(Disclaimer: Ecosalon does not take any responsibility for anyone accidentally being turned into a toad. Thank you).

Images: Artecnica

Sara’s shameless plug: Hi, it’s your editor. De-lurk, dear reader, and leave this fabulous writer a comment. (We love chatting.) You can also share this post with friends – just click your favorite social bookmark listed below. New reader? Be sure to sign up for the weekly newsletter to win free eco goodies! You can also subscribe to any RSS feed your heart desires.

While living in Cape Town, South Africa, Be Sweet founder Nadine Storyk Curtis became smitten with the creativity and beauty of the handcrafted goods she found there. Determined to bring these products to a wider audience, and create economic opportunities for these talented women, her colorful and compassionate business was born.

EcoSalon: I read that you were living in South Africa when the idea for Be Sweet was born, why were you living there and what was the evolution of Be Sweet?

Curtis: I married a South African and three weeks after our wedding, 9/11 occurred and we soon decided it was an opportune time to go to Cape Town for a year. We downsized our interactive design company and moved six months later. As soon as I got used to driving on the left side of the road, I became enamored with the innovative craft and design movement that is so prevalent in South Africa as well as the way that soulful men and women are empowering previously disadvantaged people to produce products. I was inspired to be a part of it all and bring wearables to the U.S. marketplace.

Who taught you to knit? Do you still knit? How does your own artistic expression inform Be Sweet?

My mother taught me to knit. She went to RISD for apparel design and has always designed and made clothing and textile products for a living. Absolutely I still knit - more than ever although I am a very basic knitter. Hats and scarves are the extent. My goal for the year is to learn how to crochet. My creative expression drives Be Sweet. I not only choose products that have a positive ethos behind them but that are beautiful and fun and innovative and will inspire others to be creative.


It would seem to me that it would be really difficult to do business in South Africa. What have been some of the challenges?

South Africa has first, second, and third world aspects. I am lucky to have a fabulous network of family and friends that help with some of the challenges of trust and communication. An unfortunate challenge for me in the beginning is when a group would hear my American accent, they would quickly raise the price quote for goods and services.

How has working with these women changed you? What have they taught you? What have been some of the biggest surprises?

My whole life has changed because of Be Sweet. I have learned so much about how difficult life can be and what the basic needs are of people. I am reminded of how important education is to improve the world. The women I work with in South Africa are so creative with materials. They are able to create things out of the most basic recycled objects - like a chip wrapper for filling in our Heart Brooch Pins or left over yarn that goes back into the production cycle to make our Knobby Balls.


The yarn is so beautiful and I was struck by the unique colors. Do you leave it up to the artisans to create the colors? What are the dyes and paints made from? Are they made from supplies indigenous to the region?

Yes, for the most part the artisans come up with our color palette. Sometimes I request a specific color or Magic Ball color combination.

For all of our yarns, we use the highest quality low-impact dyes that are imported from Germany.




In a way, you have created a global knitting circle with these women. How do you communicate this global approach in your everyday life?

I love that Be Sweet is an international company. We are supporting artisans in South Africa and inspiring creative people to be a part of the story around the globe. We just started exporting our yarn line to a store in Sweden and Austria.

Be Sweet is a dream project of yours and I am curious how you work to help these women reach their goals and their dreams?

Every year I visit South Africa and visit each of the groups that I work with. I have done a series of interviews to find out what their dreams and goals are. With the increase in sales we are creating more and more income that is directly helping our artisans better their lives. And we donate 3% of our proceeds back to a local school in the rural region where our mohair is produced to help fund educational programs that helps uplift the community.

Be Sweet donates 3% of proceeds to The Shaw School which has provided computers, paint and a new floor to the classroom. How is the school doing now and what are the latest improvements?

The school has four new computer systems and a new copy machine. Recently, we were able to provide keyboards for helping the younger children learn how to type before they are on the computers. We have also been able to fund and facilitate the final classroom improvements including security bars on all of the doors and windows to prevent theft of supplies. Our goal for the end of this year is to start a lunch program for each student.

Is there anything we can do locally to help provide for this community or others like it in South Africa?

Be Sweet has a Shaw Park page on our website - Be Sweet Products - where we accept donations for the school.  All is much appreciated and goes directly to the principal of the school to pay for programs we have assigned.

Lastly, what are some of your eco-friendly habits or anything that you are doing in your community to spread the eco-love? And do you have any guilty eco-oopses that you can't live without?

Well, my family and I are landscaping our yard and we have opted to plant low water usage plants like thick grasses and succulents to limit the amount of water we have to use. I'm a big water drinker and so we just installed a water filter on the kitchen tap to cut down on plastic bottle usage. I'm afraid to say that I'm terribly guilty of forgetting my to-go cup at the coffee shop. I look forward to that morning ritual of a stopping for a cup of joe.

Thank you for stopping by, Nadine!


Note: Be Sweet has been accepted into the Fair Trade Federation.

Images: Be Sweet

Is there such a thing as copying nature a little too closely?

You're looking at the remarkable work of Julie Roberts, a designer from the UK. She's hand-fashioned these lampshades from recycled paper and natural textiles, in varying colours and to order. And her inspiration?

Yes, well, there's the rub. Good decor is all about stimulating the imagination, and...this lampshade certainly does that. It screams "recently vacated cocoon", and brings to mind a host of creatures from spiders to Aliens. (Perhaps that's just a guy's perspective). There's no denying its unique beauty, but neither its slightly creepy air - Ecofriend were similarly bemused.

If you want to go for a cocoon-style eco lampshade that won't have you checking under the furniture with your shoe in your hand, try this square lamp from Kwytza Kraft. It's made from recycled chopsticks, in a range that seems inspired by moth cocoons.

Textile & Paper lampshades via ProductDose; image from Pure Design.

Read through all our articles for the week? At a loose end? Curl up with a few of these...
The home of Good Housekeeping over in Harlem, NY, has had an eco-friendly makeover. LEED-certified, the new building opens July 30th and is running tours of the premises shortly after. (Ecorazzi gave us the heads-up).
CFLs: great while they're working, not so much afterwards. That mercury is a problem for consumers and recyclers alike - so let's applaud Home Depot, since as Grist reports, the biggest DIY store in the States now collects CFLs for safe recycling.
Amanda Melodini's article here (great title) tells of the latest innovation in air filtration: it's called a plant. (In fact, the breakthrough is all about aerating the leaves and roots so the plant can filter as much air as possible).
Curling up with a good e-book? However eco-friendly, it's a hard sell - but Sony is amongst the companies trying hard to change our minds. Gabrielle at Daily Tomorrow got hold of the Sony PRS-505 E-book Reader. Have a read of her very thorough review - is it worth the $300 price-tag?
Is this the ultimate faucet? It's touch-free, and when the water comes out, it powers a turbine that generates electricity for the touch-free sensor!
With some people, it's shoes. But the latest chic-to-collect is the tote bag. If you're one of them (and you're not alone by any means), don't miss the Savior bags - decorated with a quote that you may recognize.
Here at Ecosalon we like to keep up with the latest in stylish and practical technology. May we introduce the Solar-Powered Bra. (And also point out that those two sentences have nothing to do with each other. Thank you). As usual, it's Environmental Graffitti keeping us abreast of things.
Being fans of Nigel's Eco Store, we were delighted to see the man himself has given an interview with Adam over at Life Goggles. (You even get to see him juggling flying saucers).
EcoStreet has 10 suggestions for looking swish as you cycle. Unsurprisingly and entirely correctly, "Not Wearing Tasteless Lycra Outfits" is right at the top. Wild applause.
Old wax crayons kicking around, edging nearer the trash? Grab them, read Hippyshopper's article, and get sculpting.

Happy reading!

Image: gripspix

A summery weekend ahead - and there's no real excuse to be indoors during the day (no arguments, please). But if you find yourself online just now, here are a few links worth a read:

Whip Up are keen for us to reap the benefits of the homemade and the handcrafted: be sure to make some time for them.
Shown above: sea kelp is everywhere! Mostly in the sea, of course, but here on land we keep bumping into great sea kelp products (for example, in our first linky feature) - and now there's this Natural Hair Wash with Sea Kelp and Organic Kelp Shampoo Bar over at Pretty By Nature. It looks like chocolate. Can you eat the stuff as well? (Aha!).
Tracey "Tao" Oliveto has been looking at alternatives to plastic shower curtains (and finding that even antibacterial hemp needs a through-breeze to stay pristine.
Over at Grist, Katharine Wroth is getting in a lather over green dish soaps. Me, I like being up to my elbows in Ecover.
Shown above: Solar-powered gadgets over at Re-Nest: love the oven, not so convinced by the lighter (what's wrong with these?).
Recyclable plates that survive the microwave and the freezer....and they're made from fallen leaves and water? Yes, really. (Thanks, Triplepundit).
It's true - you can make notebooks out of anything - and as this article shows (found via Hippyshopper), that even includes tea tins.
Shown above: how much do we love recycled shipping containers? Answer: lots. Therefore we're floored (and walled and ceilinged) by the sheer genius of the illy Quick House, reported on by The Style Files.

We like the recycling suggestion by Tracey Stokes at eco street - turning washing machines into furniture! (Using up discarded items other people don't look twice at - that's classy).

Vanessa at GreenAsAThistle has just finished her 365-day lifestyle makeover. Wander back through her archives (here's day 1) and see how she found the experience.

Enjoy the sunshine!

Is the week over already? How did that happen? And there are so many other things we wanted to tell you about, such as:

It's Father's Day this Sunday (bought a present yet? How about this or these?).  So you haven't got long to enter Greenupgrader's competition in which you can win a host of Dad-oriented prizes.

Read how building consultants design the perfect green home, over at National Geographic's Green Guide...

...and read the story of architect Winy Maas, who wants to beautify cities by making "vertical suburbias" and manure-powered skyscrapers (no, I'm not making it up). Darcy Frey reports the story for the New York Times.

Don't forget to water the curtains. Air-plants are back in fashion, and this time they're decor. Apartment Therapy can tell you more.

As Vanessa wrote recently, oysters are a marine eco-farmer's dream. Yet as Envirovore reports, oyster-farming in Chesapeake Bay is proving a struggle, despite an investment of $58 million. (It turns out that what oysters need most is clean water, not artificial reefs - polluters take note).

Hit refresh: what we need is to follow some relaxation, thought-clearing and "unbaking" techniques, such as those suggested by Jonathan Fields here. ("Unbaking" is my new favourite word).

 Windfarms have a tendency to rile the local communities under them. Over at Living On Earth, T. Boone Pickens defends his latest project, the biggest windfarm in the world. (Real Audio or mp3 format). Our thanks to Treehugger for blowing this one our way.

Shipping containers have already been adapted into offices, shops and hotels, as we reported back in January. Now, Brio 54 have released the first prefabricated container houses (and very nice they look too). Read the full story over at Ecoble.

Amendment: Brio 54 have let us know that their prefab eco-homes are not in fact created from shipping containers, being instead the tailor-made solution outlined here at prefabcosm. Thanks!

If you're feeling crafty - as in creative, not sneaky - pop over to Whipup and get pleasantly lost amongst the posts until you see something that you absolutely have to try out yourself. (This probably won't take long).

But it's the weekend, and maybe crafting seems a poor alternative to a bit of self-pampering - in which case, Pretty By Nature have plenty of eco-friendly, artisanal suggestions for you. (It's Noel Drake Boehm behind the scenes - thanks, Noel!).

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Image: kofoed

Color's a powerful thing. Our moods are tied in with the colors of the seasons - and that's why I'm a fan of seasonal redecorating (as Tina is, here). Does the hue of your room suddenly feel out of place? A lick of paint is the quickest of makeovers.

Except there's an even quicker method - spray-painting. Now, you may remember a few issues around the word "aerosol" - namely, the volatile organic compounds that are equally good at coating walls and the inside of lungs. Happily, the industry has innovated itself out of a corner, and much lower-toxicity paint (not zero, not yet) is available in the form of the Krylon 21-colour range of latex sprays. Get some on the carpet by accident? Soap and water is all you need.

If your trigger finger is itching to begin, here are a few suggestions:

Start looking at second-hand furniture not for what it looks like - but what it could look like. It's a whole new spectrum of recycling.

Remember: the color wheel is your friend. You can download a variety of them in different shades from TigerColor here.

Get some nice wide Sellotape (it's compostable - which is why the WWF happily sells it). Use the tape to create those arresting borders between colours, and protect the furniture. And don't forget to put papers down - spray paint drifts in the air!

Keep that mask on! Eco-friendly sprays are more eco-friendly, not totally so. Ventilate the room as best you can, creating through-draughts between back and front door. Play it super safe.

Read twice, spray once. Look at the work of others, such as this resprayed lantern over at Dose of Design. Hunt down a book or two (say, this one). Don't spray a drop of paint until you know exactly what you're making. Imagining is half the fun, like a kind of window-shopping - so have fun.

Sara’s shameless plug: Hi, it’s your editor. De-lurk, dear reader, and leave this fabulous writer a comment. (We love chatting.) You can also share this post with friends – just click your favorite social bookmark listed below. New reader? Be sure to sign up for the weekly newsletter to win free eco goodies! You can also subscribe to any RSS feed your heart desires.

Image: sarae

It’s the name that grabbed me first. Hobknob just sounds so…catchy. But these precious ceramic cup-like containers made by Amy Adams stole my heart with their whimsical and eco-friendly attitude.

Use them to hold almost anything - or set them on a side-table to look cute and nothing more. I also think they’d make the perfect anytime eco-gift.

Hobknobs are handmade by Perch!, a Brooklyn manufacturer that uses only low impact materials and processes, as well as non-toxic finishes. Specifically, these charming pieces of pottery are made of low-fire ceramic and non-toxic glaze.

Measuring 4.5” tall by 2.5” in diameter and available in three colors - brown, turquoise and yellow - you can buy them at Branch for $32 each. There’s also a slightly sassier version in turquoise/black or brown/turquoise for $34 at Velocity.

This uniquely beautiful necklace made of ostrich shells and silver discs by Paula White is now half off. Still a hefty price tag, but if you’re looking for an original piece that supports traditional craft-making techniques and natural materials, now’s the time to buy this sparkler.

Paula has lived in Namibia, where she worked with the local population to develop a community-friendly business. She uses a range of materials, from precious and semi-precious gemstones to wood, shells, and ancient trade beads from West Africa. Paula is influenced by African and Middle Eastern stories, traditional symbols and the folklore of ancient stones. She also draws inspiration from the natural environment. (Originally $650. On sale for $295.)