EcoSalon’s favorite fashion designers, jewelry makers and artisans on the nature of creativity. 

“Beauty will save the world,” remarked Dostoevsky in the 19^th century. If ever there was a time to believe in the possibility of that statement, it is now. When our public discourse is reduced to ideological political posturing, the impact of beauty and creativity in our everyday lives offers both a vital opportunity for connection and a prospect for cultural renewal.

Over the years at EcoSalon, we’ve delighted in sharing the stories of the fashion designers, jewelry makers and artisans who are dedicated to creating true objects of beauty while choosing ethically responsible methods and practices that upend the customary business models in fashion, jewelry and art. Why do they do it? We asked them the question, “What compels you to create?” Here’s what they had to say:

Xing-Zhen Chung-Hilyard and Melissa Kirgan, Eko-Lab

“Creativity is a deep unconscious force. A process that reveals the unseen see-able and dreams reality. There’s a peace that comes from designing that in some small way we’re making the every-day more beautiful.”

Joy Opfer, Kyler by Joy O

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of  Eat, Pray, Love, has said that she believes there are currents of creativity and ideas circulating around the planet, looking for people to bring them into physical form. This idea is a lovely way of explaining the process of creativity – I often feel that I do not so much create, as synthesize ideas. When we work hard to be there, to be open and prepared for the muse when she arrives, to welcome her through sweat and tears, ready to manifest the boldest visions, a blend of the hive and our own minds – this is a gift.

Fashion is one of the biggest industries on the planet. To act as though it is frivolous is, at this point, a waste of time. Each person, through their choices can inspire change and awareness – and creating one more choice that supports handcrafted and carefully made goods is one that I am proud to be a part of.

Meghan Sebold, Afia

Life can be nauseatingly tragic with many things feeling out of our control. People can be corrupt, dishonest and disloyal – and often times it seems that those people win out. I see only two ways of dealing with the dark side of life: you can respond to corruption with conniving strategies, dishonesty with lies, attacks with counter attacks – or you can reject it and a attempt to create light and beauty in dark situations.

I’m certainly no hero to the women who produce my line – most of them are suspicious of my intentions. They think I’m there to use them for cheap labor – why else would I cross the world to be there? We stand in a room together across a table, having difficult conversations. Trying to trust each other. Trying to create a product together.

Shannon South, reMade USA

So many of us have the innate desire to create. It is what makes us human and what keeps our species going. It’s what fuels innovation. Those of us who are informed and concerned try to do so in the most thoughtful and sustainable way – a path that is not easiest or the most profitable, yet one that gives meaning and integrity to our vision.

Sasha Duerr, Permacouture Institute

I am a plant dyer because it immediately connects me to time and place, to my environment, to my community, and to indescribable depths of beauty. Plant color can ONLY be created – like an amazing meal you toast  to and savor with friends, or an heirloom peach that came to ripen in the sweetness of a perfect growing season – in that time with those conditions. It is a depth of experience that is often not repeatable – and therefore difficult to commodify.

I am consciously grateful to have chosen to make it my work – beyond promise of financial gain or security. This is why I started Permacouture – experimentation and knowledge needs to be shared if it is ever to be sustainable or regenerative to last beyond our own generation. This love for the wonder of the bigger picture has fueled my passion as both an artist and advocate for slower ways of being and creating. I am always awed by how much there is to learn.

Davora Lindner, Prairie Underground

The idea that “Creativity is it’s own reward” seems like such a universal truism. As designers and manufacturers our role isn’t entirely creative but we feel fortunate to work in an industry that demands this engagement. It has introduced us to the writers at EcoSalon and to like-minded women all over the world. That level of aesthetic communication is startling – it’s this connection that is the inspiration behind Prairie and remains the central theme of our work.

The photo (above) is from when Prairie Underground was still based in our homes.  We had received a large volume of orders for the Hard Times Dress that featured a hand painted print.  I needed to figure out a way to execute this in my studio apartment.  The solution was to paint the textile and feed it out my window to dry, then repeat.  Our passion to create is something that end users don’t often see.  The memories of this time are some of the fondest in my life.

Elizabeth Bruner, Piece x Piece

When you  start to seek out original and handcrafted crafted clothing, it feels like an important revelation. Handcrafted means respecting the time it takes to actually create something. There is meaning in the fact that someone has thought and carried out all the little steps it takes to make a truly unique item.

It’s never been about money for me. I know I’m not going to be a rich woman working with scrap fabrics but what compelled me to start Piece x Piece was the fact that I simply could not ignore what in my heart I knew I could change, if even on the smallest scale.

Alice Wu + Moriah Carlson, Feral Childe, 

When we started Feral Childe, we were young artists trying to make it in the New York art world, trying to fill the emptiness in our own closets, and striving to provide an antidote to fashion’s obsessions with brands, logos and over-consumption. We felt a responsibility to make things that were thoughtfully made, using available materials such as off-cuts and fabric remnants so gnarly and unloved in their raw state, but full of potential beauty in our hands. We believe in the power of the handcrafted to affect one profoundly. When something we have made touches an individual in a way that makes them think differently about the world we live in, we are inspired to continue our work.

Maria Moyer

It’s submission to the process. From inspiration to execution, I have to get out of the way and let my hands and my understanding of material attempt to catch up to some idea of what is possible. The result is always a surprise and that is a delight, sometimes a disappointment and always there’s something to learn. The whole thing is a miraculous privilege.

Kirsten Muenster, Kirsten Muenster Jewelry

I’ve always felt a need to create with my hands. My father helped me make my first ring in our basement when I was a kid. The feeling I had then (and still get today) from translating an abstract or conceptual idea into a tangible object with my hands is indescribably addictive.

Nature, unusual materials, ancient artifacts and crafting techniques inspire my work and process. Creating handcrafted objects is vital because they have the power to tell a story, carry on a tradition and remind us of the connection between every set of hands involved in the process or supply chain. I hope to influence others with my work to keep the cycle going. That’s why it is so important for me to know where my materials come from and whose lives they impact. We’re all connected.

Howard Brown, Stewart+Brown

At Stewart+Brown, the reason we do what we do is because we MUST have a sense of both passion and purpose in our work. And we must have beauty in our lives and not at the expense of the environment or supply chain stakeholders. We could not find that collision of ideals in the corporate world even when working at great companies, so we created it ourselves with our own company. It has been the greatest adventure of our lives. In a world of mass production and consumption there still needs to be value, integrity, humanity, and yes, great design without compromise. That is the goal we work towards every day.

Gretchen Jones, Gretchen Jones NYC

I believe it is our responsibility (the creative’s of the world) to be an instrument for the greater whole. We were given a gift, but in that gift is responsibility. Responsibility to be a communicator for humanity and the world, as we know it. We transmit cultural movements and the direction life is taking. Without us, we are collectively nothing.

Art in itself is about translating what cannot be translated in words. I take responsibility for that job. My “job” is to learn how to use my gift to better our lives. To open us ALL up to new ways of thinking and enable us all to live more enriched existences. I may need money to survive, but making money from my work is there by default. The passion to create is about the greater whole, not the ego or bank account… and that, is what the life of an artist is all about.

The post Beauty Will Save the World: Sustainability’s Top Makers on What Compels Them to Create appeared first on EcoSalon.

The Plankton Series by Maria Moyer – a collection of matte white ocean-inspired porcelain vessels benefiting Oceana – are introduced at West Elm.

NYC-based artist Maria Moyer is obsessed with plankton. Combine that with a deeply rooted love of white, organic shapes and the ocean and you have all the ingredients for her recently launched collection for West Elm. The Plankton Series is a collection of matte white porcelain vessels and highlights the intricate structures of the foundation of the Earth’s food chain, and 5% of the purchase price goes toward helping non-profit Oceana protect the world’s oceans.

Artist Maria Moyer at the launch party for her collaboration with West Elm and Oceana

In-store display of the Plankton Series at West Elm in West Hollywood

West Elm threw a pre-Earth Day party at their West Hollywood outpost on Thursday in celebration of the collaboration and I got to chat with some of the people involved in making it all happen.

I always wonder how these collaborations come about, so I asked Maria Moyer how it all started: “Most of my work is in one-of-a-kind sculptural pieces that I build one at a time. I started a body of work over a year ago that was ocean inspired. It included several references in texture and form to plankton – a lifetime love. Around the same time, West Elm asked me design a collection for them. While I don’t usually make things that are functional, I saw the opportunity as a great learning experience in a new role as a designer and I was moved by the idea that the West Elm audience could reach a significantly larger population than my one-piece-at-a-time creative process.”

The scene at West Elm in West Hollywood

“We look for artists we like and respect, who are creating interesting designs that we think our customers will respond to,” said Abigail Jacobs, Vice President, Public Relations & Brand Marketing at West Elm. “Collaborations add to the diversity of our product mix and make our product offering richer. They allow us to bring in new and unique points of view, and experts in techniques that we might not be able to produce with our in-house design team. Nature, and the sea, is such a meaningful and constant place of inspiration for us, and yet we’d never seen a collection inspired by plankton,” says Jacobs. “Maria’s work is first of all stunning, but the collaboration also gave us the opportunity to educate our customer through the story of her process and inspiration. The partnership with Oceana made that connection even more real.”

Moyer with her cousin

“The great part about partnering with Maria and West Elm,” says Jessica Champness, Manager, Major Gifts at Oceana, “is that the inspiration – plankton – are such a fundamental component of healthy oceans and are inherently connected to Oceana’s overarching campaigns, which include mitigating impacts from climate change, promoting responsible fishing and protecting habitat. West Elm has a compelling and authentic design story to showcase and, in doing so, they not only raise funds but help promote Oceana’s work to a new group of potential activists and donors who can start creating conversations about important ocean conservation issues within their own unique communities and encourage people to get involved with Oceana. Any new supporters gained from these efforts translate into a stronger base of support for Oceana to engage in grassroots advocacy, recruit volunteers and raise critical funds,” says Champness.

The visual inspiration is apparent – the amazingly intricate structure of plankton

“I’m grateful to West Elm for giving me what I have been calling a Plankton Pulpit, as I hope to spread the news about the little guys,” says Moyer. “If it doesn’t grab you that these microscopic plants and animals give us half the world’s oxygen (which, by some accounts, is more than our forests), you might also like to know they feed most of Earth’s creatures: from shrimp to whales and the 3 billion humans who depend on fish and seafood. Add to that, the startling and exquisite beauty of plankton – from diatoms to algae to microscopic animals. I’ve found a universe of aesthetic rapture that I want people to know about.”

It’s a beautiful, synergistic collaboration that lures you in with pure aesthetics but forces you to look deeper at the inspiration behind it. Plankton are the trees of the ocean and without them we would not be where we are today. Every time I place a candle in one of my gorgeous new tealights, I will thank them for all the great work they do while I watch the small rays of light dance across the table.

Photos courtesy of Maria Moyer and West Elm

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Maria Moyer goes from being a brand strategist to artist while still following a sustainable map.

What happens when you pick a road and stick to it? You get good at one thing and are ready for another. So goes the life highway of Wink Communication founder Maria Moyer. We’ve been big fans of Moyer for some time having discovered her work through an inspiring New York Times article on the Bureau of Friends back in 2009.

Successfully weaving sustainability and social issues into her work as a brand strategist at Wink, Moyer is now ready to examine the life aquatic with an art exhibit titled Blue, dedicated to the complexities of ocean based on her bi-coastal life in California and New York. The collection will be open to the public September 8th, at ROGAN in New York City and her pieces can be seen indefinitely  at BDDW.

“The collection is really a moment of reflection for me,” says Moyer, who has always lived by the ocean, having grown up in Southern California.

She says on her site that her childhood permitted frequent access to ocean landscapes and creatures, citing even at age 11, “while other kids played with dolls and Lego sets,” Moyer had an opportunity—under the watchful eye of a professor—to dissect a beached 18-foot squid. Years later, while her friends bought Eurail passes for trips abroad, she ventured farther into the Pacific, backpacking through remote areas of the Hawaiian Islands.

Susan Casey, O Magazine Editor-in-Chief and bestselling author of The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean and The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks, says Moyer’s work is a “gorgeous blend of sensitivity and sensibility; she never fails to spot the beauty of the natural world—even if it’s hidden 20,000 leagues beneath the sea. But it’s one thing to identify the sublime essence of, say, zooplankton or roses, and another thing to translate it into exquisite forms. For Maria, the former invariably leads to the latter.  There is no better word I can think of to describe her unique mix of whimsy, sophistication, and science than: delightful.”

While you can currently see some of Moyer’s art at BDDW in New York City, on September 7th, Bowery based fashion label ROGAN will host an invite only “cultural cross-roads of surf, fashion, arts and music in NYC creating a movement inspired by city and ocean.” ROGAN has invited friends to collaborate and create one-of-a-kind pieces and limited edition capsule collections for ROGAN VS. LOOMSTATE-SRF CTY, to be sold exclusively at the ROGAN store. The Blue collection will open to the public on September 8th, with 10% of all sales benefiting Waves for Water.

Julie Gilhart (with Anna Wintour) wearing Moyer’s Circle and Swirl necklace.

We were lucky to catch up with Moyer this week to ask a few questions about her collection and the inspiration behind it.

Here’s what she had to say.

One part of your life deals with helping others to set communication strategy and to develop clear messages (Wink Communication), the other asks you to create and tell the world who YOU are and what’s important to you through your art. Is this a challenge for you, or do they compliment each other?

I’m so glad you asked this question. It’s a good one. The answer: Both. Trying to do both is both a challenge AND these roles compliment each other. I want to be good at both. Making porcelain objects or creating things from wood is a great joy. It’s also intellectually and physically challenging. At the same time, it is somewhat solitary and a little self-absorbing as I persist in getting an idea across, or in my attempt to get a specific result from the material. On the other hand, my consulting practice is highly collaborative and in service to a person or an organization, many of whom are in pursuit of a greater good themselves. My work with Yves Behar, for example. Both compliment each other as they are the social and solitary parts of me. The challenge is time management. Isn’t it always?

“Untitled,” Unglazed stoneware frames (this piece contains 12 frames), sand, feathers, a eucalyptus leaf, a skate egg case, seaweed, and surf wax remnants.

Your Southern California childhood had a direct effect on your appreciation for ocean. Of all aspects of life lived by the ocean, why go for promoting “the tiny plants and animals at the foundation of the Earth’s food chain?”

Have you seen photos of plankton under a microscope? They are gorgeous. I will have a life-time of inspiration from them alone. Many of them come with a silica-based armor (not unlike porcelain) that protects them from predators – a most complex and miraculous architecture. If their beauty doesn’t get your attention, the facts might: Phytoplankton, including algae, sink more carbon than our Earth’s forests and they are also, as you said, a huge part of the world’s food chain. Beauty and power.
To know them is to LOVE them.

Temporary Bliss Bird Vessel (and necklace). Stoneware, unglazed porcelain and (azo, chromium and lead-free) leather cord. Available at BDDW in NYC.

What’s your favorite piece and why?

More than the resulting object itself, the process of making them is what makes something a favorite. It’s tough to choose between them. I’m very excited about a recent group that I call ‘vacuoles.’ They are in the “Blue” collection that I just (today) finished installing at Rogan in NYC. I also love and might not be able to part with an untitled wall installation at Rogan; it’s a bi-coastal archive of beach ephemera; a personal, natural-history journal. A lot of wonderful people in my life were involved in making this work. I had to get friends from all over to contribute sand from ‘my’ beaches. And I love a piece at BDDW that is a bird vessel.

Temporary Bliss Bird Vessel. Stoneware, unglazed porcelain and (azo, chromium and lead-free) leather cord. Available at BDDW in NYC.

Here’s a preview of more art from Blue at ROGAN as well as what you can find at BDDW.

Diatom. Unglazed porcelain. Approximately 6″ diameter.

Porcelain Breast Plate, (azo, chromium and lead free) leather cord.

Box of Hours. Stoneware and porcelain.

Blue Tab Necklace for ROGAN. Porcelain dipped in blue wash, (azo, chromium and lead free) leather cord. Various size and shapes.

Top image by Leslie Williamson

The post Maria Moyer Dives Deep Into the Blue and Surfaces With an Exhibit appeared first on EcoSalon.

Maria Moyer and Julie Gilhart

Just when you think you’ve met the most amazing woman, three more walk through the door. In this case, I’m talking about a whole Bureau of Friends consisting of some of the smartest women in the sustainable world.

When I say “sustainable,” I mean it in the fullest sense of the word – for all these women are participating in something balanced, whether coaching people on how to love and sell their work or personally creating something of significance in a studio. From all there’s an awareness and a promoting of  the fine balance of living and meaning.

Maria Moyer (Founder of Wink Communication), Julie Gilhart (Barney’s Fashion Director), Natalie Chanin (Designer, Founder of Alabama Chanin), and Cathy Bailey (Co-owner of HEATH Ceramics) make up the core of the Bureau whose main mission is to create dialogue, and in so doing, help people understand objects of quality and experiences in their lives that ring true.

One of the ways they’ve done this is through their “Making and Meaning” workshops, where the group invites interesting people to talk about their current projects and ideas which, over making a craft, organically becomes something more than just networking with really cool people.

A modern day sewing circle? Maybe, but this series is evolving into something more substantial, like how we communicate with each other.

Natalie Chanin

Moyer sums up the group:

“We’re a talent agency for good works-a speakers’ bureau and consultancy; Conveners of designers, makers and thinkers.  In our media-drenched, social-networking-maxed lives, the four of us have combined our talents to engage people in meaningful ways that might lead to action-or at the very least, connect us to each other in more deeply than the alternatives.”

Husband and wife team, Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey, owners of Heath Ceramics

Recently formed, the Bureau has no defined expectations of what their future holds as a group, but based on their energy and passion, it can’t help but inspire, whatever the direction.

I recently caught up with Moyer, Chanin and Bailey, who were kind enough to answer a few questions.

Did you start working together because you felt compelled to? That something really important could happen if you did?

Natalie: Perhaps because I am rurally located, I felt that working together with this group would give me a feeling of belonging and inspire new growth, new ideas and a way to grow my work in a fresh (and sustainable) way. Once we had our first “meeting,” it was clear that belonging was more than a way to grow my business but to grow personally.

Cathy: I felt compelled by Maria and the women she wanted to bring together. I believe that when you have the opportunity to connect with people who you truly admire you need to take the time and opportunity to engage and collaborate, and that’s when worth while ideas and efforts are flourish.

Maria: Like many artists, entrepreneurs, and social minded people in my life, these women move me. I do feel compelled when I have the opportunity to work on things that matter to me, with people I admire and enjoy.

How have each of you engaged people in meaningful ways that might lead to action and how is the Bureau stronger because of it?

Natalie: The conversations that have grown around the tables are a great example of how belonging leads to action. First, we are inspired by one another to action; but, more importantly, the conversations begin at a single point and with all of the input become stronger and have led more concentrated ideas and projects. The whole of the unit is stronger than the strength of the individual parts.

Maria: I think our auction for Haiti is a good example. After writing checks and texting donations, The Bureau of Friends, and some of its friends, wanted to do more. So, we gathered items and services to auction – 100 percent of the proceeds go to Architecture for Humanity’s work in Haiti. Lutz & Patmos Cashmere, organic cotton bedding from West Elm and more coming. We hope these small gestures grow larger, with a little help from our friends.

Natalie Chanin talks craft at  Bureau’s New York “Making and Meaning” workshop

What are some future projects you have in store?

Natalie: Cathy and I are very excited about a collaboration between HEATH and Alabama Chanin. Working in her studio last fall was one of the highlights of my year!

Cathy: The HEATH-Alabama Chanin dinnerware project is very exciting. But, it’s the ongoing support, feedback and perspective that we are able to give each other as a group that’s extremely valuable to me – it will lead to more projects together that none of us would have taken on separately.

Do you agree that quality and craftsmanship are just as important as something sustainably designed?

Cathy: I believe that good and worthwhile objects are made in a quality way and that craftsmanship generally leads to longer lasting objects that will be appreciated for generations.

Are we asking people too much to consider appreciating both the objects they consume as well as how it was created?

Cathy: I love objects that show what goes into making them. It’s satisfying to be conscious of what I buy and use. By supporting local makers you naturally know a lot more about objects, and in turn the object becomes more meaningful and long lasting, so that’s one great idea to promote.

Maria: I think this is about helping consumers understand and appreciate quality. Quality, for me, includes beauty, manufacturing that considers the environment and the culture of the people making the item.

We all talk a lot about the future of sustainable design and whether we’ll need to even talk about it (it will just be designed that way). Would you suggest we just stop talking eco-language? Has it perhaps become a black mark when mentioned?

Maria: There’s so much education [still] to do with makers, retailers and buyers. It will be a long while before we can stop explaining things in eco-language. However, let’s remember please, that people stopped saying “horseless carriage” when we meant “car” and it wasn’t long before “color TV” became, simply “TV”.  I hope I’m alive to see certain eco-terms become obsolete because it’s just understood, integral, and implied.

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