Hand Painted / Hand Waxed (bees wax) / Washable Paper / Vegetable Tanned Leather / Upcycled Climbing Rope
As mentioned in Design Ethos - Part 1 (see for more), I have been working on a series of designs with the intent of applying and refining my design ethos. Basically, I aim to design products that are useful, honest and aesthetic, made from high-quality materials to be durable and long-lasting, as I believe longevity is one of the most, if not THE most important principle when designing for a "lower environmental" impact.
During the process of creating this bag, here are a few things that I wanted to explore that support my design ethos:
1) Designing for physical longevity:
- I wanted to avoid the use of trims (zipper, buttons, snaps, etc) for ease of repair and alternatively find manual solutions for cinching and adjusting the length of the straps (simple knot in this case).
- I used materials that age beautifully, like the washable paper which is a very strong material and will develop this beautiful crinkle texture and patina, much like leather. I used leather trims for the same reasons.
2) Designing for emotional longevity:
- I wanted to explore the idea of embellishing a modest material like washable paper with a beautiful print, demonstrating that this simple process on a material that everyone is familiar with (paper) could potentially be done by customers themselves. By being involved in the design process or having a print that is a bit more unique, people tend to foster an attachment to the product, therefore holding on to it for longer.
3) Using lower impact materials:
I won't be getting into this too much because because this needs hard facts and traceability which I don't have access to. All I can say is material choices really matter when designing for low impact and all materials ultimately have an impact. It's an imperfect decision making process based on tradeoffs and opportunities.
I forgot to photograph the hand-painting and hand-waxing process...
Hand painted print and hand waxed using natural beeswax. The washable paper, in addition to the beeswax, creates a beautiful crinkled texture with and and the beeswax can be easily be reapplied to improve water-resistance properties when needed.
Can be carried as a crossbody/shoulder bag or as a backpack.
As demonstrated here, it will only get better with use :)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cheers - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-`ღ´-
