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A tea bag today, a better future tomorrow

Original T-Bag Designs is a socially responsible company that creates sustainable jobs and empowers members of the Imizamo Yethu community, in Hout Bay, to turn discarded tea bags from around the world into beautiful works of art.

Original T-Bag Designs recycles used tea bags - that are dried, emptied, ironed and painted - into 'functional art'. These small works of art are applied to stationary, timber items and even fabric. My favourites were the T-Bag Handle Bag and the Canvas Picture.

The handbag is made out of recycled fabric (fabric taken from discarded fabric sample books) that is decorated with a handcrafted tea bag in a plastic pocket. 

I love the handle detail. The plastic handles contain recycled tea leaves and tea bags. 

The stretched canvas picture has 16 hand-painted recycled tea bags.

One cup of tea has indeed provided previously-disadvantaged people in the Imizamo Yethu community with hope for a better future.

Prototyping!

At last! A prototype of my product design! It required a cardboard box (bigger than myself I might add), cable ties and lots of effort!

Here's a bit of my prototyping process...

It started off with a big cardboard box that I could fit into, I'm not kidding...

I had a template printed that I could stick onto the cardboard box in order for me to know along which lines I must fold. My faithful assistant, Winston, is in the background.

The cardboard box after it has been unfolded. 

I then stuck the template onto the cardboard box and folded along the lines and it ended up looking something like this :) 

This is only a cardboard prototype of the product (stool/beanbag) and Kirsten and her team at Tommy's Upholsterers are currently in the process of manufacturing the product. I'm very much excited to see the end-product! :) 

I heart libraries :)

This past weekend, I payed a visit to the Central Library in Cape Town. This beautiful library was once the Voluntary Drill Hall designed by James Tennant of the Royal Engineers. This Drill Hall was erected in 1884 and designed to serve the volunteer forces of the Western Division as headquarters as well as an indoor venue for instruction and for drilling in bad weather.

The Central Library with its beautiful steel roof trusses is 56 years old and have a book collection that includes all 11 languages. During my visit there I noticed that this is no quiet library. With more than 70 000 people that visit this user-friendly library every month, it is a place where people meet, take out books, study, do homework or research or even engage in activities and workshops. The Central Library is the largest library in and around Cape Town and is the social hub of the inner city! :)

Who let the dogs out?

We are currently in the process of developing three products that would add value to our proposal. My proposal entails an educational resource centre for primary school learners and therefore I explored children's furniture. From my explorations it seems that children are particularly fond of animal-shaped furniture. Upon exploring, I stumbled upon this collection...

Tom Bendkovski, an industrial designer of Tomski Design, created a series of furniture for his final project at the Holon Institute of Technology (in Israel). Bendkovski called the collection 'Hosting Hounds'. This collection incorporates the visual and behavioural characteristics of man's best friend. The dog-inspired furniture consists of a chair, a coffee table and a stool each with their own canine personalities.

Meet Kashi and Karl :) 

 Kashi is a stool with a cushion held on with a dog collar.

 And Karl is a coffee table...

but Karl has been a bad boy as he appears to be holding his head down. 

You won't be able to keep your hands of this pillow!

'The starting point of designing 'HUHU' is for encouraging people to get emotional compensation by using the object. Many people have their unconscious/fidgeting behaviour including chewing nails, shaking legs so on. 'HUHU' try to help people to be relaxed by pulling out strings from the inner surface of the cushion to play with them. The end result of unconscious behaviour make 'HUHU' beautiful. The name and metaphor 'HUHU' comes from the moment of people deep breathing when they relax' - Saehee Her (designer).

Colour me in!

It's National Colour Week from 1-7 September 2013! As part of the National Colour Week, Plascon has introduced their Colour Forecast for 2014. One of my favourite colour palettes is Urban Tribe. This colour palette echoes the increasing sentiment of national pride. :)

 

'Colour expresses a sense of place. It shows not just where we are, but who we are.'

Also view the other colour palettes: Plascon 2014 Colour Forecast