A reflection from Toru trustee Hella Coenen
One of the permaculture principles is: Produce No Waste: value and use all resources available; see waste as a resource to be composted or repurposed.
Lately, I have been trying to get through my “love of fibre piles” and decided to ask a group of friends to help. We called it a cottage industry.
Turning "waste" materials, materials that might otherwise go to landfill, into a useful product was the original thought behind creating felt boulders.
The joiner down the road produces untreated wood chips for the compost toilet, but also produces treated chips that go to landfill.
A carpet factory in Hawke’s Bay had free scoured, uncarded Romney wool that was gathered from around the machines. For many years, I made needle-felted native birds out of the coloured wool and, in general, I still so admire the depth of colour in carpets.
I had the grey wool carded into large batts at Kane Carders. After some experimenting, I found a way to fill mutton cloth with wood chips, make them waterproof, cover them with carded wool, and hand-felt them.
Here is the result of our latest efforts. Seven enthusiastic friends soon got the hang of it, and some are making them at home in their own cottages now. Washing the soap out in the river saved us from queuing up at the outside tap.
We have been coming together and are proud to show you some of the completed felt boulders. They can be used for meditation, foot rests, or for children to sit on.
We would love to hear about similar ideas for changing waste into products. Ideas can turn into realities, you know!