Words To Live By

We can all do better, and we all know it. A lovely quote here or there on Facebook is a wonderful reminder be aware of our choices each day, but shifting our daily habits to be permanently more sustainable can feel futile or even impossible. Don't despair! Every day is a new day to make a more informed choice, take a more compassionate action, or choose a more sustainable option. And every small decision adds up!

 www.ecoquirky.com

We Make Our Own 100% Recycled Packaging!

Our online baby Garbage is two months old! Now, if it were a human that would mean it would be hitting landmarks like making eye contact and laughing out loud while continuing to shit its pants. Fortunately, a business has different kinds of developmental landmarks, and we are enjoying our first sales and tallying our online followings even as we work out kinks and try to find our stride.

One of our main goals at Ecoquirky is to make our products as eco-friendly as possible. This means not only reducing the amount of new material we use, but also reusing materials before they would otherwise hit the landfill or the recycling plant. Reusing is an important part of the reduce/reuse/recycle triangle of sustainability, and sustainability is the big goal.

We've recently hit a beautiful landmark! We are proud to announce that our packaging is now made of  100% post-consumer reused material. We have invested in a low-tech, human-powered die cutter, which we use to punch out the cards that eventually become our jewelry cards. We use our own household paperboard waste (cereal boxes and other similar packaging) as the material to make the cards, and then recycle the leftover scraps. This process means that no new paper material is used to create our packaging, and we are proud of that!

the new die cutter 

 the new stamp

the new cards 

The next step in making our jewelry cards is printing them. A simple rubber stamp turns our stacks of blank cards into lovely branded packaging. It takes a little more time to make each hand-cut, hand-stamped card, but think about this: we have removed all new materials, professional printing, shipping, and even electricity use from our packaging production process - that means that at the very least our packaging is carbon-neutral, and may very well be carbon-negative. And that is worth the extra work!

 Love, Ecoquirky

Check out our Etsy about page here

Find our Facebook page here

See our Instagram feed here

Don't Mind Me, I'm Just Zen Pairing

 Sometimes, making a pair of earrings is as simple as sitting down and making a pair of earrings. Today I'd like to share the process of the birth of a pair of Garbage's shredded earrings, start to finish, more or less.

1) Cut and Flip: We start with an old bicycle inner tube, which we have scavenged from the garbage cans of generous South Minneapolis bike shops. We slice these and flip them to give them their bouncy, 3-dimensional shape.

2) Pairing: You'd be surprised how many different sizes and shapes come out of what seems like the exact same cutting pattern, which is why pairing is kind of a bitch unless you zen out, and then it is a powerful form of meditation. These things are fricking snowflakes.

3) Hardware: Adding the hardware turns pairs of boingy rubber thingies into pairs of lovely earrings!

4) Finish him!: After a thorough scrubbing with soap and water, the earrings are given their Garbage jewelry cards and are ready to go! Because of the range of sizes that these little guys end up being, we have two different listings on Etsy:

Short Shredded Earrings (6-8 cm)

Long Shredded Earrings (8-10 cm)

And that is the miracle of birth! It is actually such a fun process to go through, and it is super satisfying to get to the end and have a pile of beautiful things that you made out of literal trash.

There's enough garbage in the world - we reclaim it, upcycle it, and make it into beautiful things! Part of Garbage's mission is to help people stay aware of the garbage we all create as we consume, and to give conscious consumers a truly sustainable choice! 

Love,

Ecoquirky

The Tiny Workspace Life Hack

I have to admit that there are "workspace" photos on the internet that make me melt: humble minimalist spaces with exposed rafters, industrial finishes, floor-to-ceiling windows, sheepskin rugs. Seriously, many of these home offices are bigger than the entire main floor of my house, completely bathed in natural light, with tidy shelves filled with woven baskets full of yarn or paintbrushes or whatever. I could be so productive in a space like that, I tell myself. I could run a great business, or run laps. Or take a very pleasant nap. Here is a phone grab of one of thousands of disgustingly lovely workspaces that I don't have:

Yeah. Well, here's my workspace: approximately 9 square feet of tabletop wedged snugly into a corner of the dining room, next to the kids' art supply cubbies and the computer desk. I won't even mention what lives underneath my work table. 

This is what I wish my work table looked like:

And most days, this is what it actually looks like:

Part of the problem is that there are too many people living with too much stuff in too little space in my house. There are also other problems, like the fact that it seems like everyone just walks around constantly dropping things in random places, or the fact that flat surfaces have a tendency to collect things. But the real problem is this: I do not have a dedicated work space.

 But I have come up with an ingenious, slightly pathetic, but mercifully simple way to cope:

When I'm not working, I put the drop-leaf on the table down (see photo above). Remember: things can only accumulate on flat surfaces. Then when I'm ready to work, I put the drop-leaf up (see photo below), and when I do, I instantly have a tiny, entirely neat, clean space to work!!

We could all find plenty of excuses for not being as productive as we wish we were, or for not working on projects that we've always wanted to try. But if you really want to do something, a little ingenuity can go a long way, and you can find a way to carve out the time or energy or workspace that you need to get going! There is always room for you in your life.

Good luck,
Ecoquirky

Ecoquirky Shop

From the Etsy Fortress of Solitude

The first month our Etsy site was up, we got a handful of sales that were mostly from our friends. Yes, this is totally working, we thought. The second month our site was up, we sat quietly and listened to the crickets chirp. Oh no, it's not working anymore! Etsy, why have you forsaken us, we lamented. Sound familiar?!

Sometimes Etsy can feel like a very lonely place. Even though we know there are actually shitloads of people there, we can find ourselves left adrift wondering why no one cares about us. This is the double-edged sword of the bloated Etsy marketplace: so many people and also way too many people.

What is a hopeful crafter to do? Well, here's how I've heard it explained. If you want to build something, the first thing you need to do is get some tools. Etsy is a tool like any other - no different than a hammer or a glue gun or a bedazzler. That's great, tools are important. You can't build the thing you want to build without them. But tools aren't all you need. Because a hammer can't build a birdhouse or a bench or a shelf for you. It doesn't know what you want to build, or how quickly, or how big, or why you want to build it. The hammer is simply there, waiting for the moment when a person decides to pick it up and build that birdhouse that they have always dreamed of building.

So don't blame Etsy. Even though it's very, very tempting. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is an online business. It takes vision, yes, and also careful planning, dutiful execution, and gobs of follow through. Etsy will NEVER build your business for you. You have to take every step all by yourself. But if you know what you want to build and why you want to build it, then having a tool like Etsy in your hand could be a very powerful help to you. Wield it as you would a hammer, and cobble together whatever your dream business looks like to you. Just don't forget the part where you have a plan and work hard. And you know, if it means as much to you as I think it does, it will not only all be worth it in the end, but each step of the process will be a source of true joy.



At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

Love,
Ecoquirky

Our Fortress of Solitude

We love Garbage!

Tracy and Ramona have been working together for more than a decade on projects supporting recycling, sustainability, supporting the arts, and local small-scale economies. Garbage is their newest love: a small business that scavenges waste-stream bound materials and reimagines them as ecoquirky jewelry. 

Bicycle inner tubes are collected from South Minneapolis bike shops and then hand-cut to create vegan, cruelty-free cuffs and other fashion accessories. We believe there is already enough garbage in the world, so instead of making more, it’s time to reclaim it and make it beautiful!

Kind Regards,
Ecoquirky

Our New Home