I’ll get my mind out of the gutter and onto the green, where it belongs, and tell you about my latest obsession – plants in pockets.

I’d heard of hanging plants and plants that are potted, but the idea of putting a plant in a cloth-like pocket wasn’t in my repertoire. That is, until I came across the Woolly Pocket Garden Company.

It’s genius, really – a breathable container that can be hung vertically to cover an unsightly wall or spruce up a small space. Create yourself a lush little garden just about anywhere.

Woolly Pockets are made from recycled plastic bottles and are safe for indoors and out. They come in vertical or horizontal versions; small and large sizes. Try the Wally One, Three or Five; the Knoll, Wee Woolly or Meadow. Combine them to create an atmosphere like no other (see top image).

Best of all, you can leave your green (or brown) thumb in your pocket because you won’t need it with a Woolly. These pockets were made for planting.

Learn how easy it is to pot a pocket on the website at Pockets 101. And check out the blog (aptly named What’s growing in your Pocket?) for ideas and inspiration. As seen at Apartment Therapy.

There are some of us who have cut waaaaay back, but just can’t quit cold turkey. And I don’t mean smoking, although I did quit recently. (Yay for me!)

The can’t quit I’m referring to here is shopping. I can admit my faults and this is certainly one of them. I love to shop for clothes. But before you throw your arms up and start spouting off at my wasteful ways…I always, definitely, without a doubt, no excuses or exceptions – shop green.

Right now I’ve got my eye on this adorable Reversible Hobo Bag from VivaTerra. Made with simple and stylish vintage fabrics, it’s switchable from festive floral to sophisticated black velvet flocking. Besides, two bags in one means more for the money!

Not too big and bulky but roomy enough for the usual suspects at 18” W x 13” H. The Hobo Bag also comes with a small clip-on pouch for all the stuff that gets lost floating around the bottom of your bag.

And what’s more eco than an item made well enough for a lifetime of wearing? This gorgeous lambswool Ready, Set, Go Poncho (top image) has a turtleneck and ribbed design that ruffles softly at the edges. It comes in a creamy, earthy off-white and is one of those wear today and everyday (at least in fall and winter) type of cover-ups.

Find both pieces at VivaTerra for $229 and $219, respectively.

For the record, in the US we call them pillows. Not that there’s anything wrong with cushions.

In fact, call them whatever you like. If they’re soft and cozy you have my attention; make them from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles (eco-fi felt), in cool and colorful designs and I’m sold.

These modern, graphic cushions, created by UK-based Annie Hart of Hartfelt Design, are anything but ordinary. The soft texture of the eco-fi felt makes them the perfect throw pillow.

Hart’s commitment to sourcing all things eco is impressive, as well. She uses 100% recycled fibre filling in her cushions; even her labels are recycled or organic. Read more about her green business practices on her website.

She fell into her cushion-making career, but it’s obvious she’s onto something hip and hot.

Choose from any of her designs, like this adorable Dorothy Red Shoes cushion, or contact her directly for custom orders.

via Josh Spear

The kitchen could be considered the hub of a home. It’s the spot where people congregate at parties, despite protests from the hostess; it’s the place a family gathers to break bread as often as three times a day.

There are all types of kitchens. We’ve shown you recycled or sustainable parts and entire islands of green. But I can’t recall setting my eyes on living or growing.

The Flow2 kitchen isn’t for the faint of heart. It gets down and dirty; it reveals the cycle of life from potted plants to edible food to composted waste to fertile fertilizer to potted plants. And round we go.

It’s a cool, cutting edge concept by the Oregon-based Studio Gorm team of John Arndt and Wonhee Jeong. And it’s their second go of it. The first kitchen, Flow or the kitchen of terrestrial mechanics, was Arndt’s graduate degree project.

Updated and more flexible, the designers have taken the idea of conservation and efficient living (or eating or cooking or growing) to a new level.

Case in point (see image above): The hanging dish rack drips water on the herbs and plants arranged below. The refrigerator is cooled via an evaporation cooling process (sounds fancy, but it involves H2O and not much more), rejecting the need for a large energy-guzzling fridge. There’s a cutting board that slides away to reveal a composting bin below with live worms read to nosh. And the list goes on.

The flow of Flow2 is indeed seamless, but is it feasible or just a fantasy? Whatever it is, it’s cutting edge…and just a concept for now. Time will surely tell.

- via Dezeen

I lean toward the minimalist in all things design and I’m especially drawn to chairs of the modernist period. There’s nothing not to like, in my opinion, and there’s no need to alter any of the classics. That’s why they’re called classics.

But who could object to a softer seat?

Unless your bum is naturally buffered, a lengthy sit on Jacobsen’s 7 or Bertoia’s wire chairs might leave you with a slightly sore tush.

This might be what Parkhaus was considering when they launched Suit for 100 Classics, a collection of over 80 simple seat pads for 100 of the classic chair designs.

The pads are made using eco-friendly, 100% woolfelt fabric and come in two versions and a plethora of hip and slick colors. The simple version is just 5mm or 1/5 of an inch thick; the other is 16mm (almost ½”) and layered with a 10mm foam inlet for extra cushioning.

Another perk to the Parkhaus pads is they’ll protect your old chair from wear and tear and keep it looking better than new.

via if it’s hip, it’s here

I live in Los Angeles and yes, I love my car. Not because it’s a symbol of my status or a prized possession, but because I’d get nowhere without it.

In a city known for traffic jams and empty carpool lanes, you’d think locals would be begging for ways to avoid our cars. Such is not the case.

In fact, we finally have our Metro but it’s a sad fact that not many people ride it…or know where to catch it, for that matter. It will take something bigger, something cooler to convince this LALA to leave her CarCar at home.

Is it possible that this bigger and cooler something is simply better design? Could a cool concept do what a plea for better air quality could not?

Michael Lejeune and his creative team definitely think so. Their campaign for the newly expanded Gold Line (running between Pasadena, downtown and East L.A.) began this summer and they’re hoping it will cause a stir.

“Our goal is to make Metro cool. To compete in one of the most media-saturated cities in the country, we’re trying to inject a sense of fun and personality…” says Lejeune.

Colorful, graphic t-shirts and “typographically beautiful” weekly passes printed with a different green tip on each are just the tip of Lejeuhe’s iceberg of design ideas. The online Metro Store sells mugs, model buses and even a tie with tiny metro icons.

All this in the name of public transportation? If it will convert the car-addicted to go cold turkey, then I say more please. Because I’m tired of traffic and exhausted by rising gas prices.

What do you think? Can good design have this much influence?

via Fast Company

image via StepInsideDesign

My memories of high school are not what you’d call nostalgic. In fact, you couldn’t bribe me with eco-gifts and organic treats to return and relive the nonsense of it all. Despite the oodles of teen angst, I did manage to graduate with a strong B average while spending most of my time playing sports or hanging out at my locker.

Which brings me to today’s cool, clever décor object of desire. The Basket Locker is made of four found and refurbished locker baskets, colorfully painted and placed in a solid, steel frame. It measures 14” L x 26.5” W x 26.5” H and would be perfect for the playroom or a kid’s bedroom, or even a home office or studio.

Find it at Uncommon Goods for $550. I see a spot for it here, across from my vintage drafting table – both have steel frames and a rough, vintage feel.

When I was young, still living at home, I’d leave the house for a run and hide my key under the potted plant near the front door. I’d never try this trick today.

Instead, I might use one of these simple Wrist Cuff Wallets I found on Etsy. They couldn’t be cuter or cheaper ($5) or easier to DIY.

Find any old cotton tee or sweat shirt and a couple of cool stamps like this deco flower and old Woodie truck and your do-it-yourself is done!

Tuck a key and a twenty inside the cuff and hit the road, or send your kids to school with their lunch money. Whatever the use, they’re too cute to not have one or two.

Easy to launder and comfortable to wear, my faves are the purple chrysanthemum (top image) and the olive green tree.

It wasn’t the answer I had hoped for, in fact it threw me. And when I finally landed it was clear I had my next topic for EcoSalon. Is ceramic an eco-friendly material?

Not really.

Ceramic is certainly not 100% eco-friendly, although it does boast an honest list of good intentions.

But first the aforementioned answer, which comes from Whitney Smith, a ceramic artist on Etsy. I asked her about the eco-friendliness of her work. Here’s what she said:

Hi Kim, I wouldn’t consider my process eco-friendly. Pottery production uses a lot of energy, and many of the ingredients in glazes and the clay body itself are toxic and cancer-causing in their raw form, and are mined from the earth. I take steps to reduce harm to the environment and myself and employees in my relatively low-production studio, but as a general rule it is impossible to make eco-friendly pottery, though I have seen people make that claim. As far as energy usage, I know some people have employed solar panels to reduce usage, but kilns use so much energy that solar panels are a minor offset at best.  Wood burning and gas fired kilns pollute the air. I know PG&E, my energy provider, claims that over 50% of the energy provided to Northern Californians is wind energy, but who knows? Thanks for asking!  Whitney

I’ve heard the term “eco-friendly ceramics” tossed around by at least a few of the artisans whose work we’ve featured here at EcoSalon. (Perch! and Heath Ceramics, to name just two.) What do they mean and how can they claim eco, while Smith speaks of the polluting process and a serious footprint?

Needless to say, I was stumped. I wanted to reply with, “But, but, but…other people say their ceramics are eco?” Instead I bit my tongue and hit up Google.

It took me just under 5 minutes to find an environmentally friendly ceramic memo board and this ceramic teapot made with “sustainable materials.” Really?

Clay is an organic substance, for crying out loud. It comes straight from the earth, but as I’ve learned, this doesn’t mean it’s anything near green. Can any object made of clay, baked at degrees in the realm of the thousands ever be considered remotely green?

Perhaps.

For instance, what if non-toxic, low-impact glazes are used? What if the artist’s studio is footprint-free? And what if there’s a type of clay (there is) that only requires one fire in the kiln rather than two?

That, we can fairly say, is progress. Perfection? Does it really matter, as long as there’s an authentic and consistent path toward better, cleaner, safer?

Upon further investigation, I found this post by Laura Zindle, an artist based in Vermont. She states – emphatically, I might add – that her own work is not even the lightest shade of green and further, she’s infuriated that that others are making such preposterous claims.

Zindle has done some of her own research, asking her most knowledgeable colleagues to comment. Their thoughts show candor and passion about the art of ceramics, their own green leanings and how difficult it is to make ceramics 100% sustainable.

What most of them do agree on is the importance of staying informed and educating oneself about the options. The problem, which seems to be a common thread through any and all movements working toward sustainability, is that changes cost money.

John Hull, one of Zindle’s colleagues and a “lifelong educator and potter,” responds to her inquiry with the pragmatic suggestion that “being more green is better than less green.”

You and I work at home. We don’t drive to work using fuel…that’s green.
Your products are functional and don’t get thrown away…that’s green.
When they get broken and are disposed of, they don’t have a negative environmental impact…that’s green.
Your construction process doesn’t use energy (electric potter’s wheel, ram press, etc.)…that’s green.
You fire to a relatively low temp in an efficient kiln emitting no harmful gases (as in reduction)…that’s green.
Your kilns help heat the house and work space…that’s green….and on and on,
BUT…energy use, mining and transporting of materials and all that is a question.

Actually, most of the ceramic artists I have researched claim some level of lessened environmental impact, ranging from total eco-friendliness to simply using non-toxic glazes. For example, Steve Harrison and Janine King have lived and worked green in Australia for years. Davistudio, Emily Murphy and, of course Amy Adams and Perch! are also on the path.

Zindle’s website now claims her work is “hand built and slip cast with low fire white earthenware and glazed with non-toxic low fire glazes”. Even a cynic can see the light.

There’s plenty of greenwashing going around, and the world of ceramics is hardly unique in this. A consistent definition of what it means to be green in ceramics needs to be established.  That being said, an honest dialogue is occurring within the ceramics community, which is clearly a move in the right, green direction.

Unquestionably, ceramic is better than plastic. Ceramics are also handmade, and therefore tend to be high in quality. Ceramics are recyclable and artists like Sarah Cihat prefer to use the old and make something new. Vintage ceramics from companies like Bauer are collectibles and are very functional. Personally, I’d rather have Bauer than anything new from Neiman’s.

But I still would love a Whitney Smith cake stand (second image).

Main image: lepiaf.geo

Can a hip bag ever be a hip bag? I can’t help but raise the question since they keep showing up. Years peacefully pass and then, oh! There’s another fanny pack, I mean hip bag.

My first hip bag was a navy nylon number I wore while trudging through Europe with a backpack and Eurail pass. It was a safe spot for my passport, but try making a quick, sanitary stop in a public restroom with one of those clamped around your waist.

Then Gucci came out with one a few years back and cleverly called it their “belt bag”. I spotted quite a few around town – then poof, they were gone.

But here they are again, this time in a practical, clever version at Etsy. Australia-based Happy Cow makes hip bags in all shapes and sizes using leftover leather scraps sourced from furniture manufacturers.

Check out the Waist Pack ($60) with plenty of pockets for all your stuff. It’s not just for traveling. The Hip Bag ($70) is the latest, greatest version from Happy Cow. It fits through normal pant belt loops (for guys), or loose around the waist (for girls). Might I go out on a limb and consider it somewhat stylish?

I need to hear from you, my fellow fashionistas, to decide once and for all. It’s helpful, but is it hot?

Just don’t call it a fanny pack.

- via Design Milk