My acts replenish balance
Longing for co-existence
Loving the planet
Karen Whiterod, Hope Calling Project
Green Earth Balance is about “living lightly”, here is the explanation of all that is needed to go into the production of Balanced Earth.
Spiralled wire
This spiralled wire held pages of sketchbooks and notebooks together.
Fishing rope
When walking on the Norfolk coast, I often find rope from fishing washed up on the beach.
Nylon offcuts
I made jewellery from nylon through the 90s and still have off-cuts to re-use.
Unwanted CDs
The CDs come from various sources, no longer wanted and damaged. I make frames for the vessels from these.
Paper pulp for vessels
Norwich Extra newspapers are torn by hand for the paper pulp. The pulp recipe uses natural ingredients with the exception of a small quantity of PVA. The methyl cellulose paste (from wood) has no fungicide so not a risk to the plants. Wax/oil is used for a microporous vessel.
Sea-sculpted brick
Sea-sculpted brick are used for the bases of the single vessel forms. I live in Norfolk and regularly walk on the east coast. The erosion of the soft cliffs has caused landfalls, hence finding bricks on the beach. I look for bricks which have been tumbled in the sea for long enough to soften the edges and create interesting shapes.
Aluminium from tools
Through the 90s I made jewellery from nylon, then designed some lighting with nylon. The nylon was formed three-dimensionally by placing in aluminium formers, which I’d made. I still have various thicknesses of aluminium sheet remaining from that time.
Wire from bee-hive frames
Each spring the wire on bee-hive frames is removed and replaced. A kind friend gives this wire to me to use.
Stainless steel
Stainless steel is used to enable the balance element of the vessels in Balanced-Earth. I buy this as a new material however the British Stainless Steel Association website states that that the recycled content of stainless steel is 60%, this together with improvements in manufacturing practice reduces the energy consumption, emissions and the carbon footprint of the producing mills.
Also I save every scrap of this material for recycling.
Oak wall-mounts
I source the oak from the off-cuts bin of my local saw mill.
Energy
Technology
I referred to Ethical Consumer to choose my desktop computer, which was purchased from Very PC. My operating system is open-source Linux and I’ve found Learn Linux TV tutorials very helpful.