Sending an eco-message of peace
by Sarah McClure
In a fast-paced electronic world that involves minute-by-minute tweets and instant messages, most of us have typed ourselves away from our most basic scribed selves. When was the last time you used a stamp that wasn’t for a bill? Even at holiday time, when sending cards is a time-honored tradition, we’re just as likely to send an e-mail—or text message!—of good wishes.
Furthering the loss of pen-on-paper civilities is the view that most stationery and commercial cards aren’t planet-friendly. It’s true. An estimated 2.65 billion cards bought in the United States every year are not recycled, and more than 90 percent of paper comes from virgin tree fiber. The card makers you see below are the exception, not the rule. Happily, in addition to their availability online, the first three are also featured in L.A. shops noted on their websites.
While hitting “send” is expedient, when it comes to offering your most professional or heartfelt presentation, nothing compares to a handwritten note. And for a holiday greeting? Your eco-friendly wish for peace on earth can be a gift to the planet as well.
Tiselle
Tianyi Wang takes a modern green approach in creating Tiselle (tiselle.com) letterpress stationery. Her four vintage letterpresses, including a mid-century Heidelberg and Vandercook, are powered by 25 solar panels on the roof of her Atwater Village studio. She even uses a 1960s hand-cranked Vandercook cylinder press that “runs as fast as your arm turn,” which requires no electricity.
Tiselle is printed on both 100 percent FSC-certified cotton rag and 100 percent post-consumer paper, sans chlorine bleach. This year Tiselle started printing on paper made from elephant dung and rice patties; creating a need for elephant dung helps make the animals a viable resource for the villages in Sri Lanka, rather than a hunted target.
Wang discounts her mistake cards and saves pre-cycled, unusable scraps to make business cards. This winter discover Tiselle’s beautifully debossed chandelier design, a vibrant red poinsettia Merry Christmas card, and a reindeer bedecked with twinkle-light antlers.
“The design goal this year was to make something that would put a smile on people’s faces,” says Wang. “It’s about going back to the basics of what greeting cards are all about, with an extra touch of refinement.”
Fugu Fugu Press
Since 2006 Pasadena couple Ken and
Shino have been creating quirky letterpress cards festooned with colorful and story book-inspired characters, from guitar-playing bears, table utensils, and raining clouds with cheerful expressions to rosy-cheeked circus elephants waving congratulations. Shino, an illustration major from Art Center College of Design, hand sketches imaginative designs in her studio, formerly a radiator shop. Their vintage letterpresses include a 19th-century Chandler & Price and a 1950s German Heidelberg. Fugu Fugu uses low VOC, soy-based ink. Everything is printed on FSC-certified paper from Neenah, a company that manufactures paper using green energy; or Letra paper, a tree-free byproduct sourced from 100 percent cotton fibers.
Holiday designs feature smiling chestnuts, dancing elf twins and a mittened child enjoying the wonder of first snowflakes.
1271 E. Green Street, Pasadena 91106, 626.826.3287, fugufugupress.com.
Two Trick Pony
Laurie Mee and Carrie Siegel of Two Trick Pony (twotrickpony.com) designed a retro collection of screen-printed stationery that’s a nostalgic throwback to the 1950s, with carnival colors and illustrations of rocket ships and poodles. TTP uses 100 percent post-consumer waste recycled paper and is packaged in biodegradable, compostable Earth First PLA plastic sleeves. Water-based inks are used in lieu of harsh chemicals. Much of their cardstock is also sourced from material that is acid-free, FSC-certified, Rainforest Alliance certified, and either PCF (processed chlorine free) or ECF (elemental chlorine free). This holiday, browse their “Sleigh Bells Ringing” and chartreuse-colored “Oh Christmas Tree” cards.
The Good Envelope Party
Jenny Rask and the ladies of The Good Envelope Party (thegoodenvelopeparty.com) are all about building and helping their community. Every first Tuesday of the month, Rask and her group of 15 or so environmentally charged women meet at Rask’s Silver Lake home to design stationery that’s upcycled from vintage periodicals and books—found at local flea markets, garage sales and secondhand stores. All proceeds are then donated to local under-funded schools and families in need. For example, one year they helped a 13-year-old Pasadena boy who’d just lost his mother to cancer.
“We’re building a fun, communal environment with what we’re doing, while being productive in the hopes of helping someone out,” says Rask. “Hallmark just can’t compete with that amount of heart.”
TGEP designs vary from retro fashion spreads to repurposed 1970s Ebony magazine ads and 1960s New York Times newspaper clippings of John F. Kennedy. Holiday cards are cut from vintage wrapping paper, old postcards of snowy village scenes and a 1940s version of Santa Claus.
Decoding Label Lingo
With so many labels out there, how do you know which ones to pick? Here’s what to look for in earth-friendly paper.
FSC certified: Products bearing the FSC-certified logo are in compliance with the Forest Stewardship Council and are sourced from a sustainable, well-managed forest resource. The chain of custody must flow from forest, to paper manufacturer, merchant and printer, all of whom have been FSC certified. [source]
Pre-cycled or pre-consumer: Material or by-product generated after manufacture of a product is completed, but before the product reaches the end-use consumer.
PCW: Post-consumer waste paper is end product that has completed its intended life cycle as a consumer item that would otherwise be disposed of as solid waste.
Cotton rag: Paper made from cotton fibers that are close to the seeds and traditionally tossed; tree-free. Also superior in strength and durability to wood pulp-based papers, which often contain high concentrations of destructive acids.
VOCs: Volatile organic compounds are emitted as gases from solids or liquids and contain a variety of chemicals with potential health consequences.
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