Noon Solar + Shawnimals = 100% biodegradable Forest Spirit Ninja

We are excited to announce a fun collaboration with our friends and local Chicago toy business Shawnimals. We have partnered with them to make a limited edition of organic, naturally dyed and all biodegradable Shawnimal ninjas. The ninja is super cute and great for kids or toy collectors. This edition is limited to 100 ninjas, so get 'em quick!

http://www.shawnimals.com/forestspirit

Photo credit: Shawnimals

The Forest Spirit was once a regular Forest Ninja that literally became one with the forest – made up of everything organic around him. The Forest Spirit plush is made with:
• Organic cotton/hemp body and thread: Fleece 55% hemp 45% cotton • Stuffed with kapok tree fiber: An all-natural fiber pulled from the seed pods of the kapok tree (Tested & endorsed by Immunology Lab Environmental Health Center in Dallas, Texas) • Natural wool mask and leaves: 100% wool felt naturally dyed • Wooden eyes: Bio-degradable and natural • Hemp cord: Used for the hang tag and Leaf Satchel • Non-toxic glue: Used to adhere mask and eyes • 100% recycled paper tag printed with soy-based ink • Handmade in-house by Shawnimals • This special Handmade Edition is limited to 100pcs

Now more than ever it's important to consider the impact we have on our environment. The Forest Ninja project is as much an exploration of the organic and sustainable materials available as it is a new addition to the Ninjatown line. By supporting the companies that produce such materials, we hope to raise awareness of what's available, and new ways to use them. In addition, we know that every component that goes into the Forest Spirit is completely bio-degradable – it won't sit in a landfill for thousands of years. The Forest Spirit came from the forest and it can become one with it some day!

Also check out the great Forest Ninja post on Treehugger

Jane and Marianne Profiled in Time Out Chicago for Earth Day

Earth angels

In honor of Earth Week, we salute a few of Chicago’s solar-powered, park-loving, garden-growing gurus. They might even persuade you to join their cause.

By Madeline Nusser

MARIANNE FAIRBANKS AND JANE PALMER
Job Fresh out of art school in late 2004, this dynamic duo started Noonsolar, an ecofriendly design company that makes solar-panel-covered bags, which carry your belongings and charge your cell phone and iPod. “One of our goals was to make our product fashionable,” Fairbanks says. “Solar panels are associated with a crunchy vibe. We wanted to incorporate them with the urban day-to-day.”
On the side Both are gardening enthusiasts. Palmer keeps an all-organic native garden while Fairbanks made a raised bed and aerates and reseeds her lawn.
Favorite green buys Center for Green Technology’s dirt-cheap composting equipment, native plants at Grand Street Gardens (2200 W Grand Ave), the natural cuisine of Lula Cafe (2537 N Kedzie Blvd, 773-489-9554).
Eco-tip “We have a lot of friends who garden,” Palmer says. “We do seed sharing or seedling sharing—giving unused seed packets to friends.”

Source: Time Out Chicago

Museum of Sustainable Style

We are excited to take part in this wonderful event next week. Come check out our new bags and lots of other sustainable design!

Here are the details:

When:Daily 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. (October 2 through October 5)

Price:Free

Brickermade Studio,1109 W. Fulton Market, Chicago, IL 60607

shibori ties

We've been super busy over here at noon creating our fabrics for our Holiday line, due out in late November. While Marianne was out on the west coast honing in on her natural dye skills, I was preparing the fabrics for dying with the traditional Japanese tying method of shibori. This wad of tied fabric is about 8 yards of an organic hemp/cotton blend. It's been bound and tied with rubber bands. When we dye the fabric, the dye will absorb only into the exposed areas of fabric. This will create our pattern. The rubber bands will also create a resist, making white lines through out the pattern. I love this part of the process, the twisting and tying of the fabric. It's an exhausting but rewarding use of my hands. After it's dyed, and I remove the rubber bands, the cloth will have a "memory" of where it's been tied, and it will look like an entire landscape of mini-mountains. We will then press it lightly, but allow some of the memory to remain, and make some new totes with it.

jane

natural dye workshop

I had the opportunity attend a natural dye workshop this summer and learn how to make every color in the rainbow. We primarily dyed skeins of yarn so now I have to translate that information to dying yardage of hemp/cotton. Today I am dying a beautiful dusty pink color with Quebracho Red that we will be using in our Fall line.
marianne