Cocoon Jewelry by Suzanne Balestri

About the Artist

Suzanne Balestri was an interior designer when she first began her explorations with fused glass. After taking a fused glass workshop for fun in 2006, it didn’t take long for her passion for the glass medium to grow. She soon began taking more in-depth courses in fused glass as well as jewelry design and fabrication at UC San Diego. In 2008, Suzanne began selling her work and participating in art shows.

About the Art

These fused glass pieces of wearable art are handcrafted using a process originally developed by the Ancient Egyptians. Glass fusion requires carefully measuring, cutting and cleaning fusible glass before layering and assembling it into the desired conceptual design. The assembled unit is then placed into a kiln for several hours until it reaches 1475 degrees, the point at which the layered pieces melt into each other to become one piece.  The kiln is then cooled over several hours, which anneals the glass to give it strength and durability. A good portion of the pieces come out of the kiln requiring further work (called “cold-working”) which includes grinding, drilling, sawing or sandblasting, depending on the what the desired final outcome of the piece is.  After the piece is cold-worked, it requires another round through the kiln – at even slower heating and cooling rates – to “fire-polish” the piece.

Watch a video about Suzanne explaining the process:

Click here for Video

View the Cocoon Jewelry collection at DownDog Boutique here:

Cocoon by Suzanne Balestri

www.downdogboutique.com

DownDog Boutique says Hello Minawear!

Minawear was founded in 1998 by Mina Hegaard and her hemp activist brother Kenyon Gibson in Venice Beach California. Together they built the company to promote health, education, and the care of the planet. In 2007, the company was acquired by GeoMio, another Los Angeles based eco-fashion manufacturer.

Today Minawear is back in the hands of its namesake, and operating from Victoria Texas. In this stage of the Minawear re-launch, Mina is doing the productions in China, where the hemp is grown.

China is our choice because this is the only place in the world that has the capabilities to grow, process, knit, cut, sew, dye and package the hemp with the least amount of carbon footprint. All phases of the operation are closely monitored for the high quality and fair practices that Minawear has always been known for.

Kenyon resides in New York City, where he is a falcon artist, blogger and hemp activist.

See the collection here: Minawear

www.downdogboutique.com

DownDog Boutique says hello to Spacecat!

View the Spacecat line at www.downdogboutique.com or click here SPACECAT

About Spacecat:

Spacecat was created in New York City in 2000, when Yumi Miyanishi made a claymation short film called “Katzilla” (click to view movie)

As a four year old, my favorite thing was making clothes for my Barbie doll! Always interested in fashion and being different, after I started practicing Ashtanga Yoga, I noticed what women were wearing.  Seeing the same yoga/athletic-wear everywhere, I thought there must be other women who would like to dress differently to practice yoga or work out. Moving from New York to New Orleans and then to Miami Beach, the idea of my own  line gradually took shape.

With the encouragement and help of many friends, I decided to use my background in fashion design and create yoga/athletic-wear that I wanted to wear.

Spacecat Inc was launched in June 2010 in Miami Beach, Florida.

About Spacecat’s products:

We make garments that are fun to wear using technologically advanced textiles for Yoga, Running, Biking, Skateboarding, Rollerblading, Gym Exercise and Pole Dancing. Our Prints are wonderful for water activities like Swimming, Sailing and Boating. Or just wearing out as playful and colorful Street Wear!

All our Athletic wear collection uses four-way stretch fabrics, which is ideal for today’s active women.

All SPACECAT garments are happily made with sunshine and love in Miami, Florida, U.S.A by a mother and daughter and their friendly team.

SPACECAT Fabric care information

• Solid-color garments are made of Supplex and Lycra, with a soft cotton feel but moisture wicking and fast drying.
• Athletic top's lining is made of Coolmax fabric, specially developed to keep you cool by wicking moisture away from your body at an amazing speed to leaves you dry quickly!
• Our prints and holograms are made of nylon and spandex, which feels super lightweight and dries quickly.  It’s like not wearing anything—a performance enhancing plus!

How to care for all fabrics:

We recommend Machine Wash Cold Gentle Cycle with Like Colors. Hang Dry. Use Non-Chlorine Bleach only. Do not Iron. Do not Dry clean.

Hologram fabric must be Hand Wash Cold, Do not Ring, Hang Dry in Shade. Use Non-Chlorine Bleach only. Do not Iron. Do not Dry clean. (Hologram will come off in Machine wash and Dryer)

Bamboo Yoga Clothing: Green or Green washed?

Bamboo Yoga Clothing: Green or Green washed?

We have had quite a bit of feedback in recent weeks to our creation of an Organic Yoga Clothing category on our website www.DownDogBoutique.com

Some of the feedback addresses the questions about how environmentally friendly Organic Yoga clothing really is. We decided to carry out some research on the subject and put together a couple of blog posts with our findings.

Yoga Clothing can mainly be broken down in to four types of fabrics. Almost all require some form of stretchy material to be blended in such as Spandex or other synthetics. Spandex is made basically from petroleum as are nearly all stretchy clothing substances. There may be some Organic versions on the horizon in the near future but for now all stretchy Yoga clothes including Organic ones include some form of synthetics. Most Organic Yoga clothes limit the amount of synthetic materials to no more than 10% of the overall content.

So the four types are:

1. Non-Organic Cotton
2. Organic Cotton
3. Bamboo (All of which seems to be Organic in the Yoga market at least)
4. Synthetic

To make the subject more manageable and not to make the blog posts too long we will tackle each type in a different post. This first post will look at Bamboo as that is the one that is generally being accused of being “Green washed”.

Green washing for anyone not familiar with the term means that companies are taking a product that is not really environmentally friendly and claiming it is for the purposes of marketing that product as “Green”.

The case against bamboo clothing is pretty simple. No one really disputes that bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet, uses very little chemicals and fertilizers to make it grow and uses a fraction of the water compared to all forms of cotton.

This Wikipedia page summarizes the benefits of bamboo as a crop for fabric production very well: wikipedia 

The case against bamboo is based on the production of turning that Bamboo into fabric.

There are two ways to do this.  One is mechanical where they pulp and squeeze the bamboo with no chemicals.  This is fairly easy on the environment but produces quite rough fabric that people, and in particular people planning to exercise in the clothing, tend to find uncomfortable.

The second and more common method involves the use of Sodium Hydroxide also known as caustic soda to break down the pulp and help turn in it to the soft cashmere like fabric that is favored by most designers and wearers of bamboo clothing.

I have to say that having read many of the blogs and “news stories” that claim that bamboo production using this method is being green washed I really see little or no evidence for this view being produced. The claim is made that caustic soda is bad for the environment. This is clearly true, however what really matters is not what “could” happen to any chemical but what actually does happen. Let’s try and clear up some facts.

1. Bamboo fabric is pretty much all made in China. That is where most of the world’s bamboo is grown. It is used in the production of many products.
2.  There are few companies that convert bamboo to fabric and even fewer that then make the fabric into Yoga clothes.
3. Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic soda) is a nasty substance if left untreated. Besides clothing though, it is used in the production of paper in the food industry and in the home as a cleaner.  Treated properly it is relatively harmless.

It would seem therefore, that if the treatment of the waste products that are used to produce the bamboo fabric are handled properly then bamboo is probably the greenest of all the materials used to manufacture Yoga clothing.

I asked our partner (Organic) manufacturers that we represent in our boutique to comment on what kind of systems are in use for the production of the fabric and the handling of the chemicals.

Here is what Cristofer Smith the owner of Green Apple Organics had to say: “After 22 years of manufacturing textiles and garments for athletes, we own our own operation. We do our own knitting all the way through to what you receive. Then our patent process uses the Viscose method- an encapsulated method where nothing escapes from the drum except to be recycled or used again. Most evaporates so there is little left over if any.”

Bonnie Siefers, the owner of Jonano Organic Clothing, provided us with access to a statement by the Chinese manufacturer of Organic Bamboo fabric used mainly in their clothing. The fabric manufacturer, clearly responding to the Green wash criticism, issued a very detailed statement citing many third party verifications of its fabrics and processes. A lot of it is quite technical but here is the most relevant section to the core questions:

“One of the most important parts of the process is all recyclable. We process in a hermetic container where 100% of the chemicals that are used are trapped and contained - not released into our factory, environment or atmosphere. 73% of CS2’s are recycled, 26% are recycled into H2SO4. So those chemicals do not pollute any part of the environment.

Each step of the process is watched for many reasons: Company policy, brand commitment, and China's strict environmental ethical standards. We know many of these processing issues are extremely sensitive and we are committed to be a leader in the eco/green industry when it comes to bamboo fiber, but also for the safety of our team/staff.

We do not claim the entire process is “green”, but we do strive to be as eco-friendly as possible and are accountable for our process and recycling of these chemicals. Tanboocel bamboo fiber also has passed OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 which is another leader when it comes to testing for harmful substances. We have passed these OEKO TEX STANDARDS 3 years in a row. The bamboo we use and process is certified by (OCIA) Organic Crops Improvement Association International which is certifies our bamboo is organic bamboo under “wild crops” and certified organic under “organic farms”. Our vision and commitment has always been to be as eco-friendly as possible and has not changed in any part of our processing from start to finish.”

In conclusion, after having weighed up the issue we believe that at the very least the manufacturers offering Organic Bamboo clothing in our boutique (www.downdogboutique.com) do meet the criteria for labeling their products “green” or environmentally friendly. Clearly bamboo is a much better raw material and we believe that every effort is being made to process the bamboo into fabric in what are called “closed loop” systems where little or no harmful byproducts escape.

We will be examining what goes into the other three types of fabrics used in Yoga clothing manufacture and will devote a similar blog post to each type, however for now we believe that bamboo is the greenest of the options currently available.

We welcome feedback and opinions.  If anyone has any actual evidence that bamboo fabric production is causing harm to the environment rather than it “could” cause harm we would be happy to review it.

Namaste,

DownDog Boutique

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Shanti Boutique, Yogi(ni) Jewelry for a Good Cause

Shanti Boutique, Yogi(ni) Jewelry for a Good Cause

by Crystal Water, owner and founder of Shanti Boutique

Conscious * ethical * charitable ...with these qualities in mind and action, Shanti Boutique is a fair trade business committed to producing unique jewelry, positive for people and planet.

When starting Shanti Boutique, my goal was to create a business that would not only serve as my dream job, but also make a difference in the world. So how can creating and selling jewelry achieve that? Well it's pretty simple: create meaningful jewelry that supports fair trade and charity while providing eclectic designs to conscious consumers and forward thinkers. 

Since I was a small child, I have had the pleasure to have many Tibetan friends. Altruism, hospitality and non-violence are just a few of the many wonderful qualities that Tibetan culture embodies. And they are also qualities we need so much in the world today. However, because many Tibetans are in exile and spread throughout the world, their culture is endangered. This is why I want to work to help preserve it. 

"Heart-centered activism" is what Jungian analyst and author, Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen, uses to describe working for a cause that is "meaningful, fun and motivated by love", thus becoming your soul work. Driven by this heart-centered activism, Shanti Boutique works with the Tibetan Children's Education Foundation TCEF, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture with a focus on Children's Education. Our involvement with TCEF is both active and financial. We donate 10% of the profits to TCEF as well as sponsoring a child and 2 grandparents. Since 2000, I've also been blessed to serve as a board member for TCEF. 

Through doing our soul work, we hope to offer you great jewelry that truly has a meaning far beyond it's artistic expression and works to improve lives. Enjoy our products and share the shanti!

View the Shanti Boutique Jewelry Collection at DownDog Boutique here: Shanti Boutique Jewelry

Dying to know more?

-Tibetan Children's Eduction www.tibetchild.org and 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tibetan-Childrens-Education-Foundation/123107491054209

-Fair Trade Federation www.fairtradefederation.org

-Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen and heart-centered activism http://www.jeanshinodabolen.com

Britain's oldest supermodel Daphne Self

On November 20th 2012 Jenice Gaddis one of our Brand Ambassadors posted this picture of Daphne Selfe simply because she was inspired by the image and how elegantly beautiful Daphne looked in her pose.

Here is what Jenice said:

"This beautiful 83 year old woman is my inspiration. She proves that yoga is ageless, it is our Youth Serum, its strenth, its power, its beauty incarnate. ~JG"
I did some extra digging to find out more about Daphne who is indeed 83 and still working as a model and living in England.


I found a couple of newspaper articles from the UK which give a deal of her life story. Daphne describes herself as "Britains oldest Supermodel"

Here is the first story from London's Daily Mail:

Daily Mail

The second story is from three years ago but gives more information so is worth a read:

The Independent

To sign up for our weekly newsletter and get more stories like Daphne's sign up here:

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www.downdogboutique.com

DownDog Boutique is an online boutique of Yoga Clothes, Jewelry, Mats & More run by Yoga lovers who enjoy sharing stories and all things Yoga.

Do plus size women want Yoga Clothes?

It is a pretty simple question: Do plus size women want Yoga Clothes? (I am quite sure that size 14 model Lizzie Miller shown here would look just fine in hers.)

The answers as always are a little more complex than you might think.

We have been looking at each of our Yoga manufacturers as they bring us their collections and most appear to stop at Large size or in a few cases Extra Large. Plus size appears to be defined as size 14 and above. 

We have asked a few of the manufacturers why no plus sizes? The answer appears to come down to a few main issues:

1. The manufacturers think that making plus sizes may represent a risk. Retailers who will buy the clothing hopefully in volume are risk averse by nature and usually want to do what has worked before. Plus size Yoga clothing is fairly unusual so has little track record of sales. Catch 22.

2. The way clothing is made requires careful control of waste and materials. Quality Yoga clothes in particular use expensive "stretchy" cloth. Sizes are ganged together to maximize yield so small sizes are cut with large etc. When you get to plus sizes you use more of the expensive material so the pricing needs to be higher at both wholesale and retail. Will plus size consumers pay more for the larger sizes or will they feel ripped off?

3. Will larger people who are exercising (Yoga clothing denotes some form of exercise) pay a high price for an item of clothing when they may well lose weight doing the exercise? Are they more likely to buy cheaper plus sized sweat pants (we discovered during research for this post that Champion one of our suppliers carries plus size sweat pants so we plan on adding them to our site soon)

We got into detailed discussion with one particular manufacturer who makes Yoga Clothes in the USA. As he doesn't need to bring over container loads of inventory from China he may be willing to create a plus sized Yoga line if the market is there and he can sell at least reasonable volume.

So we have set out to answer the simple question: Will plus sized women buy Yoga Clothes?

Please give us feedback at our website or on Facebook where we plan to post this story too, if you are sized 14 or above and have an opinion.

http://downdogboutique.com/contact.htm