5 Apr 23

🌿 Earth Friendly Art, Journaling, and Planning Supplies


🌿🌸🌎 Earth Week will be celebrated April 16-22, 2023. That has me thinking about art, journaling, and planning supplies which aim to be better for the environment.

What makes a product earth friendly? I keep the three R's in mind: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  

Reduce

Numerous brands have developed alternative production methods to reduce the number of trees used in journals, planners, watercolor paper, etc.

    • Tomoe River Paper is FSC Certified, meaning the paper is sustainably sourced. Find this paper in products made by: 
    • Other popular notebook and planner brands are also FSC Certified:
    • Canson XL watercolor paper is made using FSC Certified wood pulp

    • Hahnemuhle offers inkjet and watercolor paper made with alternative materials like agave, bamboo, hemp, and sugar cane:
    • Look for watercolor paper made with 100% cotton which is another tree-free resource. 

    • Also consider journals, notebooks, and sketchbooks which pull double or triple duty so you don't need numerous books coming from different suppliers and using extra materials. The Hobonichi Techo Cousin, for example, includes annual, monthly, and weekly planning pages as well as separate daily journaling pages for an entire year -- all in one bound, watercolor and fountain pen friendly book. Or, design your own layout in a Stalogy 365 with 368 pages. 

    • Be patient and schedule your Amazon orders to arrive in one delivery with fewer packages.

    • Think about the distance your items must travel from their production facility to a shop (if necessary) and then your home. Look for brands made nearest you. For example, Da Vinci watercolors are made by a small business in Southern California and ship directly from their family-run Orange County manufacturing facility to customers within the United States. 

    • Don't buy too many materials you won't use. It's compelling to grab everything in the office supply store during planner season or back-to-school sales, but do you really need sixteen spiral notebooks just because they were ten cents each? 
Reuse
    • Many art supplies can be found gently used or even vintage on platforms like Ebay and Etsy. Look for name-brand watercolors, creative stamps, and storage solutions. Instead of buying a new mixing palette, try a vintage porcelain egg platter from Etsy. How cute is this one in the shape of a chicken or this adorable duck?

    • Seek out pens which can be refilled. Fountain pens allow you to just replace the ink itself. Gel pens like the Uniball Signo RT1 offer easy-to-replace refills. 

    • Turn toilet paper rolls into pen holders.

    • Instead of purchasing water glasses for painting, reuse items from the grocery like Yoplait Oui yogurt jars, pasta sauce jars, and jars from jams and jellies.
    • Make your own DIY journal, mixed media, planner, and scrapbook embellishments using catalogs and magazines. Our public library offers a free exchange area for these materials. Consider asking your local bookstore, community center, library, or YMCA to do the same.

    • If you have extra calendars and planners on hand, tuck them away for a future corresponding year. For example, you could use a planner from 2006 or 2017 this year -- or save your 2023 calendars to use in 2034. Here's a cheat sheet for repeating years.

Recycle
Remember the Animals


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Be well,
Ann



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