Reader Submitted: Felt Good
Felt Good is a research and exploration into pine needles, an overabundant natural forest waste to develop products using its fibre. The pine trees constitute of the majority of the forest in the northern hill states of India. Every year from fall till summer, they shed their leaves that cover the forest bed choking the earth beneath. Since pine needles are an excellent fuel to the fire, thousands of forest burn every season in North India itself.
Felt good is about extracting fibres to create products of everyday use for the masses using the felting techniques(no binding agent, pure fibre). The fibres also have been dyed using natural dyes extracted from the local, flowers and spices. Moreover, It aims to root itself as a local craft in the hill states to sustain not only the ecosystem but also the economy.
Each product has been handmade by local artisans and dyed using local natural forest products. The end result: a collection that has been made locally, using local raw material, to sustain both the local ecosystem and the economy. Furthermore, all the pine needle waste generated during the process was processed into paper using natural binding agents with the potential to create a unique packaging material.
By maximizing the utilization of this abundant material, felt goods aims to minimize the harm pine needle does to the environment. The entire production process is designed to be self-sustaining to generate zero waste and to bring forward better solutions.
