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Crafting for a Greener World
Upcycling Plastic Bags: Crochet a Reusable Shopping Bag from "Plarn"
by Robyn Coburn
Combining a Love of Crafting With an Environmental Conscience
 Introduction
Making art is one of the foundations of life in my home. In
addition to filmmaking, my husband has abiding interests in art photography and
jewelry design. I’m a screenwriter and textile artist focusing on art dolls and
vintage upcycling. My daughter Jayn participates actively in my
work and produces her own drawings and stories as a daily commentary on her
emotional life. It was her interest in dolls colliding happily with my history
of scenic and costume design that brought me into the world of doll making in
the first place.
When I say that making art is central to our life, I mean it
quite literally as well as spiritually or emotionally. Our living room is first
a studio and workshop for sewing, drawing and sculpture. Every horizontal
surface has some piece of work in progress waiting or tool box being stored. One
large table is for the sewing machines. We have movable folding tables that we
use for detail work. To eat at the dining table we must first move the beading,
the clay or the laptop computer, a process eased somewhat by the use of trays
and containers. Our wall-lining bookshelves are an odd mix of books and cloth
storage bins. Our apartment is, frankly, way too small.
I’m very grateful because it is unschooling that allows us to
focus on artistic pursuits. If Jayn were in school, or doing school-at-home, so
much of her time and energy would be devoted perforce to activities outside of
her passions. Moreover in school settings making art is often seen as in service
to other areas of academics – the “do music because it makes you better at math”
idea, rather than as intrinsically valuable. There is nothing like curriculum
design to suck the passion out of any subject. Plus, it would drive Jayn nuts to
be told what or how to draw every day or, worse, prevented from drawing whenever
she wanted.
At home, we are fortunate to consider all our art making as
interconnected, relationship reinforcing, swirling and integrated into our
lives. We have found creativity to be a gateway to all kinds of other knowledge
and skills, picked up in passing, like a happy side effect. There is barely a
moment when we aren’t appreciating some object of beauty – natural or
human-made. We are never stuck for something to do, since wherever our eyes come
to rest we see something that inspires us to ask, “What shall I make?”
Increasingly, I seek ways to unite my love of arts and crafts
with the environmental beliefs I hold dear. Twenty years ago I was working for
Greenpeace. Soon after, I worked at the Energy Research, Development and
Information Centre at the University of New South Wales in Australia, a
clearinghouse for information about innovative energy research continuing all
over Australia. My mind was awakened to many of the ecological issues and
quandaries that still plague our world. Much of my life in theater was founded
on using as few materials as possible, revamping and reusing scenic elements,
remaking costumes and avoiding waste. All this makes financial sense, as well as
being spiritually satisfying. Now I want to retain that green awareness in my
arts practice. I find that one of the most profound things I can do is repurpose
materials that might otherwise be discarded in the service of art and
practicality.
And that is what this column will be about.
Crochet With Plarn
As well as making art dolls, I crochet plarn baskets. “Plarn” is
plastic yarn made from HDPE bags. It’s no secret that single use plastic grocery
bags are an environmental nightmare. I live on a coast and the sadly devastating
effects of plastic bags on marine life are well documented. Surprisingly, eighty
percent of HDPE bags are made from natural gas rather than petroleum, but I
think there are better uses for natural gas, like super efficient instant gas
hot water heaters.
I’ve been carrying my own cloth bags to the grocery store for
years and I keep one in my purse for serendipitous shopping moments. But somehow
or other, I still end up with plastic bags coming into the house. I could place
them in the recycling bins at the store to be high-heat reprocessed into other
plastic products including non-woven tote bags and lumber. Unfortunately, many
more bags are still being used and discarded than recycled. Colored bags usually
must be separated manually from the translucent white. Contaminants such as
paper or other packaging amongst the plastic bags sometimes result in whole
loads being tossed rather than processed.
Unfortunately, recent research shows San Francisco’s well
intentioned 2007 program to outlaw plastic bags may have backfired. Far from
encouraging people to bring their own cloth bags, the ban has created a spike in
the use of resource-hungry paper bags. While paper bags can be craftily
repurposed and recycled along with other paper, they don’t have the one
characteristic about plastic that makes its use for throwaway items so
problematic – durability.
I was searching for a crafty solution that would take advantage
of that permanence. Fusing was one alternative. People make cool art, tote bags
and raincoats from fused bags, but I didn’t wish to subject my family and
apartment complex neighbors to the inevitable fumes. Then I came across a
crochet project, the “Hyperbolic Coral Reef” and the work of the amazing fiber
artist Helle Jorgensen. It is her clearly illustrated online tutorial that
showed me how to make plarn by folding plastic bags lengthwise several times and
cutting off the bottom and handles.
I use scissors; others swear by cutting wheels. I fold the
length in half and cut. Then I cut the resultant strips in half again. This
makes four 2-½ inch (6cm) wide loops. I can make yarn from these or cut the yarn
in half again making just over 1 inch (3cm) wide loops.
To join, loop one circle through the other and back through
itself. Pull evenly on all four strands at once when tightening the join to
avoid a stretched, weakened section or a break. I find that knots result in a
basket that is raggedy looking so I remove any loops that tear open. Attach the
next loop at the very center fold of the prior loop, to keep it even.
That’s all there is to it, other than to just keep going until
you have enough to make something useful. You can knit or use a round or bar
loom with plarn but I crochet. I use the wider yarn with a 10.0mm/N hook for
solid, self-supporting baskets. For softer tote bag style baskets, I use a
5.75mm/J hook with the narrower yarn.
I’m also an improviser, so I just single crochet a circle until
I like the size of it, then I go vertically with double crochet (US), in
Australia called treble, until the height is about the same as the diameter, and
then I single crochet either one strap for my elbow or two rim handles. A
medium-sized basket takes about 80 plastic bags.
For me, there is still an ethical dilemma in using something for
my own purpose that should never exist in the first place. I decided to use only
post-consumer bags for my plarn, including the thin produce bags, which make
shiny baskets. I don’t buy packaged trash bags to cut up or colored plastic
twine from the hardware store. My friends and neighbors save their bags for me
and I sometimes raid the recycling bins, especially if I notice colorful bags in
there. I suppose I am saving the store a few pennies haulage for those bags and
my particular repurposing method at least avoids the chemical and energy use
that the industrial processes entail.
People are fascinated by my baskets. In making art from recycled
materials, I like to highlight rather than disguise the source material. I am
currently crocheting a series of plarn figures as commentary on plastic bags in
the environment – a shopper, a beach goer and – my daughter Jayn’s idea – a
scuba diver from dark colored bags. I’ve been keeping my bag trimmings and other
soft plastic packaging to use as stuffing for these figures. I look forward to
the happy day when these sculptures will be oddities because plastic grocery
bags have faded into history.
After a long career designing for theater and
independent films, Robyn Coburn finds her joy as an unschooling mother who also
writes and crafts. She has been a confirmed greenie since working for Greenpeace
during her college years in Wollongong. Robyn is currently working on two crafty
books, a fairy tale screenplay, and a TV series about doll making and
collecting. She lives in Los
Angeles with her husband James and ever inspiring daughter Jayn. Contact her by
email or visit
her website to view
her work.
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