Eco friendly, recycled textiles... jute pillows... rooster again...

I always liked jute for its natural and somewhat rough look. Recently on one of the coffee grain sacks I am recycling I've read "Save Amazon, use jute", so I got curious and searched why is it so.

Beside aestetical and pracitcal values, jute plants is very efficent in carbon dioxide (CO2) assimilation and it clean the air by consuming large quantities of CO2. 

One hectare of jute plants consumes about 15 tons of CO2 from atmosphere and release about 11 tons of oxygen in the 100 days of the jute-growing season. Studies also show that the CO2 assimilation rate of jute is several times higher than that of trees.

In contrast with the production of the fastest growing wood plant which needs at least 10 to 14 years from plantation to harvest, and produces only 8 to 12 ton per hectare annually. Because the biological efficiency of jute is much higher than that of wood plants, the use of jute instead of wood to make paper pulp will lower substantially the cost of production of pulp and paper and save forest resources.

In the environment conscious world today, the jute gained the name of Golden Fibre. It is biodegradable and therefore environment friendly, so the products merge with the soil after sustained use. It enriches the soil with organic substance and helps to grow better crops. Its fumes are non-toxic and produce no residue.

This makes me even more happy to work with jute. Now I am working on jute pillows - some designs are still "cooking":) while I just have almost finished new pillow Rooster. The fabric 100% natural jute, pattern is inspired by Polish folk art from Lowicz region.

It needs sewing still... but have a look at the current stage...