Slow News Summary: Spring 2013

First slow news summary since February. Are you ready for all this link love?

On slow design, slow making, and slow home:

As expected, slowLab have relaunched their crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Their end product will be the Slow Design Knowledge Platform (a web-based learning tool, community hub, and research incubator) - and their pledge rewards are absolutely the coolest. I've signed up for the collaborative Slow Design Reader and the ability to host a Slow Dialogue in my city (details to be announced soon!), but I'm also coveting the exquisite porcelain cups and wishing I had the cash to travel to their location and do an intensive workshop. Sigh. (BTW, if you were one of their supporters on Kickstarter, you should be aware that your credit card was never actually charged and that you need to repledge if you want to support them.) Oh, and if you happen to be in NYC for Design Week 2013, they're doing a brilliant HUMAN CHAIR project that you can participate in:


HUMAN CHAIR #slowhuman from slowLab on Vimeo.

• A new tapestry exhibit explored The Power Of Slow.
• Gregoire Abrial's brilliant exploration of slow design (PDF, en francais).
• Robyn Griggs Lawrence described slow design, and so did the Happy Spaces Project.
• I am so inspired by the work being done by the Slow Textiles Group in London.

On slow fashion:

• Ecouterre continue to dominate slow fashion reportage with stories about a mending library, the fashion calendar, a mass-produced upcycled-clothing collection, a kick-ass slow fashion hoodie, and H&M's dubious efforts to rebrand itself as the standard carriers for ethical fashion.
• Everyone seems to be connecting the dots between the horrific factory-collapse tragedy in Bangladesh and the pressing need for both slow fashion, and activism that pushes fast fashion retailers to ensure worker rights and safety. Alabama Chanin, Future Threads, Natural Life Magazine, and Ecouterre have all written eloquently on the matter.
• Natural dyes have been making the blog world sit up and take notice, with Ecouterre profiling the Textile Arts Center and Colorant's cashmere collection, both from Brooklyn, GOOD highlighting a pair of cool "neighborhood dye" projects in Oakland, California, and the Kitchn showcasing Sasha Duerr's jawdropping Seasonal Color Wheel:
  
   
• Assemble Papers interview Kate Fletcher about the Craft of Use project
• Social Enterprise as a business model for fashion
• A farm-to-fibre fashion project in Vermont
• Design For Mankind profiles some gorgeous slow fashion lines
• Slow Fashion Forward created this image to explain slow fashion:

On slow food:

• A mouthwatering recipe for lasagna to protest the horsemeat scandal.
• A great interview with Carlo Petrini.
• An online, crowd-sourced map for foragers.
• Lucky me, I got to go to the Eat Alberta conference this year, and I never want to miss another one. My Storify of all the Eat Alberta tweets (more than a few of them mine) is on the Local Good's blog.

On slow travel:

• A slow festival in Italy
• Slow travel with children
• The Idler is being added to my must-sees when I make it back to London.

On slow living, slow parenting, slow money, and so forth:

• Here's a fascinating blog for you slow journalists: the Slow News Movement.
• In the run-up and aftermath of their annual meeting, Slow Money got lots of press, including interesting articles in Greenmoney and the New York Times.
• The Times also made the case for Slow Television.
• The always-wonderful Slow Mama blog has included posts on frugality, asking for help, mastering a craft, and a great gift idea for Mother's Day, along with many musings on life as an adoptive mother.
• I love the idea of these handmade postcards.
• Here is a terrific interview with Carl Honore.
• Oooh, another magazine devoted to slow living.
• Candidate for new favourite blog: Slow Living Essentials. Among other things I love the format Christine uses to look back at each month on her goals.
• Locally, Prairie Seen were the organizers for Slow Art Day - check out their photos and thoughts.
• The Art(s) of Slow Cinema on Looking Slowly

On sustainability and environment:

The monarch butterflies are in trouble. Plant more milkweed! (If only the fix for the massive declines in honeybee populations was as simple to implement.)