A tiny percentage of the coloured squares on display in the studio

Better Thinking's Perfect T-Shirt

Another month has gone past, and although to some it may seem progress has slowed, but it doesn’t mean we’re working any less hard. We’ve been going even deeper into the dye research and experiments, researching environmentally sound ways of colouring things and then testing them, as well as reversing the approach and experimenting with things to find out what works and then researching the environmental impacts. The studio’s currently full of hundreds of little squares of fabric, each of them a slightly different shade. If we weren’t obsessed by it we’d have gone mad by now.

We saw samples from a potential supplier at the beginning of the month. Not only are these samples are made from organic and fairly traded cotton, the yarn was hand spun, the cotton was hand woven and the fabric was naturally dyed in the same village as the crop was grown. The picture’s of the samples we were shown, which are actually upholstery samples, but since then the supplier has made up a sample for us which should be with us soon. We can’t wait to see it!

We also had a visit from a man who ate plastic in front of us! John Bray from Plantic came round to show us his biodegradeable, non-toxic, non-GM cornstarch plastic packaging material. It’ll degrade on a compost heap in 12-16 weeks, a magnificent improvement on conventional plastic’s 5,000-10,000 years. Or, as he showed us, it will instantly soften in boiling water, perfect if you want to eat it and impress potential clients.

John’s visit was part of the extensive research we did into packaging. There’s a full assessment of the pros and cons of various packaging methods, as well as lots more information on the topics above, on our blog, online at www.betterthinking.co.uk/perfect

Watch this space for more in six weeks time!