Mark and I are very conscious of the world that we live in and regularly chat about consumerism and waste. Our flat is sparsely furnished and we do our best to keep our belongings to a minimum wherever possible. There is so much disposable stuff in the world that gets thrown away with little to no use that when we set up our online shop we wanted to do our best not to contribute to that.
The idea behind Studio Mali is to offer unique products that are handmade and cared for. It's a special item that you will want to keep in your home or wear for many years to come. We want to add joy to people's lives by either creating something that's useful or beautiful, and we believe good design would offer both. Our vision is to have products that go against mass production as we will be making good quality items on a small scale, products with craftsmanship. Yes they might be more expensive than something you would find on the highstreet, but it's because they are handmade and we hope they will be a one time buy rather than three cheaper purchases that get thrown away.
Our placemats and coasters offer unique designs and are a special purchase
When people buy from us they have the peace of mind that it has been made by Mark and myself at our home in London (mostly in our loft actually!) and not some unaudited factory in the Far East before travelling several thousand miles to get to the shelf. Customers will be supporting a small independent business rather than a big brand and we can offer a personalised experience if you pick up one of our products at a market... we love to chat!
Mark and I making in our flat in Hackney…
… and selling at one of our local markets
Materials wise, we get our plywood from a local timber merchant in north London and it is all FSC approved meaning that the wood has been sourced from well maintained forests. Although plywood isn't recycleable due to the layers of glue, it is biodegradable making it a better choice then other laser cutable materials like acrylic. As our product range has grown, we have done our best to ensure the packaging is recycleable or made from recycled materials, and that any plastic is biodegradable. We found this really cool bubble wrap which is actually made from thick textured paper so it's biodegradable and also paper tape as an alternative to plastic sellotape. We aim to send out orders in recycled cardboard boxes so you might see a few old labels on them from previous use and our tissue paper is acid-free. The aim is to avoid excessive packaging that you might get on an amazon delivery, we've made it as minimal as possible whilst protecting the products.
100% biodegradable packaging for our Hovhannes Mobile
These are just some of the things we are doing to try to reduce our carbon footprint. Others include walking to markets if they are close by or taking public transport if it's further afield, selling our wares locally to reduce travel miles, laser cutting our designs ecologically to reduce on waste, and making our products in small batches to improve efficiency.
We can make smaller pieces like earrings in the offcuts to minimise on waste
We are always looking for new ways to be more sustainable with our business, so if you have any other suggestions then we would love to hear them. Just put them in the comments box below and we will get back to you!
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