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King’s Rice Bag (inspired by the African Peace Bag)

WREN Kings Rice Bag

Traditionally in Liberia a rice bag was woven out of raffia and carried not only rice but gifts for chiefs amoungst other things. It was special because of how it was woven: without seams, in one continuous motion. Only a master weaver could create one as the technique and knowledge was guarded by those who could and only taught to an apprentice after many years.

Liberian-Rice-Bag-2

In the 1960′s the Peace Corps came to Liberia and they used this bag. Over time the bag became associated with them and known as the Liberian Peace Rice Bag, or in short, the Peace Bag.

Today this bag is a rarity, only found in museums because the art of both weaving, and of weaving this particular bag, is no longer practiced. Both inspired by this bag and saddened by the story of a beautiful object lost to our fast-paced, commercial throw-away society, we decided to use our modern day Basmati Rice Bags in a similar way.

The Basmati Rice Bags found in Cape Town, originally from Pakistan, are a simple rectangle, folded and stitched closed. Once emptied two seams remain.

To make the sack useable, and longer lasting, as a bag we added an inner layer out of Duck Canvas – the original heavy-duty cotton canvas – that closes with a zip and has two pockets inside. This inner is only three pattern peices and is a system of folds rather than cuts. We tried to keep it as simple as possible to be as keep the connection to the original one-process creation of the Liberian Rice Bag/Peace Bag.

Lining - Kings Rice Bag

Outside we added two seams to the base (squaring it) and 100% cotton straps so that it can be carried – over the shoulder, in the hand, short or long.

Kings Rice Bag - collage

The final result is what we call “The Kings Rice Bag”. A versatile, strong, reusable bag that looks at home anywhere you take it.

Kings rice Bags

The Kings Rice Bag is available in a powdery naartjie orange – inspired by the rice spice Jujube (Jujube dye), and a golden yellow – inspired by the rice spice Tumeric.

Visit our shop.

Basmati Rice Bag

Size wise the bag is a 11cm deep, 23cm wide, 50cm high, 45cm across (zip).

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Information from:

Dendel, E.W. (1974). African Fabric Crafts, Sources of African Design & Technique. New York: Taplinger Pub. Co

Image of original Liberian Rice Bag from:

http://adireafricantextiles.blogspot.com/2012/06/liberian-rice-bagweaving-without-loom.html

H. Labouret, before 1933. reproduced from Karl-Ferdinand Schaedler Weaving in Africa (Pantterra Verlag, Munich, 1987.

Antique Linen YOGA bag

Blog, News

Introducing the Antique Linen YOGA Bag. And the name pretty much gives away its ultimate use. You can fit a standard yoga mat, towel and shoes in ….much more (see below what we unpacked from the yellow and blue stripe Yoga Bag). What more do you need when going to the yoga studio? Or, in my case – travelling (I used a yoga sample bag when travelling to Germany earlier this year).

The Antique Linen YOGA Bag is made from heavy-duty antique linen fabric (with a gorgeous herringbone texture). Just like the Antique Linen Duffel Bag. So a bit of ruff-and-tough use is not going to hurt this bag.

The inside is lined with a cotton: On the one side there are two open pockets and on the other there is a zipper for all your items that need to be kept safe.

The straps and handles are Nubuck leather (which is soft, matt and untreated). In case you are wondering what happens when this bag gets wet? Don’t. We have treated it with nano technology (an eco-friendly coating) making it water and dirt resistant.

Size-wise we are a little restricted by the width of the antique linen grain sacks but we managed to make a plan to offer you a 70cm long and 28cm wide bag.

New PPC cement laptop bag designs

News, Wren

In South Africa we are used to seeing Pretoria Portland Cement bags > piled high on the back of trucks, lyeing in a pile of building rubble, beside the road at a construction site. Summed up, we are familiar with the context of the brand and I took this for granted as it is such an ordinary sight for us.

So when PPC introduced new packaging I used this as the inspiration for the photoshoot > context and product, inspiration and product, before and after (although we do not use used cement bags for health reasons. If you want to find out how the bags are made click here).

I hope you like them….and the new PPC Cement packaging and laptop bags.

SUREBUILD PPC cement laptop bag.

OPC PPC Cement Laptop Bag.

BOTCEM PPC cement laptop bag

Note 1: All the new bags are available in 13″, 15″ and 17″ sizes.

Note 2: The traditional PPC Cement Laptop Bags (RAPO, SUREBUILD & OPC) will be available until stocks lasts.

BUILD IT Cement Laptop Bags

News

We made laptop bags for BUILD IT Cement using their very red and very rad packaging.

*These bags are not for sale to the public, but if you would like one, send us an email and we’ll ask Build It for you.

the PPC Cement Laptop Bag story

News

The story about how the PPC Cement Laptop Bag came to be is rather straight forward > I was at a shoe factory ordering shoes (pumps to be specific) one random day and they were showing me how they made them. Part of the procedure is to fuse the desired outer fabric to a cotton to make the fabric stronger and more suitable for the purpose. Curious as to what else this technical fabric would be used for I asked for some.

I fused it to all sorts of materials, paper being one of them. Then some time later I was driving along the highway behind a cement truck and I noticed the packaging, more specifically, the very graphic elephant logo of Pretoria Portland Cement. I thought this would be fantastic to make a bag out of so I got hold of some PPC packaging and experimented. It really was an opportunity, experiment and idea that all came together.

Once I had a prototype I contacted PPC for their permission to use their packaging and the rest is history. It reminded me of something I had written before “Inspiration is all around you, you’ve just keep your eyes and mind open to possibilities. (See blog post about connecting experiences).

So how do we make the bags now? An unused Pretoria Portland Cement paper bag is the beginning of each piece. We use unused cmenet packaging Production takes a while, but it’s worth it. We separate the layers that make up a cement packet, remove the top and third layer of the bag and fuse them together. Bonding them with black cotton means that durability is never compromised. From there, you can treat it like any other fabric. We draw the pattern, cut it and stitch the bag together (click here to watch video about us).

Fatima Samuels – sewer

The PPC Cement Laptop Bag is as practical as you can get. There are two sections and two pockets: carry your laptop cables in one pocket and a phone or mouse in the other. A padded divider separates your laptop from any other papers or notes, and the entire inside of the bag is also padded to protect everything that you carry inside it.

The bag closes with two magnets discreetly hidden on the flap.

Wendren Setzer – designer

The bags were originally coated with 3M scotchguard but we really wanted to use a more environmentally friendly product. After months of searching and testing we found a concentration of nano tech liquid glass that coats the surface with a really thin film that water, dirt and/or oil cannot penetrate, and works on the cement packaging paper.

Packaging designed for the PPC Cement Laptop Bag telling you the story about how it is made (a cement packaging becomes a bag and a bag becomes a tag).

Nano liquid glass is a revolutionary product that, in a really simple description, coats the surface so that it is hydrophobic (water repellent) in the same way that a lotus leaf is. It is completely invisible, unlike other coatings, and does not change the texture of the surface or impair it’s ability to breathe. It also enhances colour strength and makes the coated surface easier to clean without the use of detergents. It couldn’t be more perfect.

This product has proven to be so successful as a bag coating (making them water resistant, soil repellent and easy to clean) that we now also spray the Antique Linen range of bags.

The bags are available as in three colours and three sizes: 13″, 15″ and 17″ and in various colours. Click here to visit the WREN shop to buy a a PPC Cement Laptop Bag online.

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Other PPC Cement Laptop Bag posts:

South African Fashion Week

Highlights of Munich Creative Business Week

TOTAL’s fresh air campaign (with video)

Cape town for World Design Capital

PPC Cement Laptop Bag collection photoshoot

PPC Cement Laptop Bag packaging

See how it lasts (short post about the life of a Wren PPC Cement Laptop Bag)

Other PPC Cement Laptop Bag articles:

Cool New Stuff, This is Awesome, Fashionably Geek, Green by Design, Tech News Hourly, Gadget Lab on Wired, Myweku, Babazeka, Urban Review, Embalagem Sustentavel, Eco Salon, The Cool Gadgets, Mad About Bags, BoingBoing, Imod, Cool Things and Gadget Sin.

Highlights in Munich

News

I learnt a great deal in Munich about business and design. There was a lot of confusion in the beginning setting up for the exhibition but it was a great success in the end with a lot of bags being sold and a lot of interest being created around them. Most amazing for me was the success of the linen range:- although they are my favourite bag (because I absolutely adore the antique linen) they are not generally Wren’s top seller (I’m being very open and honest here). However at the “Too Good To Waste” exhibition the bags were loved so much I sold out of the stock I had.

Here are the highlights for me.

I met Noami Baumgartl – photogapher of “Stella Polaris”. She now sports a SUREBUILD PPC Cement Laptop Bag around.

There were amazing presentation and talks. Sadly we did not realise this in the beginning and missed many but for those that I did manage to get away for, and find in the maze of a snowy Munich, I learnt a lot and was deeply inspired.

I even autographed a bag which was a first.

I met so many wonderful people – most of which I was too shy to ask if I could stand for a photograph with so the meeting is only imprinted in my memory. The opening of MCBW at BMW World was really impressive. the building is beautiful, the interactive learning center was so much fun and the people who were at the opening were both interesting and impressive.

I was on interviewed for TV (sorry, I still cannot find the clips but here is one about the exhibition as a whole). There was a lot of press and this is one of my favourite online reviews > “Too beautiful, to simply land in the garbage” by Welt Online.

In between all of this I visited museums. In South Africa we have one art museum and it does not have famous modern artworks so it is something completely different when you have to pick which museums to visit in your short stay becuase there are just too many to do them all. I cannot explain what it is like when you have learnt about an artwork and then when you see it for the first time in real life the difference there is – it really does leave one breathless and exhausted. My highlight in Munich was the Deutsche musuem which is of a scale that is incomprehensible if not experienced by oneself.

It was one very cold, very inspiring, whirlwind of a week.

Amazing Coffee Sack Prints

News

Cape Town’s coffee roasters get their coffee beans from a selection of coffee plantations. Every now and then you discover an amazing print like these: