Ethical Expo 2008!

Curious Tales heads across the water this month on our first adventure! Hooray! We will be exploring ethical festivals in the South of England!

The first port of call is Bristol, where we will be exhibiting at the first ever Ethical Expo, on the 9th and 10th May 2008. It should be a fantastic event, supported by Oxfam, The Fair Trade Foundation and Christian Aid, and designed to coincide with World Fair Trade Day.

Head along to Castle Park to sample the delights of over 60 major exhibitors. Get lost in the Eat, Live and Wear Zones, look out for our T-shirts in the ethical fashion show, and take notes at seminars and workshops throughout the day, all while slurping ice-cream in the glorious sunshine (here's hoping!)

Its free in, and on from 10am-6pm each day. Please register at their website to ensure entry and to be kept up to date with ethical info.

Hope to see you there! For directions click here.

And that's not at, then we're heading to...?

Simon Dale's gorgeous affordable eco home

This gorgeous eco family home in Wales looks as though it was built by a troupe of fairies! It is a mass of organic curves, dug into the hillside, with a grass turf roof that blends in to the surroundings beautifully. The structure was woven from oak posts collected from the forest site. Straw bales staked together with hazel twigs made up the walls, while the windows were misfit units rescued from a local double glazing supplier.

Amazingly it cost only £3000 and took about 4 months to build, using just a chainsaw, hammer and chisel. Solar panels provide electricity for lighting and a computer. Inside there is a wood burning stove which heats the house, a compost toilet and fridge which uses cold air to keep the food chilled. Water is fed in by gravity from a nearby spring.

It took Simon Dale and his father in law about 1000-1500 hours to construct, and neither of them had any previous building experience. The kids had a ball in the woods during construction, collecting slugs, acorns and insects, splashing in puddles and getting covered in mud. Their mum, however was hankering after clean toilets and coffee shops!

I think this house looks amazing. I would love to live in something like this! I'm sure the kids absolutely adore it. And after all, they were the whole reason behind it!
The Dale's wanted to be full time parents while their children were young. Building this house allowed them to live off a much smaller income, without the worry of a mortgage. They were also very aware of the cocktail of chemicals present in traditional building materials, and wanted to live as naturally as possible.

For more information on their new sustainable building projects, check them out here.

Fashion for Sustainability Exhibition - Istanbul

I just sent Bernard C. Periwinkle off to Istanbul today. He's going to be hanging out in the Garanti Gallery with other sustainably made garments courtesy of Kate Fletcher, eco fashion guru extraordinaire. Kate is curating the exhibition called SürModa / Fashion for Sustainability which will run from 18th March - 26th April 2008.

As she says, "The exhibition explores fashion as a positive force for change towards sustainability. It combines the products, processes and voices of global brands, independent designers, pressure groups and garment workers, presenting them as a new type of fashion activism."

Kate certainly knows what she is talking about, she has just written a book called Sustainable Fashion and Textiles - Design Journeys, which is available from Earth Scan. I tried getting it from Amazon, but they haven't sorted their supply yet. I'll write more about it when I finally get my hands on a copy.

I'm sure Bernard will have a ball, and return sunkissed with a few tales of whirling dervishes, steaming baths and hookah pipes!