Turning plastic bags into stylish totes
Plastic bags are everywhere - the grocery store, the shopping center, under the kitchen sink, at the Transfer facility and all too often stuck in trees, in the ocean and on the sides of the road. Imagine if someone could take those bags and turn them into something both useful and stylish.
Cohasset doesn't need to wait any longer, 24-year-old Ashley Ulmer is making sturdy and fashionable totes from those ubiquitous plastic bags.
A 2005 graduate from William College and a 2001 Cohasset High grad, Ulmer has devised a way to weave environmental and social consciousness into something new.
"It's quite snowy [in Western Massachusetts where Williams is located] so I developed a knitting and crocheting habit," says Ulmer, who had learned to do both from her grandmother when she was a little girl. When she took up the hobby again (with the help of a refresher course in the form of internet instructions), she discovered a new passion for it. However, she quickly realized how expensive knitting yarn was and her college budget couldn't handle the cost.
Not one to give up so easily, Ulmer consulted her professor, Peggy Diggs, to see if she had any ideas for other methods or materials Ulmer could use to knit and crochet. It didn't take long for them to decide on one of the most plentiful (and cheap) materials out there - plastic bags.
"It's a free material, which made it exactly what I was looking for," says Ulmer, but the environmental undertones of the project were not lost on her, "I thought 'this is a brilliant way to recycle.'"
After college, Ulmer tried out the 9-to-5 working schedule but realized quickly it wasn't for her. This summer, she returned to her hometown and decided to start her own business, Be a Bag Lady. She has been selling the bags on the internet at www.beabaglady.com and at the Farmer's Market on the Common.
Even more than the re-useable bags now available at supermarket, Ulmer's bags actually use the product that's polluting. Literally billions of bags are produced and handed out free in consumer venues across the world each year. Each of Ulmer's creations utilizes 100-plus plastic bags.
"It doesn't make a huge difference but it is 100 or more bags not out in the environment," she says
Finding just the right method to create the bags was a trial and error process, but over time Ulmer figured out the most seamless method for creating the plastic bag "yarn" and then the tote bag itself. The time-consuming and laborious process, which can total about six hours per bag, begins with the creation of a skein of yarn. Ulmer lays out the plastic bag flat and cuts off the handles and bottom. She then cuts the bags into width-wise in about one-inch tubes, the tubes should be complete circles. Next, Ulmer intertwines two tubes together to create a seamless piece of plastic.
"I don't use all of the bag, but it's minimal," she says.
After Ulmer creates the skeins of yarn, she sets out to create the bag. Each one is one-of-a-kind, "every bag is an artistic venture. I use whatever I have on hand so I don't know what the bag's going to look like when I start out."
Her customers so far have used the bags for a variety of purposes, from a shopping tote to a beach bag to carryall for the gym.
"People come up with all different ways to use them," she says. Although the bags are not waterproof, they are easy to clean and "surprisingly durable," she says. The end product has the appearance of a woven wicker or straw and is soft to the touch. The plastic bag yarn unexpectedly takes on the quality of yarn, with tiny contrasting flecks dotting the surface of the bag due to the writing on each of the plastic bags. She uses plastic bags with a little more weight to them to construct the bottom of the bag.
Ulmer's friends and family have helped her along the way by donating their plastic bags and offering to make the plastic skeins of yarn. All the bags she uses are previously used and are being recycled.
The bags are only part of Ulmer's greater ambition to be a California entrepreneur, along with her sister, Kimberly, a 2007 William graduate. They plan to start an artsy, cultural boutique in Ventura County. Her vision is to make the bags even more socially conscious by working local women's shelters and victims of domestic abuse to teach them how to knit and make the bags. By teaching them the process (and paying them for their service) she hopes to empower them. Each bag would then be sold with a short biography of the woman who created it, she says, in an effort to raise awareness of women's issues.
Ulmer has no plans for patent her bag-making process and she does not believe she's the first person to dream it up. She encourages the people she meets to make the bags themselves - "if they are feeling empowered to do so." She even has detailed instructions of the process on her website.
"I find [the project] worthwhile to do regardless of profit," she says.
Her ideal hope is the manufacturing of plastic bags is ceased. San Francisco has already banned plastic bags from large supermarkets, and she hopes other cities and towns will follow suit.
Ulmer's bags are available online at www.beabaglady.com in three sizes: large tote, medium tote and book bag, all under $50. Custom bags are available. She has a stand at the Farmer's Market on the Common, Thursdays 2:30-6:30p.m.