{"id":9512,"date":"2022-03-08T15:33:39","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T15:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.munichfabricstart.com\/sustainable-innovations-2-flower-matter\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T09:10:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T09:10:21","slug":"sustainable-innovations-2-flower-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.munichfabricstart.com\/en\/sustainable-innovations-2-flower-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"“Flower Matter” by Irene Purasachit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Whether for the home, in a restaurant or as a gift for loved ones \u2013 beautiful bouquets of flowers bring joy in many situations in life. The problem: flowers planted for commercial sale have a very limited lifespan<\/strong>. Once they are in the vase, they wilt after a few days and are thrown away \u2013 about 40 percent of the flowers are never sold, so florists have to dispose of them themselves. Irene Purasachit, a designer living in Finland, gives these flowers a second life<\/strong> \u2013 driven by the vast amounts of flower waste that are produced daily at the markets in her home country of Thailand.<\/strong><\/p>\n

She recycles them into fabric and paper, from which she makes sustainable bags, purses or flower paper.<\/strong> This not only creates new, biodegradable and plastic-free products \u2013 it also saves tons of waste.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n

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For her Flower Matter project, she creates, among other things, “Flower Paper”, a paper made of 100 percent flower stems and leaves.<\/strong> Unique one-offs: the paper varies in colour and structure<\/strong> \u2013 depending on the type of flower used. With her “Flaux” material<\/strong> \u2013 the word stands for Flower and Flexible Sheet \u2013 she creates an all-natural, leather-like fabric<\/strong> that is then made into purses and bags for her collection.<\/p>\n

For Flaux, she mainly uses roses and carnations. The colour palette: natural, classic reds, soft pinks, bold orange and soft yellows<\/strong> \u2013 there’s something for everyone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n

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\u00bbEven though I am still in a considerably early stage of the materials\u2019 development, I have been facing many dilemmas on what really is sustainable throughout my journey of Flower Matter. For example, how can I create a completely natural, biodegradable material from flower waste that can live up to the market\u2019s high expectations on its properties (extremely durable, waterproof, etc)? Ultimately, I learned that it is extremely hard to maintain all expectations. Aside from my intention to continue developing my flower materials as ecologically as possible, I also want to challenge the market\u2019s perceptions toward innovative materials. I do think that in order to move forward to a more sustainable world, we must learn to use and to work with new materials in a different way than the highly industrialised processes we are used to now.\u00ab<\/p>\n

Irene Purasachit<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n

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Please find more infos about SUSTAINABLE INNOVATIONS in our newest interview with Simon Angel, Curator of the Sustainable Innovations Forum, and in the article about the project #1 \u2018Biotic\u2019:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n

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