Shopping: Let’s Go Upcycled!

Meet Amalia. Scavenger, designer and seamstress all rolled into one!

The great thing about travelling by sailing boat is that you meet all kinds of characters, from the old hippie with his 1950s wooden boat to the wealthy Swiss retiree with a one-of-a-kind yacht custom-built to sail around the world. There’s a bit of everything, and everyone finds their own way to fund their travels, maintain their boat and get by.

While stopping at a marina in Tenerife to shelter from a gale forecast by the marine weather service, I came across a colourful, imaginative character: Amalia. I’m introducing her in this first blog post dedicated to “Unusual craftspeople and artists of the sea” – and I think it’s only the first of a long series…

If you’re in a hurry, you can go straight to her shop here.

WHO IS AMALIA?

Self-taught and committed.

Walking along the pontoon where I’d taken shelter, I spotted a very pretty old boat with a smart green hull and freshly done paintwork, and a sign on her bow reading “Sailing Kâla, handmade bags and accessories made from recycled materials from the nautical industry”.

From there, it was easy to strike up a conversation with Amalia, who is originally from Belgium and, like me, one of those people who live by the sea. The winds brought her to the Canaries, and for now she’s happy here.

Starting her adventure with her crew on this classic 1960s sailing boat named Kâla, she couldn’t ignore the huge amount of leftover material from the boating industry that was destined for the bin. That’s when her creativity kicked in, and she thought there had to be something she could do with it all.

And so the first little “Sailing Kâla” accessories were born, entirely hand-sewn from punctured fenders (the protective buoys on boats) and other things she found along the way.

Then, in winter 2018, the crew took the plunge and bought their first sewing machine. Little by little, through a long learning curve of trial and error and endless days of sewing, unpicking and sewing again, the first bags made from inflatable-boat tubes came to life – followed by a whole range of unique, quirky accessories that are totally her.

UPCYCLED PRODUCTS – BUT WHY?

Just a fad, or a real necessity?

The textile industry is one of the most polluting in the world, responsible for around 8% of greenhouse gas emissions. Big brands no longer release a summer and a winter collection, but a new collection every 3 weeks – all made fast and cheap in factories on the other side of the world, with carefully calculated built-in obsolescence.

If the textile industry stopped all production overnight, we’d have enough to last decades just by recycling existing materials. Instead, we keep producing, selling, buying and throwing away.

“Sailing Kâla” products are made from recycled materials, built to last, original and sold at a fair price.

HOW ARE THEY MADE?

It takes time – a looooot of time…

Recycling waste is long, painstaking work. Sure, you don’t pay a supplier cash for your raw materials, but you don’t get them without a lot of elbow grease.

First you need to know where to find salvaged materials, which means building a network of partners. Then you have to organise collection rounds, find somewhere to store it all, and do a huge amount of cleaning and preparation to make it usable. Only after all that does the creative and design work begin.

The materials are often very hard to work with, and getting them to take the shape you want and hold it takes serious experience, built up over time through successes and failures.

WHERE CAN YOU BUY THEM?

No need to overstuff your suitcase – she’ll ship them to you!

Kâla is still sailing today with her new crew. Production, meanwhile, has moved out of the boat’s cockpit and into a small, modest but very practical workshop, allowing the brand to keep growing and stock up on the materials it needs.

You can meet Amalia in person in the south of Tenerife by contacting her on +34 642 77 51 72, or click this link to visit her online shop and order. Shipping is very reasonable to mainland Europe and free within Spain.

To wrap up:

Thanks for reading this article – feel free to share it as much as you like!
Thanks also to Amalia for inspiring me to write it, and to photographer Juanmi Alemany, who did a fantastic job!