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Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)I've quickly lost the 'thread' this came out of, but we were discussing natural stuffings: cotton & other materials, and the url for a line of hemp products was given. I went to the site immediately and ordered 2 Tshirts that night.
As I'm between sizes (losing wt - Hip Hip Hooray for me!!) I ordered the largest they have - a Mens' 2X. Well, it's a Mens 2X LONG! It more than amply goes around me and is long enough to cover everything.
First I wore it as a long Tshirt then as a night shirt. It didn't shrink in washing in the machine, though I tumble dried in on air only and hung it over a padded bar to finish drying.
The texture is 'interesting'; I didn't think I'd like it, as its 'hand' is both drapey, like a fine silk or rayon knit, and yet feels a bit knubbly to the touch.
I thought it might be scratchy or itchy to wear but it's next-to-the-skin wearable.
And my skin is sensitive. All in all, I give it a 'Two Thumb's Up!' so stuffing with it shouldn't be any more troublesome than stuffing with the other fibers, though I suspect that it is a shorter fiber than polyester, like cotton or kapok, so use a mask to keep the floaty fiber out of your lungs.
The first of us 7 sibs has died from Meslothelioma (asbestos) contracted when beginning work in Alcoa 22 years ago - Don't take chances with your Health!
'Bear' Bottoms OriginalsBobbie, my husband's dad has worked at Alcoa for the last 18 years... and he smokes... kinda worried about the meslothelioma thing.... but didn't know it was that serious??
Donna's Duin BruinsHi Bobbie,
The discussion is in Tips & Techniques. Bamboo Stuffing. Sorry I didn't get the hemp site for you but I need to be in bed.
Donna
Past Time BearsBobbie, I was the one that put up the hemp link. It's www.hemptraders.com
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)Hi Kim,
Rand and SIL Sonya worked at the Evansville plant. My SIL just retired from there, she's an electrician.
My brother and a few other fellows were sent into an area to clean up a mess/spill/(not sure how Alcoa classified it) so Rand had the exact dates of his exposure there. No (breathing) protection was given to them at that time...
Alcoa has been intensely following up on the class actions against them, even sending attorneys out to interview my bed-bound 94 yo Dad in AZ, because Rand is part of our large family in taking his personal history, learned that we all had physically built our own home, after dismantling 3 old Boy Scout cabins and a huge barn.
There are many 24"' X 8" x 30' solid BLACK WALNUT timbers in the framing of the house, all free for the price of dismantling & removal.
But NO asbestos was used anywhere in our home, so they cannot put the use/blame anywhere else in Rand's life but that week spent in clean-up. Shortly after that, the physical dangers became known to the workers as well as management and precautions were taken against such problems.
Unless your FIL had a more recent specific job assignment such a Rand was involved in, I doubt there's anything to worry about.
Sorry, all, to take this OT. It does concern us tho, as we've spoken in other threads about breathing in the stuffing fibers: some of us are more sensitive to them immediately but we don't know about any long term effects. I know of several retired bear artists with severe breathing probs but don't know them well enough to associate the two..
We miniaturists don't generally have as much fiber flying about.
When I did worked on a larger stuffing project (not a bear) I did what some Kind Soul advised me to do when I cut out some bears from mink and was scissor sculpting them:
I placed a Box Window Fan in a window near my chair and table, put a piece of fiberglass window screening over the front of it (on the inside, facing me) and turned the fan on HIGH, blowing the air Out.
All of the floaty, drifty fibers were sucked right up against that screening and held there.
When I was finished, I gathered the 4 corners, turned the fan Off and took the screening outside to shake clear.
Several times I even laid it over a bush or a clothes line, as it was Spring: it was entertaining to watch birds come to gather the oh-so-soft fibers for nesting material.
Now THAT'S what I call ReCycling!!!!
