Friday, May 7, 2010

Fiber Arts Friday - Matter of Trust

Today's post is not necessarily about fiber arts, but more about the by product of fiber arts and a use for the waste.

With shearing season in full swing and a nasty oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I thought I would talk a little about Matter of Trust for today's edition of Fiber Arts Friday.

I learned about Matter of Trust about 18 months ago when I wanted to make a hair donation for cancer patients.  Most organizations that take hair for wigs, have very strict guidelines regarding the amount of grey, length and whether it's been colored or not.  All of which meant I was not able to donate to them.

I found Matter of Trust through @SusanVLewis on Squidoo.  I made my own hair donation and vowed to send them the remnants from our alpaca shearing days.

@MatterOfTrust will take hair of any length and type as long as it's relatively clean.  They use the hair, fur and fleece to make booms and mats that collect oil.  Hair is a very good collector of oil, which is why we wash it on a regular basis.

Their Contribution Page has instructions for how to send in hair, fur, waste wool and nylons as well as cash and other donations.

Perhaps you have a dog or horse that needs brushing, or some waste fiber from making beautiful yarns, or need a haircut.  I encourage you to consider sending that fiber waste to Matter of Trust and put it to good use.

Our shearing day is scheduled for May 22nd.  I will be sending our waste fleece to Matter of Trust.

8 comments:

Kate (KnitsInClass) said...

Thanks for the information about Matter of Trust, especially in light of the recent oil spill. I had no idea that there was an organization out there collecting hair!

Dutch Hollow Acres said...

I never thought of collecting the shedding hair off my horses for this cause. Thanks for posting!

WonderWhyGal said...

Thank you for sharing. I will print off the information so I can pass it on to my sorting clients. One person's waste is another organization's gain.

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's cool! I always wanted to donate my hair, and now I know how I can!

Jess

Allison said...

Thanks for telling us about such an interesting organization. I saw on the news hair salons with bins to collect hair just for that purpose.

Kathryn Ray said...

Thank you all. It's really quite amazing how good hair is at collecting oil.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing the that info. I wonder if anything like that exists here (France). I love being able to use, reuse and recycle everything and pretty much anything!

Kathryn Ray said...

@shellyfish I did a quick google search for hair donation in france but kept getting stuff in the US. So I sent a note to team@matteroftrust.org to ask if they know of anyone.