News
Saving The Environment, One Bag At A Time
By Sherry Conohan
COLTS NECK - Bergen Bowne and his sister, Ivy, are trying to save the environment one plastic bag at a time.
Bergen, who is 12, and Ivy, who is 10, work in the barn on the family's farm on Pegasus Drive here to turn colorful plastic bags from the supermarket, the cleaners and elsewhere into eye-catching jewelry, tote bags, zippered cosmetics bags, credit card holders, business card holders, checkbook holders, notebook holders and other accessories.
They are joined by their mother, Michal Sparks, an artist by profession, in ironing plastic bags of different colors into new shapes and designs.
Dad, Gifford B. Bowne II, is their marketing agent who sees all kinds of possibilities for other products in the future made from the recycled plastic.
This nouveau art from their "green" business, Indigo Gate Green, attracted a lot of attention at the Farmer's Market at the Galleria in Red Bank last summer where they experimented with their wares, according to Gifford.
"It has legs now," he said. "We have to see where it can go."
The idea of doing something constructive with plastic bags rather than see them go into the landfill or the ocean originated with Bergen, Sparks reported. She said Ivy quickly joined him in his quest. They collected all the plastic bags coming into the home, but didn't know what to do with them, she continued.
Bergen, a seventh grader at the Cedar Drive Middle School, said he got the idea of recycling the plastic bags the summer before last.
"We wanted to do something to help the environment," he explained.
But, Michal said, they didn't know what to do with them. The children were braiding the plastic but hadn't developed a product. Their "ah-ha" moment came when she was talking to a friend of hers a year ago shortly before Christmas and the friend told her she was an artist and to do what she knows.
The friend suggested fusing the bags together.
So Michal got out an iron, and she and the children began to fuse the different colored bags together, and by trial and error figured out what worked and what didn't. Some of the plastic stuck to the iron and gummed it up. But they made enough credit card holders and business card holders to present them as gifts to the guests at Gifford and Michal's annual Christmas open house last year.
"They think these are the coolest things," Ivy, a fifth grader at the Conover Road Elementary School, remarked.
Over the next several months, the children and their mother, Michal, perfected their technique. The pale blue cleaners' bags became a staple background material. Adding a colorful Romaine hearts of lettuce bag on top of it, made for a nifty tote bag. A yellow caution tape became a business card holder. Kit Cats wrappers, Snickers wrappers, M&Ms bags, Twix wrappers, Rold Gold bags, MacIntosh apple bags are just a few of the plastic bags that underwent a metamorphosis. Ditto the plastic bags that The New York Times and the Asbury Park Press arrive in.
They add pieces of woven plastic and plastic grass from Easter baskets for a decorative accent.
Michal does the sewing.
"I use a little old Singer (sewing machine) that I had in high school to do the stitching," she said.
The plastic is tough, all three reported.
Michal said one woman last summer purchased a tote bag to carry her laptop computer in, and another woman, whose daughter plays in a symphony orchestra, ordered a tote bag for her daughter to carry her music stand top in.
Gifford said that during the Farmer's Market last summer, Bergen noticed that there was a lot of jewelry on sale and asked if they could make some jewelry.
"I told him we couldn't," he said.
But, he said, Bergen experimented and found that by folding and rolling the plastic, before ironing it, he could produce stone-like pieces for jewelry. "I squished them together," Bergen reported.
"Who would have "thunk" you could take plastic bags and make jewelry out of them?" Gifford asks in retrospect.
Michal said that in response to one customer's request, Bergen made a necklace, bracelet and earrings from a purple tablecloth the woman gave him.
"She said she couldn't use it any more, it has holes in it," Gifford said.
"Some of the purple came out pink," Michal added.
She said customers really like the jewelry, particularly the chunky jewelry, because it's so lightweight.
Ivy particularly likes Shop-Rite bags because of their yellow color.
"It's very bright," she said. But, she added, "My favorite is the garlic bag."
Asked what she liked best about the business, Ivy replied, "My favorite part is designing the sheets" of plastic prepared for making the company's items. She just designed a white snowflake pattern on a blue background.
"It's really exciting," she said.
Bergen said he's having fun with making their products. His favorite part?
"I'm working on some new colors," he reported. "Our main colors are green, blue, orange and purple."
The company has items on sale at two outlets - Sea 'n Green in Bayhead and The Fairest of Them All in the shopping area by historic Smithville Inn.
The items they sell range in price from $5 for a magnetic bookmark to $65 for special order totes.
"So there's something for everyone," Michal said.
Gifford said the company expects to have a Web site, at which products can be ordered, set up sometime in the first quarter of the new year.
Indigo Gate Green is a division of Indio Gate, Inc., the company that markets the designs made by Michal, a licensed artist, for firms that make such items as dinnerware, stationery, mailing labels and Christmas cards. Those companies buy the license to their designs. Michal also illustrates children's books.
The family just got a new big press shortly before Christmas, which has replaced the iron, and Gifford has big ideas for it.
Already, he said, surfer friends have asked if he would make board shorts for them. Michal said there's also the possibility of making surfing sails.
Gifford then showed a credit card blank made of colorful plastic and said he's talking to two national credit card companies about possibly adopting them.
Down the line, "maybe roofing materials," he continued.
"Where do we go now?" he ruminated. "Watching the three of them, it could become a monster."
For more information or to order any of the products of the company for the holidays or thereafter, e-mail indigogategreen@aol.com or call (732) 577-9333.
