Sustainable Art: Rebecca Journal This month we are featuring Rebecca Journal and her dreamy work including her gorgeous sustainable tote bags. What inspired you to start Rebecca Journal? During my last year of art school, I began to daydream about owning my own small business and creating a physical product that represented me and my creative style, but it took me a whole pandemic identity through my illustrations and drawings on Instagram, so the voice and sensibilities of Rebecca Journal came to me organically, but I only began sewing in July 2020 after my mum began sewing masks for friends on her little machine. I was really excited by the idea of using the machine so I attempted a scrunchie – let’s just say it did noooot go well! But I out how to make bags. It brought me so much joy and a sense of accomplishment- a feeling which had dwindled thanks to the pandemic – so I used every moment of my day to practise and research ways to get better! The whole journey of my brand has been so natural and exciting for me so far; I love creating so much and being able to combine product making with illustration and product photography is the most fun ever. How do you ensure sustainability in everything you create? I knew as soon as I began sourcing materials to create mock-ups that I wanted to try as hard as I could to focus on sustainability – at university we were guesttaught by Orsola De Castro, the incredible founder of Fashion Revolution and the ‘Who Made My Clothes?’ movement. Everything she taught us about ethical production and the cruelties of fast fashion echoed in my mind as soon as I realised the heavy responsibility of making products that could create even more damage. Sustainability is a process that takes a lot of thought, detail and research but I am so happy with the decisions I’ve made so far: I use only deadstock and remnant fabric for my bags – meaning I am reusing fabrics and giving them new life – and locally produced organic cotton for the inner linings. wonderful company who use eco-friendly inks and a water-free printing and manufacturing process! My stickers and illustration prints are printed onto company using a carbon-neutral courier, and the tissue and packaging I use for orders are all made
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from recycled materials, using vegetable dyes and non-toxic processes. All the materials I use for my bags are free of animal products – the kraft tape I use to seal deliveries is also vegan and made from 100% recycled paper! I always buy from small businesses when I look for cute stickers for decorating my delivery boxes and try to make sure they are made of paper rather than plastic. It’s just little old me who makes my products, which means I am able to keep tabs on every detail of the business and continue to work on developing my brand’s sustainability. I have a few tweaks and changes coming to Rebecca Journal in the summer which will give my customers even more transparency and I feel so comfortable and happy with the direction my brand is heading! All the research and work I’ve put into the consciousness of my brand has been so valuable and is a constant reality check – it has changed my perspective completely towards fast-fashion brands and shown me just how important it is to shop thoughtfully and carefully, buying from small, slow and sustainable brands wherever we can.mSmall businesses are where all the most beautiful and cool products are anyway! Where does the inspiration for your designs come from? The Sunday bag in Oat is a CTV favourite! I love Oat too! One of the down-sides to using My inspiration for each bag comes from so many different places, but I have noticed moods and memories – like nostalgic thoughts of past summers and day-dreaming of starry evenings in Paris – are always what pull into feeling inspired. Currently all my bags are gingham, so I try to create a certain feeling through the shades I pick. Oat was made during the summer of 2020, and all I could think of was sitting in the warmth of a city with someone I love, drinking a coffee made in the coffeehouse across from where we were sat – the bustle of a city and the slowness of spending a summer’s day with a friend. Matcha is an ode to fresh, zesty summer memories, where all the colours of the world seem so bright and beautiful and Cocoa is the warmth of the familiar and being snuggly, an ode to cosiness! I love to mix classic feelings with a sense of city-life, romantic and whimsical but also new and fresh! I’m not sure if I quite meet all the briefs I give myself but I love to think of my bags in that way.
