Trade Union is a project that uses Solanyl, a starch-based plastic, to explore the relationship between mass production and handcraft.
The initiative of Dutch designer Rachel Griffin and her practice, Studio Earnest, Trade Union is also an exploration of innovative ways to address sustainability.
While the Solanyl plastic is industrially produced, it is naturally biodegrabale. For Trade Union Griffin extruded the plastic into simple profiles, which were then used to craft a family of woven vessels usiing more traditional methods.
Griffin expplains that using a “an industrially produced ‘natural’ materials suggests a new relationship between industry and craft; a marrigae of industrial chemistry and traditional knowledge that allows for a more flexible system of production and design”.
