December 8, 2021 David ROS

World Climate Day / 8 December 2021

International Climate Day

We're celebrating this Wednesday 8 December 2021, International Climate Day and to participate in this event, we'd like to share a fantastic upcycling project for neoprene hypalon ORCA fabrics that surely equip your semi-rigid boats.

First of all what is Upcycling ?

" upcycling " in English or " recycling from above" in French, is a concept based on reusing objects with the aim of giving them a second life by improving and/or making them attractive.

To put it simply, it's the art of making something beautiful out of something old.

This term was coined in the 1990s by an interior designer Reiner Pilz.

We would like to honour a craftswoman who offers upcycled solutions with the old ORCA hypalon neoprene floats from our RIBs but also sails from old sailing boats, life rafts ...

This initiative called Sailing Kala is led by Amalia, a young Belgian national (We know Belgium well too !) who has been based in Tenerife for a few years now in her old 60s sailing boat.

It was in 2018, that Amalia bought her first sewing machine. After several attempts, the first hypalon bag made from the floats of old RIBs was born.

machine à coudre, sewing machine, sailing Kala, hypalon, couture, slow fashion, upcycling, up cyclé, bateaux, semi rigide, zodiac

Following this first creation, a whole range of accessories (wallets, purses, bags, kits and even Backgammon) to follow. Creative initiatives are growing all the time.

All creations are handmade by herself (cleaning, preparation, creation and sale on the web and in partner boutiques).

Today the small business has a small workshop so that it can work more comfortably and also benefits from a larger storage area for collecting available fabrics.