One of our first ventures was importing a container of Hungarian hemp twine, ropes, textiles and yarns. After visiting and scouting out the handful of hemp factories in China, we imported a nice selection of textiles and prototypes of future products. Soon after we began producing Hemp Artist Canvases. Canvas being derived from the Dutch word for Cannabis – this made sense. We uncovered an antiquated method of making completely natutal gesso using fish glue and red wine along with a few more ingredients and very careful temperature controls. The resulting product was completely biodegradable, stronger then the standard cotton/acrylic method used now, and demonstrated the reality of hemp's future.
We soon set out to find more way sto replace sythetics with hemp. We heard from the grapevine of a bike designer named Calfee who had made a hemp bike for the 2001 Santa Cruz Hemp Expo. We thought this would be a great idea to revive, so donated a case of premium Romanian Hemp Sliver to Calfee Design. The result was the introduction of hemp lugs in their bamboo bike models. Calfee made some hemp fiber frames as well that tested as strong as carbon fiber but without the carbon footprint.
Over the years we have shared information and materials with folks of all backgrounds interested in makin hemp skis, boats, fribees and more. Stay tuned to see what is next.
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