It is fantastic to see so many small businesses that upcycle denim and other materials into something brilliant. This week we caught up with Erika, founder of MAZOONA.
Meet Erika, Founder of MAZOONA, Maker of Upcycled Sustainable Accessories
MAZOONA sells a range of upcycled denim accessories including clutch bags, tote bags as well as cosmetics bags and even pencil cases.
Erika, owner of MAZOONA, is from Hungary and has been living in the UK for over seven years. She has always been interested in sewing, teaching herself the basics a few years ago. Then, last November, Erika felt ready to open her Etsy store.
Erika said: "Sewing from recycled materials has always been my 'concept': At the beginning because I didn't want to buy new fabrics for practising. Later I realized that it is pretty easy to get enough unwanted clothing and a wide variety of fabrics from the people I know."
Where does MAZOONA come from?
"My mission is to MAke SOmething Old New Again, which is where MAZOONA comes from, to transform something unwanted into attractive, repurposed and useful again."
What do you love about working with recycled materials?
"I fell in love with working with denim. It's strong, versatile, and working from/disassembling denim clothing (mainly jeans in my case) has the benefit of getting a lot of super cool 'ready made' details/textures on my fabrics to start with. I love the fact that it's a good material for fabric manipulation techniques as well; I had already tried mixed media (recycled paper and denim combo for earrings), fabric slashing, painting, dyeing, stamping (like my logo onto fabric scraps).. on some of my bags."
How else do you do to keep your e-commerce eco-friendly?
"I am constantly thinking of ways of how to sew and even wrap and pack my orders as recycled and zero waste as possible, as well as incorporating the tiniest jeans bits (like belt loops) in my creations. It's amazing when I manage to transform the original function of something to a completely different yet practical part of a bag. Also, I received a few pairs of super worn out trousers to work with lately, so I started to use their wrong side (inside) for the outside of my bags, and I am planning on doing some paintings on them too – to cover the stains or marks."
You can find Erika's Etsy shop here, and make sure to follow MAZOONA on Instagram.
