Live Textiles Debuts at “West Coast Green”
LIVE Textiles, Inc.
Press Release
For Immediate Release
September 17, 2008
Contact:
Karen Dingmon
425-953-4808
livetextiles.com
LIVE TEXTILES DEBUTS AT “WEST COAST GREEN”
Fabrics for “Luxury Interiors Valued Environment”
SELECTED BY ECOFABULOUS FOR USE IN EXPO’S “SHOWHOUSE”
Live Textiles is a new company founded in 2007 offering a diverse collection of beautiful, colorful and original prints on natural, sustainable and certified organic fabrics made from cotton, linen, hemp, and bamboo. These fabrics are designed for the home interior market for all types of window treatments, pillows, bedding and light upholstery.
The founders of LIVE Textiles are four women with backgrounds in design, art, and biology committed to producing beautiful interior fabrics which are healthy for you and the environment. Each of us has many years of education and experience in these fields which forms the basis of our company’s mission. My degree in Biology and my work for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) doing research on the Columbia River salmon runs, has given me first hand knowledge of how pollutants, chemicals, pesticides and fungicides in run-off and waste-water can impact the quality of our rivers and oceans. The fabrics we use are grown and processed without pesticides, chlorine bleach or formaldehyde. We digitally print with water based ink and our printing process does not release any VOC’s, solvents or wastewater. The base materials and print production methods conserve and sustain our earth’s natural resources and encourage environmentally and socially responsible business practices.
We digitally print with water based ink/dye in the USA. This printing process has minimal wasted ink/dye. It has a higher fixation rate, above 90% as compared to traditional printing processes that have a fixation rate of 65-70%. Conventional printing uses carriers to bind the dye to the fabric which then needs to be scoured off along with the 30% excess dye in very contaminated waste water. With digital printing the ink/dye is dried to set the print but does not require curing ovens, scouring solvents or salts, all of which are highly contaminating. Digital printing with water based ink does not have the air emissions related to traditional printing such as solvents, acetic acid from curing ovens, combustible gases or particulate matter , and does not require any waste water release. Since digital printing requires fewer steps and no costly recovery process to clean waste water entering our streams, it has lower power consumption and therefore lower greenhouse gas emissions.
We can also offer the designer the ability to customize any of our fabric by changing the scale of the print to coordinate with need. The color of the print can be changed to any of the colors in our color palette or a custom color they choose. The ground fabric we print on can also be changed to any of the grounds we offer. So now designers can no longer say, “I wish this was a different color or on a lighter weight fabric or if the scale was larger it would work perfectly.” The toile’s can be individualized with their particular client’s homes and interests drawn into the print.
LIVE Textiles will be at West Coast Green in San Jose Sept. 25-27, 2008 and Green Build in Boston Nov. 19-21, 2008.
