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The Lovely File
The SIJ Holiday Gift Guide
by April Streeter - 12.5.05
Lovely Address File
What it is: Index card file with “found” cards and Canadian maple wood case
Who makes it: lovelydesign
Where it’s made: Vancouver, B.C.
For more info: www.lovelydesign.com/mailorder
Price: $75
Most people may not be ready to give up their BlackBerry for this low-tech organizational tool. But for those craving the tactile pleasure of flipping through an address file (and possibly finding a home for some stray business cards), Sharilyn Wright’s design is … well, lovely.
Wright is a paper pack rat who spent years collecting samples from places as diverse as a dollar store in Venice Beach to a Christmas market in Sweden. Some years back when Wright could no longer easily store her collection in her apartment, she began fashioning handmade journals from her stockpile. The resulting books are so good-looking some people can’t bear to actually use them. The address file, which rests on a base of Canadian maple, is also pretty, and 260 recycled cards and 24 alphabet index cards are included in the rather hefty price. Refill 30-card packs are available for $6.
 Quickpoint Corn Mugs
What it is: Promotional beverage mugs made from compostable corn-based plastic
Distributed by: Dall & Dall Advertising in Portland
Where it’s made: Missouri and Alabama
For more info: www.dalldall.com
Price: About $4.75 each
Disintegration time for a common plastic commuter mug? Forever. Disintegration time for Quickpoint’s mugs made from corn-derived polylactic acid (PLA)? One to two years, according to Portland distributor Andrew Dall. Quickpoint, headquartered in Fenton, Mo., produces the mugs closer to the U.S. corn supply in Missouri and Alabama, while Dall & Dall distributes them on the West Coast through its promotional products company.
Corn plastic is made by processing the plant’s starch into sugar which is then fermented, resulting in PLA pellets that can be made into all types of plastic ware, from clear, thinwalled to-go containers to thick insulating mugs.
Quickpoint’s mugs come in three sizes and can be customized with a company logo or message. They are enough of a good idea, perhaps, to get past the limited color choices of stark white, bright green and sunflower yellow, and the fact that 72 mugs is the minimum order.
 Dagoba Single-Source Chocolates
What it is: Three new dark chocolate flavors: Pacuare, Los Rios and Milagros
Who makes it: Dagoba Organic Chocolate Co.
Where it’s made: Ashland, Ore.
For more info: www.dagobachocolate.com
Price: $12 for a four-bar set
Chocoholics who once nursed their habit in secret have come out of the closet since research determined that cacao contains antioxidants and oodles of mood-lifting compounds. The drawback is that to reap the benefits, chocolate must be the dark variety and contain about 70 percent cocoa.
Dagoba Organic Chocolate Co. is taking the cult of chocolate further by introducing single-source chocolates, which means the beans for its three flavors are sourced straight from a Costa Rican organic farm, an Ecuadorian rainforest and a Peruvian cooperative, and the beans are never mixed.
While Dagoba has a reputation for introducing exotic flavors such as chili and lavender into its organic chocolate, the three new dark chocolates have to hold their own without added nuts or spices. Pacuare is mild with the taste of “golden raisins and nuances of caramel,” while Los Rios features “hints of tangerine and red berry.” Milagros, also Fair Trade-certified, “offers nuances of banana and orchid growing next to the cacao,” according to the company.
In spite of the rapturous prose, Dagoba’s four-bar set won’t break the holiday bank, and a $35 chocolate gift basket with baking drops and powdered cocoa for hot chocolate is also available on the company’s Web site.
 Fusion Bag
What it is: Messenger-style bag with integrated solar panels
Who makes it: Imagine Energy
Where it’s made: Portland
For more info: www.imagineenergy.net
Price: $350
The Fusion Bag isn’t cheap for even the most well-heeled bike messenger, but if portable power is critical, designer Jonathan Cohen says Fusion Bag is a great deal.
“We use the latest in flexible cell technology,” Cohen said. “The cells are weatherproof, shatterproof, powerful … It works well in any light, sunny to rainy. Our bag is designed for the user by the user; it isn’t just some import bag with solar panels cobbled on.”
Inside the Fusion Bag is a pocket designed to hold electronics such as cell phones, iPods and other electronic gadgets. A wire from the outside panels ends in a socket which accepts most devices’ car adapter plugs. In moderate to good light conditions, Fusion Bag can recharge a completely dead cell phone in about four hours. As additional backup, the optional $150 Fusion Power Cell can itself be charged via the Fusion Bag with six to eight hours of bright sunlight (or in four hours connected to an electrical outlet). The Fusion Bag is currently available in red and black, and Cohen said the Power Cell should be released in time for the holidays.
 Olive High-top & Munawara’s Tsong Thong
What it is: Flip-flops and a high-top sneaker
Who makes it: Bienestar International
Where it’s made: Jakarta, Indonesia
For more info: www.nosweatapparel.com
Price: $45 for the High-top, $14 for the Tsong Thong
Last year, Adam Neiman’s No Sweat sneaker, produced in Indonesia in a union factory, made a big splash, and Neiman managed to throw some media jabs at Nike (NYSE: NKE), owner of Converse and the überpopular Chuck Taylor All-Star.
But this year, Neiman said the independent stores that carry his No Sweat line of shoes and other unionproduced apparel don’t want shoes that look like Converse clones. So No Sweat designed what Neiman calls an “inverse” of the Converse, maintaining the high-top style but making all the rubber accents — the toe, the shoe tongue and the sole — in black instead of white.
No Sweat also this season began selling four styles of rubber flipflops designed by young girls affected by last year’s tsunami. The Tsong Thong line is manufactured at the same Jakarta-based union shop as the sneakers. Thirty percent of the profits from the flip-flops help rebuild schools in hard-hit Aceh province, as well as to fund scholarships for the young designers, according to the company.
 Ballard Organics Soap
What it is: Organic (soon to be certified) soaps
Who makes it: Ballard Organics
Where it’s made: Seattle
For more info: www.ballardorganics.com
Price: $4.75
Ballard Organics owner Ben Busby-Collins got plenty of soap-making experience during the five years he ran a soap supply store, and he picked up tips from the lathered-up customers who shopped there.
Busby-Collins initially started a company called Ballard Soapworks but said he realized quickly he wanted to incorporate organic oils into the process. He also wanted to avoid the multiple ingredients and animal fat used in most commercial soaps.
The end result is a soap made from a base of organic palm oil, organic extra-virgin olive oil and coconut oil, mixed and heated. Lye, the only non-organic ingredient, is added along with herbs and essential oils (orange and lemongrass are the latest flavors). This month, Busby-Collins plans to launch more products, including a liquid soap and two laundry soaps. The company is also awaiting organic certification.
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