Harmony prints / Ultima ceiling tiles by Celeste LeCompte - 2.27.06
Harmony prints
What it is: Organic cotton sateen and twill printsWho makes it: Harmony ArtWhere it’s made: Designed in San Francisco; textiles printed in South CarolinaMore info at: www.harmonyart.comPrice: Ranges from $13.75 per yard wholesale to $32 per yard retail “The Industrial Revolution started with the textiles mills, and for the next 50 years if you said the word ‘industry’ it meant cotton,” Harmony Susalla says. “If cotton can lead the Industrial Revolution, I have this vision that it can also lead the next revolution.”
The organic revolution, that is.
And Susalla’s leading the charge with a collection of candy-colored prints in a luxurious design-ready width of 110 inches. Susulla once designed fabrics for retailers from Wal-Mart to Williams-Sonoma, but she ultimately wanted a change.
“I felt like I was making pretty landfill, and that wasn’t very rewarding,” she says.
Working with the Organic Trade Association’s fiber processing standards, Susalla began collaborating with Fox-Rich Textiles Inc. in Danbury, Conn., to produce fabrics printed with water-based ink. Anticipated in 2006 are six new designs, including a 7-ounce U.S.-grown organic cotton twill.
Ultima ceiling tiles What it is: 78 percent recycled content ceiling tiles that the manufacturer takes backWho makes it: Armstrong World Industries Inc.Where it’s made: St. Helens, Ore.More info at: www.armstrong.comWhite mineral fiber ceilings may not seem like something to get excited about, but Armstrong is making a good case for why, just maybe, there’s reason to cheer.
Armstrong’s ceiling recycling program collects old mineral fiber ceiling panels, even those not made by Armstrong, and turns them into new ceiling tiles. At no additional charge, Armstrong picks up removed materials, helping building owners earn credits in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) program. Ceilings collected on the West Coast are processed at Armstrong’s St. Helens plant. More than 2 million square feet of ceiling tiles have been recycled since 1999.
Ultima ceiling tiles stand out among the company’s offerings for both their high recycled content (78 percent) as well as a variety of high-performance features, such as scratch and impact resistance, washability and soil resistance.
