DESCENDANT

On Saturday, May 17, we had planned to host HELLY HANSEN’s long-standing beach cleanup activity together with a workshop that upcycles discarded yacht sails and ropes, in collaboration with our partner HELLY HANSEN. Unfortunately, the weather turned rainy, and with nothing to shield the shoreline, the wind was strong. As a result, the beach cleanup was canceled, and only the workshop took place.

Completed splice where the rope end is unraveled to create a ring

Many of the participants who registered in advance came with children, creating a cheerful environment. As instructors, we welcomed Ms. Amiko Tanoue and Ms. Naoko Tamura of ReSail Factory who also have a long relationship with HELLY HANSEN, and the workshop began inside the Hayama Marina facilities. First came greetings from HELLY HANSEN’s Shingo Yamazaki:
“As part of our H2O (Helly Hansen Ocean) project, we have carried out beach cleanups along the coasts where we often play. The recycled-polyester T-shirt we collaborated on with DESCENDANT is made from materials such as plastic bottles washed up on Ishigaki Island. We wanted to share our environmental awareness by having participants experience the beach clean-up that underlies these products... This time around, with help from DESCENDANT, who also share a love for the sea, we decided to hold a workshop making sacoche bags that repurpose discarded yacht sails and ropes.”

LeftTop：Trying the process of forming a ring in the rope using a rigging wire-splice technique
RightBottom：Stamping away with graphics from DESCENDANT and HELLY HANSEN

At the end, everyone took a commemorative photo holding up their one-of-a-kind original sacoche. Thank you all for your hard work!

Ms. Tanoue, who is also a sailor, and her colleagues at ReSail Factory prepared the bag bodies by washing, drying, cutting, and sewing sails that would otherwise have been discarded. Under the guidance of the two instructors from ReSail Factory, participants threaded through ropes in the colors of their choice, called “sheets” in sailing, into the bag bodies they had selected. Along the way, they learned a splicing technique for making a ring by unlaying the rope end, without using needles or thread. Ms. Tanoue demonstrated, and participants tried to imitate, struggling in the best way, this was not easy. Some tackled it together with their children, others focused quietly on their own, each in their own style. The rope, once passed through the grommets, becomes the shoulder strap.
Then, with more than ten different stamps prepared by DESCENDANT, everyone stamped to their heart’s content to finish a one-of-a-kind sacoche. Children and adults alike got absorbed in stamping, layering multiple graphics, and ending up with richly individual designs. The effort to upcycle discarded sails and ropes is exactly what DESCENDANT’s THINC. project is about. We hope this workshop served as a catalyst to think about environmental issues and recycling.