Author: Nisha Desai

Hi, welcome to Nisha Designs. Nisha Designs is the design studio of artist and textile designer, Nisha. This is where you can explore my artwork – each painting representing a magickal journey imagined spiritually and reflected physically with every brush stroke – buy paintings, and request commissions. Nisha Designs is also home to my textiles business. I have 18+ years of experience working in the textile industry for Abercrombie Mills (Cone Jacquard Mill), Opuzen, Steven Harsey Textiles, Koni Hospitality, Welspun, Venus Group. We provide custom and commissioned art, custom textile designs for hospitality and home textiles, as well as Art Direction services. Whether its working with luxurious natural fibers – such as wools, cottons and organic linens – to designing your next bedding collection; to capturing the essence of a moment in nature through intricate brushstrokes on a canvas; or gathering nature’s little treasures – like stones, shells, leaves and feathers – to support me creatively in producing mood boards for art direction – Nisha Designs honors Mother Earth in all that we do, and creates with the utmost care and respect for the planet and her resources.

ClimateVoice: New initiative aims to mobilise workers to urge companies for tougher policies to fight climate change

A new climate change initiative, ClimateVoice, has launched to help employees at big companies press their bosses for more aggressive policies to fight climate change.

The organisation, led by former Google and Facebook sustainability chief Bill Weihl, is designed to mobilise the workforce to urge companies to go “all in” on climate, both in business practices and policy advocacy.

Students preparing to enter the workforce and current employees will be invited to take the ClimateVoice Pledge, to leverage their influence to urge companies to go #AllinOnClimate. Those making the Pledge will get action updates and tools they can use to raise the climate issue with employers.

Launching the initiative at the ClimateCAP conference in Virginia last month, Bill Weihl said: “America’s corporate sector has the power to disrupt climate change and put us on a path of steep carbon reductions.

“Many companies are doing great sustainability work in their operations, and some are speaking up – but not enough of them, and not often enough. Silence is no longer an option. ClimateVoice is mobilising the power of the workforce to activate companies to raise their voice in climate policy battles.

“Unleashing the muscle of the corporate sector will be a climate game changer, tipping the balance on policy battles that are now stacked in favor of polluting industries. We invite all current and future employees to visit us at climatevoice.org and take the ClimateVoice Pledge.”

ClimateVoice has announced three policy focus areas for its launch. The Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) would make Virginia a leader on climate, and ClimateVoice is urging action before the close of the legislative session in March. In Illinois, ClimateVoice is calling on workers and companies to back the state’s pending Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA). ClimateVoice will also focus on the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI), a regional effort aimed at reducing transportation emissions in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.

Over the next few months, ClimateVoice will be engaging students and activists at a series of climate-related events across the US, including the GoGreen conference in Seattle next month.

Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about lifestyle including sustainable and green living. She also offers content services to businesses and individuals at Rosamedea.com

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Gaia Mission, a new Chrome extension and search engine, helping to restore Earth’s ecosystems one search at a time — Life & Soul Magazine — ravenhawks’ magazine

Gaia Mission is a a Chrome extension and search engine that enables users to generate revenue towards the protection and preservation of natural resources and wildlife with every click. The Montreal-based search engine has partnered with Rainforest Trust to support the protection of rainforests, coral reefs, oceans, wildlife, tree planting, and animals. Gaia Mission has […]

Gaia Mission, a new Chrome extension and search engine, helping to restore Earth’s ecosystems one search at a time — Life & Soul Magazine — ravenhawks’ magazine
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ZeroCabin: Zero impact sustainable cabins for off-grid living in the thick of nature

Chile-based ZeroCabin has created a collection of 100% self-sustaining and off-grid cabins for those who want a retreat in nature that leaves zero impact.

Developed by a small team of scientists with no architectural training, each cabin is built by the ZeroCabin  team upon an elevated base of two-metre high wooden piles to maximise views in nature.

The timber-framed structures, which are built without using nails, use biodegradable insulation and thermally efficient glazing systems, which cut down on the use of active heating and cooling systems.

The “kit of parts” offered by ZeroCabin includes maintenance plans for photovoltaic panels, waste recycling and rainwater collection through reverse osmosis. These kits provide buyers with the tools and information to create a self-sustaining cabin with negative impact customised to function anywhere in the world.

ZeroCabin say: “The ZeroCabin is zero impact, it is a perfect symbiosis between you and nature. We build it wherever you want, we just leave a path, we don’t use a boom truck. 10% of our utility is invested in plans to preserve native forests and wildlife.”

Each cabin is oriented at a precise angle within its context for optimal exposure to the sun, making the most efficient use of solar panels for on-site generation of energy.

ZeroCabin

Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about lifestyle including sustainable and green living. She also offers content services to businesses and individuals at Rosamedea.com

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Women + Patterns + Plants: Helping women to reconnect to Mother Earth through colouring in

Artist and designer Sarina Mantle is helping women to reconnect to Mother Earth through a different medium – a self-care colouring book, Women + Patterns + Plants.

With a strong resonance for indigenous cultures, plant life, shamanic healing and the divine feminine, Sarina Mantle has created a beautiful book that takes the colourist on a mindful and engaging journey that is empowering.

Women + Patterns + Plants is made up of several of Sarina Mantle’s illustrations – black-and-white line drawings featuring women, patterns and plants.

The colouring book is as much a visual expression of Sarina Mantle’s journey of self-discovery. Prior to penning the book, Sarina Mantle travelled to Peru where she spent time with the indigenous women of Shipibo heritage, who are master embroiderers and painters. There she was surrounded by all the things that encompass her book – plants, textiles and women.

In an interview with Yellowzine, she said: “I felt deeply inspired by Mother Earth. I decided after my own self-discovery that I wanted to create visually through illustration; I wanted to make drawings of women reconnecting to Mother Earth. It has been my way of contributing to the collective consciousness that are returning to sustainability, nurturing plants, growing food and spending time in nature.”

Women + Patterns + Plants is a beautiful book which is a powerful way in which to nurture the connection with one’s self and one’s source, Mother Nature and her children.

Women + Patterns + Plants by Sarina Mantle is available from Amazon and independent bookstores

Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about sustainable lifestyle and green living for publications, and offers content services to planet-friendly businesses. Find out more at Rosamedea.com

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Mexican entreprenur puts invasive species of brown algae, sargassum, to use as a building material

Mexican entrepreneur Omar Sánchez Vázquez has devised a way to transform an invasive species of brown algae, known as sargassum, into building bricks. The brown algae, which traps turtles and fills the air with the smell of rotten eggs, is a threat to both the marine ecosystem and tourism.

The organic, thermal and functional construction material utilises the same technique used to make adobe bricks, although it costs 50% percent less than adobe bricks. The building bricks are also said to be resistant to hurricanes.

Omar Sánchez Vázquez first saw an opportunity in the brown sargassum seaweed to grow his gardening business in 2015, when he spotted that the sea began to dump vast amounts of the algae on beaches of the southeastern Mexican state of Quintana Roo.

Initially he used sargassum as fertiliser at his BlueGreen Nursery and sold small amounts to his customers. Yet at the same time the BlueGreen founder wanted a little adobe house, one that he would build with his own hands, and so took out all the permits needed to patent the first block of sargassum.

In 2018, Omar Sánchez Vázquez erected his first house in just 15 days using 2,000 bricks produced with 20 metric tons of sargassum. The rustic house, which is named “Angelita” in honour of Omar Sánchez Vázquez’s mother, is an exact replica of the house in which he grew up in Guadalajara in western Mexico.

Omar Sánchez Vázquez’s construction team is currently working on two building projects using sargassum. The first is a build of 10 residential homes which will be donated to poor familes, and the second, is a private project in Tulum, also on the Mexican Caribbean, where they are building 40 residential homes.

It is understood that the sargassum bricks could soon be used to build a new eco-hotel in Tulum.

Since the seaweed crisis began in the Mexican Caribbean, numerous projects have been launched to take advantage of the algae, from disposable dishes and cups and shoe soles to its use as a fine-foods ingredient and in exotic drinks.

It wasn’t long before people interested in replicating the sargassum-house model were getting in touch with Omar Vazquez, people from

Countries including Belize, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, Malaysia and the United States have also been affected by sargassum, which has hit their shores with vast amounts of seaweed daily.

Images Credit: BlueGreen

Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about lifestyles including sustainable and green living. She also offers content services to businesses and individuals at Rosamedea.com

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DELITHERM®- Our textile contribution towards reducing CO2 emissions-Nisha Designs

The range of our functional DELITHERM® fabrics is expanding. With two new articles the selection is widened. Delitherm® fabrics are energy savers both in the summer and in the winter. In the summer the drawn curtains reduce solar radiation by up to 55% and prevent the extreme heating up of rooms. Equally, in the winter Delitherm® prevents the loss of heat through the window and keeps the heating in the room. One can save up to 15% of heating cost.

PHOS DELITHERM®

The two-coloured melange yarn, which produces a horizontal pattern, gives Phos a warm look. Phos DELITHERM® is available in 4 neutral colours.

EOS DELITHERM®

Eos DELITHERM® has a smooth, closed surface and is available in white.

  • DELITHERM® fabrics are usable as:
  • sheers
  • curtains
  • linings
  • roman blinds
  • panels
     
  • DELITHERM® summarised briefly:
  • energy saving thanks to the reflection of light rays and heat
  • reduction of CO2 emissions
  • washable at 30°
  • soft drape
  • hard wearing in daily use; unlike with coated sun protection qualities there are no crease folds

For more information please email nisha@nishadesigns.com or call 702.622.8321

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Mjøstårnet: World’s tallest timber building symbolises “green shift” to carbon-absorbing sustainable design — Life & Soul Magazine

Brumunddal in forest-rich Norway is a rural town with a major forestry and wood processing industry, which now boasts the world’s tallest timber building – the 85.4m high Mjøstårnet (The Mjøsa Tower). The 18-storey mixed-use building, which overlooks Lake Mjøsa in Brumunddal, contains apartments, the Wood Hotel, swimming pool, office space, and a restaurant. Opened […]

Mjøstårnet: World’s tallest timber building symbolises “green shift” to carbon-absorbing sustainable design — Life & Soul Magazine
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Spiritual Living is Security- Nisha Designs

Photo by @kjp

As an artist, textile designer, women business owner it is my responsibility to create and service that serves the greater good leading by example and shifting my own life. And it is important to be aware how my life choices impacts the environment by my energy, thought, belief system, choices and actions. What I create, how I use the energy and intention behind that creation, service will tell me if my focus is on physical or serving the greater good. If I create art, design, sell the products that I am selling with the intention of money, pride, popularity, then no I am not serving the greater good. Because here my focus is about physical things. But if I create my art, design service products because I love what I do, love what I provide to my customers regardless of the outcome for that design, art piece, fabric then yes I am serving the greater good. That is my security. That pure joy in creating, servicing and not focusing on physical and what it will bring me is the spiritual living taking care of me.

Living spiritually is where our security is. When I shifted my focus from physical things and people to complete spiritual living, I had and have complete security for life now. My purpose becomes my security. My life every moment, energy, thought, belief system, choices and actions are spiritually guided that which serves the greater good. Each of us born here are here as a guest, temporary not permanent. As a guest it is my responsibility to treat Mother Earth and all of her resources with respect and kindness. That means my life belongs to Mother Earth in everything I do. It is my responsibility to respect the land that has given me a life to experience Mother Earth. Your focus on Physical and financial things, body do not give you security. Security is your inner being, soul and higher mind not your conscious, money mind. Approaching life as a physical and material security can and will be taken away from you at any given moment in split second. You think you have but no you have no control on anything physical. If you say your job is a security? Hmm it can come to bankrupt or close down at any given time, money? Hmm that also can be taken away from you at any point, car, health, home, career, business, acquiring physical things, falling in love with a body than the inner being can be taken away from you at any given moment, if you think having a physical body to love, marry, kids is security then really look deeply they all can be taken away from you in split seconds coz you are focus on the physical not who they are inside. Physical things including physical bodies are not security. This so called magickal life you say by doing things, going to places, traveling, clothes, restaurants, brands you buy all have a physical focus. A magickal life is living spiritually that magickally takes care of you. And what gives you magickally will also be sustained magickally. You truly have no control on your physical life. But if you stay spiritually connected then yes it will secure you. Living spiritually is your security. Your focus is the key. Believe and you will see. Shift your focus. Just by shifting your focus you can bring change not only to your life but to Mother Earth. That is what is required to shift and bring change so mother earth can do what she has to do to bring things to balance.

Looking at your life what would you say is your foundation based on? What does security mean to you?

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WOM Collective All Female Paint Jam in the Leake Street Tunnel — Inspiring City

The WOM collective, an all female group of street artists, put on their first paint jam of the year in the Leake Street Tunnel. First formed in August 2019 the collective aims to support local women artists. One of the ways of doing so is to host events such as this one. WOM collective, according…

via WOM Collective All Female Paint Jam in the Leake Street Tunnel — Inspiring City

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