Exhibition Opening
For Textile Month, Padina will be presenting a surreal collection of art and fashion, produced with groundbreaking textiles that redefine sustainable design. Her initiatives integrate traditional craft into technology, modernizing existing tools and techniques to develop new sustainable systems in textile production.
Through her practice, she has developed many proprietary tools and systems the most notable being a spindle that spins LDPE (aka garbage bags) into a range of monofilament yarns that can be used for domestic or industrial textile production.
The plastics used in this process are sourced from street waste bins. This 0-waste process produces minimal secondary pollution and is more energy efficient than the industrial alternatives. This versatile yarn can be knit, crocheted, laced, woven, braided, and even sewn in a variety of garments, accessories, or framed art.
Inspired by early anatomical, botanical, and entomology imagery; used to build a narrative that explores the impact of plastic pollution on the human body and the environment. Padina's mission is to establish new industry standards, create with purpose, and harness the power of design to contribute to a bright, sustainable, and impactful future.
Padina Bondar is a fashion designer, textile artist, and all-around maker with a passion for beauty and sustainability. In an average week, her work consists of diving waist-deep in recycling bins, felting human hair, dumpster diving, sterilizing tampon applicators, building electronics, designing tools, spinning, weaving, knitting, lacemaking, or simply drawing. She renders “waste” with beauty and value, giving it new life and stopping it from ending up in landfills and oceans. Some notable materials in her portfolio include tampons, cardboard, human hair, straws, wrappers, food waste, and more. Subscribe your trash is her treasure! Join her on her mission to save the planet and change the fashion industry, one plastic bottle at a time.