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Sustainability.
Natural Bedding for 30 Years
Entrepreneur
finds niche with
hand-crafted
futons,
mattresses
Cotton Cloud Futons and Furni­
ture has been in business for 30 years,
offering the most affordable natural
bedding. All products are locally
hand crafted, including custom cush­
ions, mattresses and sewing.
Store owner Terri Treat is an
amazing woman who knows her
business along with her 11 employ­
ees. Treat uses USA cotton and
wool from sheep farmers to create
sustainable products. She has come
up with some awesome designs for
her futon covers that you’ll have to
see to believe.
Cotton Cloud Futons started in
1981 at 31st and Burnside then
moved to 31st and Broadway, be­
fore its current location at Seventh
Avenue and Broadway across from
the Les Schwab Tire Center.
photo by L eonard L atin /T he P ortland O bserve !
The store pleases both custom- Terri Treat has been hand-crafting n a tu ra l beddin g fo r 3 0 years. H er C otton Cloud Futons and
ers and the environment with its 100 Furniture sto re is lo ca te d a t 701 N. E. Broadway.
percent natural latex mattresses,
natural mattress pads and organic
hand-made pillows. The materials
are all grown in the USA and are all
natural and environmentally green.
They take organic cotton fabric and
wool fabric then quilt them into the
most comfortable non-toxic pillows
and mattresses you’ll ever have the
opportunity to lay or sleep on.
The customer service is wonder­
ful and one percent of her sales are
donated to charity.
Y ou can take a look at some of the
futons of your dreams on the store’s
website at cottoncloudfutons.com.
Designs come in many different
types and frames are interchange­
able. Som eofherbeddingisaslow
as $100.
Another amazing work of the
company is to recycle soda bottles
and make them into a batting for
both mattresses and futons.
Cotton Cloud Futons is truly into
sustainability and with her organic
wool and her organic cotton prod­
ucts, the store promises to be around
for a long time.
For more information, visit the
showroom at 701 N.E. Broadway or
call 503-335-0758. If you have any
trouble sleeping or back problems,
maybe you should give Terri Treat
a call.
Half the Carbon Footprint, Half the Bike
by M indy C< x ) per
T he P ortland O bserver
M indy C ooper /T he P ortland O bserver
P ortla nd in ve n to r Chris H offm an show s o f f h is one-
wheel, b a tte ry o p e ra te d m otorcycle a t the re ce n t
opeing o f an e le ctric charging s ta tio n on N orth e a st
M a rtin L u th e r K ing Jr. Boulevard.
photo by
As clean energy technologies are
becom ing recognized as im portant
throughout the country, local Portland
inventor Chris Hoffmann, along with his
company R YNO, is currently working on
a one-wheeled electric cycle creation he
hopes will revolutionize short distance
commuter transportation within cities
known for high-levels of green house
gas emissions.
“We are working on this one ideal
product,” said Hoffmann. “We call it the
micro cycle.”
The machine, which looks as though
someone has sawed a motorcycle in half,
rests between the drivers legs, which sit
on the outside of the bike.
The idea for the small one wheeled
electric motorcycle was bom into exist­
ence five-years-ago when Hoffmann’s
13-year-old daughter told him about a
cycle she witnessed in a video game and
asked if he could build it. “I asked what
it looked like, and she actually drew me
a sketch in the car,” he said. “I never
would have thought of it.”
After toying with the idea, Hoffmann
said he took a machine shop class to
learn how to better build the product,
and after riding the cycle for a year he
discovered how fun, enjoyable and prac­
tical it is.
“It’s half the bike, so it has half the
carbon footprint to manufacture it,” he
said. “And electric vehicles should be
seen as a way to reduce stress in a city
as people move closer together to be
near jobs and community.”
As gas prices go up, he said, people
are going to have to congregate. “With­
out a way to reduce the stress people are
going to go nuts,” he said. The small size
o f the electric machine addresses this
challenge.
The cycle goes a maximum of 20 mph
with a 25 mile charge, while the battery
takes one and a half hours to become
completely full.
Hoffmann said, however, the beauty
o f the bike is that it doesn’t require a
charging station.
“It just requires a charger similar to a
laptop,” he explained. While the charge
is comparably short-lived, the battery is
removable and can be charged anywhere
and easily in resident’s homes.
Although at first glance the cycle
appears difficult to balance upon,
Hoffmann said, “It only takes about five
minutes to ride in a straight line and 45
minutes to get pretty good.”
Once stopped, the driver can rest
their feet on the ground and provide
themselves with easy stability, said
Hoffmann. To him, he said the most
important attribute is that you remain at
eye-level. “Police officers like this a lot,”
he said. “The Portland Police Bureau is
going to lease two bikes for the year,” he
said. “They have ridden and looked at
the bike, and they are pretty enthusiastic
about it.”
He also explained the cycle to be
extremely non-threatening when inter­
acting with pedestrians in a crowd. “Since
it’s so small you can go into the elevator
or the MAX and no one gets upset
because when you roll up next to some­
body your leg is still next to their leg,” he
said.
Hoffmann said he hopes the bike will
be ready fof production by 2012.