Creative Women

Creative Women Loves Stripes (or at least I do) ...

Couldn't resist ... I now own the book, The Devil's Cloth; The History of Stripes.  It's short; that's good.  The beginning section is a bit more serious than I need it to be, but the sections dealing with more recent history really make the connections between stripes and feeling good. Once stripes stopped being associated with monks, prisoners, prostitutes, jugglers, and the French navy, Picasso, Coco Chanel, and others, began dressing in striped shirts, it was just a short jump to associating the stripes with the sea, then the beach, then the sun and feeling goood.  Why wouldn't Creative Women use stripes in our products?

I've been going through some of my photos looking for stripes, here, in the my travels, on kids,adding pizazz to decor, and just making people feel good. Take a look ...

Colorful Stripes in Ethiopia

 


Hand-knit striped hats, on the side of the road, Dorze, Ethiopia.

Fat babies like stripes.

 
Les Nubians (carrying a Creative Women bag) like stripes.

Tying the warp and making the stripes, in Ethiopia.

 

Some people can't get enough stripes ...

Well, maybe these aren't strictly stripes, but couldn't resist showing you these plastic manikins seen in shops all around Addis.

Ellen

Creative Women and the Devil's Cloth

Another NYIGF chapter ... last blog I wrote about an amazing woman, introduced to me in a round about manner at the Gift Fair.  This blog, I'm writing about stripes.  (No, stripes were not in the curriculum when I was getting my Master's in Public Health).  But it does seem that Creative Women is getting a reputation for lovely, slightly retro stripes and more than 10 of our customers at the Show gave me suggestions for new stripes or new products embellished with stripes.  

Creative Women's Striped Tablecloth ... one of our best sellers.

So I started wondering why people like stripes so much and found out about the book, The Devil's Cloth,by Michel Pastoureau.  Although I haven't read the book yet, I've learned a lot about stripes' history  (from monks, to prisoners, to Coco Chanel; from a way to label a prisoner or misfit to a way to add a happy touch to a room or outfit.)  So far, I'm still not sure why people like them so much, but hope to find out. Any thoughts about this?

For now, we're working on new striped scarves and throws for Spring, 2011.  I think they'll make you happy.

Ellen

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Creative Thinking

Poverty and an exploding world population are topics that impact all of us, whether we like to think about them or not (and most of us don't). Swedish doctor and professor Hans Rosling has a creative take on the links between the two.

Food for thought, certainly: creating markets, jobs, and the opportunity for prosperity will create benefits for individuals and the planet.  Sounds like a double-benefit to me! Those job we support do matter.

~Amy

It's either too hot or too cold ...

Am I the only one who thinks it's amazing that the temperature in Grand Isle, VT (and Burlington, VT where Creative Women is located) is hotter than the temperature in Bamako, Mali or Addis Ababa, Ethiopia?  Next time I travel to either of these places to work with the women who produce Creative Women's textiles,I'm not going to bring them all my winter photos of Lake Champlain frozen.  (Yes, you really can drive your truck on the ice.) I'm going to bring them photos of Vermont at 97 degrees ... that's amazing!

Ain't He Sweet?

That's my newest nephew there, enjoying his front lawn from the comfort of one of our Ethiopian Cotton Throws. 

Working with these gorgeous textiles around me all the time, I find myself looking for excuses to give them to people I'm fond of. Since my sister falls pretty firmly under that heading, she was one of the first to benefit. 

I went to visit my sister last Fall, not too long after Tucker was born--coincidentally, not too long after I started working at Creative Women, too. The cross-stitch that I had originally planned to bring as my Official Baby Gift was taking much longer to finish than I had planned (it wound up as a Christmas gift, only about half a year late for Tucker's birth), so I had to scramble to come up with something to bring south with me.

The three-panel throw was perfect: it was light enough to tuck into my suitcase to carry down, and wasn't damaged by the way I DIDN'T pack carefully (I always start out with good intentions, which rapidly devolve into stuffing last-minute items into any available space). Since it's machine-washable and dries really quickly, Betsy didn't have to feel shy about bringing it outside and letting Tucker crawl around on it, which was all part of my plan in the first place.

Now I'm just jealous that they get sitting-on-the-lawn weather down there so much earlier than we do in Vermont!

--Amy