Creative Women

It was hot ...

I just spent a week in Senegal; my emails home were short ... "it's hot, very interesting, too tired to write, more later".  I never got to write the "more later", so here's a short version of it.

• I saw the sun set over the Atlantic; here in the US the sun rises over the Atlantic, so having a beer on the deck of a bar, in Saly, Senegal while the sun setting, was a "must".  So was swimming in the Atlantic, no waves, warm water ... I knew I wasn't floating at Fire Island or in Maine.

• The desert ... the trip from the ocean to the desert, was just a two hour trip.  We traveled to Ndem, about a 3 hour trip from Dakar, but light years away.  The rainy season had just ended so, although everywhere we walked, we walked on sand, there were still signs of green vegetation and flowers.  

  
 Ndem ... an area of small villages that have been hit by draught, desertification, people leaving for the city.  Also the home of Ong Ndem, a non-governmental community of Senegalese and Westerners who are bringing water, farming, schools, health centers back to the Ndem area. And, they are bringing jobs  ... through their artisan projects (one of their job creation projects).  And that's why I was there, to see their lovely textile products.

Thanks to Aid to Artisans, a US based non-profit that works with artisans around the world, Ong NDem has created new products that they are eager to export to the US.  I was there to see if any of these products will work with the Creative Women lines and appeal to our customers.  It was a long and hot journey, but looking back, wow, I did find some products. I also have some amazing photos, and I met fascinating people who are spanning cultures, creating jobs, and resisting some of the pressures of a changing ecological climate.  

Take a look at a few of the images I keep in my mind:

NGO Staff and ATA Designer

Product Development

 

 

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

Wedding Dilemma

A friend of mine is getting married in (she's a bit panicked to realize this) exactly 16 days. My panic is slightly less than hers, seeing that I don't have to organize anything about it except arriving in plenty of time to enjoy the ceremony. But I have been fighting a gnawing sense of Oh-Help-What-the-Heck-Do-I-Give-Her.

This friend is someone who's had a rough time the last few years, so it's especially wonderful for those of us who care about her to have such a happy occasion to celebrate with he. We've all been looking for ways to help her feel extra special: I've been fumbling for weeks to come up with just the right gift.

My ah-ha (or, in this case, Duh!) moment came when a customer of ours offered to share pictures of her wedding, for which she had bought one of our gorgeous hand-woven silk Cocoon Shawls: she wore the shawl during an evening beach campfire after the ceremony. You can see in the picture how happy and special she's feeling (okay, no doubt most of that is because of the occasion, but I have to think that wrapping a lovely hand-woven silk shawl around yourself can only add to the feeling).  

I can't think of a better way for my friend to wind up her day (which, in the Green Mountains, is likely to turn chilly) than wrapped in something this soft and luxurious. Excellent! Gift question answered.

And since it may chilly evenings, maybe I should nab one of our cotton Netela scarves to wear myself.... hmmm....

Amy

photo by Marie Clark, www.mclarkphotography.com

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