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 at the NYIGF, terrific experience

Just back from the NYIGF (well I took a few days off in NY to see family and move at my own pace, rather than the show's pace).  Definitely our best show ... great location, good customers who I really enjoy seeing, and a chance to see the friends we've developed among the other exhibitors over the years. 

I used to be so nervous before each show.  Now I'm a bit more confident that our booth will hold its own among all the others in the Hand-made section.  And the press seemed to agree ... HandEye,an exciting and elegant on-line and print magazine featured us during the show.  And otto included Creative Women on their site during the show, with a close up of our booth.  Good press is priceless!

In photos, our booth seems to look like a collection of unrelated textiles, rather than the story I try to create.  But people ooh and aaahed; I'm happy.  Take a look at our site, if this photo doesn't move you.

 

Nice to be back in Vermont,

Ellen

This message expresses so much of what Creative Women is all about.

Please... click on the box, watch the video. And think about it.

Great changes start with small decisions.

Amy

Welcome to Creative Women's first Blog

Welcome to Creative Women’s Blog.  I obsessed a bit about whether a business that imports textiles from Ethiopia, Swaziland, and Afghanistan really needs a blog.  I figured that people who love textiles, who want to support women owned businesses, and spend their time finding the beauty in life, wouldn’t be interested in sitting in front of flat computer monitor.  But here we are … happy to be sharing information about our wonderful business, the women we work with, textiles, and the fascinating experiences we encounter working between cultures. 

 

I’m also interested in what you have to say … about our blog, our lovely products, your work and experiences, and of course, your interesting stories about textiles. 

More later,

Ellen