Creative Women

Creativity Squared

Last November I wrote about Dining for Women ("Dining for Change," November 5, 2009), and how much we appreciated being able to help their mission by supplying products for one of their fundraising dinners. We participated again this year, again with excellent results.

One of the items we sent was a bag of cocoon flowers, made from silkworm cocoons after the silk has been removed. Carolyn Mayers, who has been our DFW contact person for the past three years, used the ones we sent to finish her own creative effort, this brightly colored scarf:

 

In our own product line, we use undyed flowers to edge our Cocoon Shawl:

Isn't it wonderful to see how many ways there are to use the same objects? Love to see that creativity in action!

 ~ Amy

P.S. Before the holiday shopping stress gets you down, take some time to check out the Fair Trade Federation's new  downloadable Shop Fair, Give Fair Holiday Guide. Beautiful, hand-made gifts that give back to the people who made them; that's the holiday spirit.

 

 

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

 

 

These Just In

Here you see Creative Women's Shipping Department (aka Bill) getting ready to check in our latest shipment from Ethiopia. You can see some blue Striped Tablecloths in the bag on the left, and that looks like blue Striped Napkins in the one in front.

The fun part is, no sooner are they unpacked and counted, than many of them are shipping right back out again. No rest for the far-traveled textiles, I guess. Or the Shipping Department.

So, what do you think? Does Bill have a future in Pictures?

~ Amy

 

 

 

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

Shelves of Folded Bliss

It's not as if folding laundry has ever been a favorite hobby of mine; and although I have done enough waitressing to know how satisfying it is to have a couple of boxes of napkins ready to go for the dinner rush, I certainly never took particular pleasure (or care) in folding them at home.

Then I came to work at Creative Women. Every shipment we receive, of course, has to be counted, then shelved in a way that makes each product easy to identify and pull out for filling orders. At first, I thought Ellen's insistence that all the tablecloths should be folded the one way, all the scarves another was just possibly a little compulsive.

Within a month or so, however, I realized she was absolutely right. Give it another six months, and I started experimenting with different folds to use shelf space more efficiently while keeping the fabrics in good shape. I've been here two years now, and I've gotten a little territorial about the folding. Come on--I just want to be sure it's done right. Not that I'm compulsive about it, or anything.

But if you do it carefully, you can smooth out most of the shipping wrinkles as you go, and everything will fit better on the shelves, and those full shelves just look so much better... and, yes, I've become a little compulsive. Sue me.

This is what's making me happy today (excuse the picture quality; it's from my cell phone):

Okay, some of the stacks are starting to get wobbly, but still, there's something about shelves full of nicely-folded tablecloths (and napkins, and throws) that makes me smile.

And the scarves that I completely re-vamped when we got the new colors in. Again: full shelves, smiling Amy.

 

At least it's an inexpensive pleasure!

~Amy

Still thinking about the NYIGF ...

It's been a few weeks and I've still got the NYIGF on my mind.  Yes, we still don't have all the Blue Striped Napkins and tablecloths that have been ordered (if anyone has advice on how to keep inventory, please be in touch), but I've decided to think about the more pleasant parts of the show and this business.  So, for the next few blogs I want to tell you about some of the people I met at the show and things they have "turned me on to".  

To start, if I didn't own Creative Women, I probably would never learned about Edna Lewis, the Grande Dame of Southern Cooking.  But thanks to Angela Hederman, who ordered 13 Striped Napkins for her friend Scott Peacock (another grand name in southern cooking), I now have watched a fascinating video about Edna and her influence on cooks, especially Scott.

About.com described Edna this way, "A tall, commanding woman, Edna Lewis was also a giant in the culinary world as well as in life. The granddaughter of freed slaves, Edna would grow up to be a great chef, culinary ambassador, and caretaker of genuine Southern cooking. She would inspire a generation of young chefs and ensure that the traditional folkways of the South would not be forgotten. More than a skilled cook, Edna Lewis touched the lives of those around her with grace and the beauty of life. She will be deeply missed."

So many women have made a difference; Edna definitely is one of them. I seem to be meeting a lot of them along the way ... Creative Women all over the world.  And, I just thought that I'd learn more about business when I started Creative Women.

 

Scott Peacock and Edna Lewis

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

Lazy Days of Summer? Not for Creative Women!

I love this time of year in the office. There's so much happening, and so many different projects to coordinate, and samples of new products coming in, and... well, let's just say that there's a lot going on.

Ellen's getting ready to head to New York for the International Gift Fair (we'll be in booth #6308), so for the last two weeks we've had piles of blankets, scarves, tablecloths and napkins in various places around the studio, waiting to be counted or ironed or packed. And there are many lists in circulation, from products to be displayed to the booth furnishings on which to display them.

My lists revolve around new items that need to be posted on our website (have I included all the new colors? Do the links work? Has the price list been updated?), and then updated in the on-line catalog that NYIGF posts for us. Lots of fussy little details, but I love the finished product.

It seems odd, but despite all the details that have to be handled, we've been very calm here in the office. Is it possible that practice really does pay off?

Our poor mannequin, stripped of her usual scarf
& shawl, waiting to be boxed up for shipping...

~ Amy

Great Day ...

This morning on my walk, I was thinking about how I now need to create a Hassle List on our white board.  I believe that if I don't stay on top of my hassles (become the "squeaky wheel") than those hassles will never be resolved ... or at least not in my favor. 

On the way to work, I checked my IPhone and found out that the bank in Mali, which had been sitting on my $1600.00 wire for 6 weeks and not depositing it in the account of Cooperative Djiguiyaso, my supplier in Mali, finally was convinced the money belonged to Dyigui, not the bank.  Hassle #1 ... settled.

Then, at work, I got an email from my broker at UPS, forwarding Customs and Border Protection's ruling that I had complied with their requests and they would not be charging my duty on my current shipment from Ethiopia.  Of course, under AGOA they were not supposed to charge me duty, but they had the right to ask me certain questions: they did, I replied.  After more than a bit of wrangling, they agreed with me.  Hassle #2 ... settled.

It's a beautiful day in Vermont, we're almost ready for the New York International Gift Fair (BOOTH 6308); things are looking good.

Come meet us in NY ... see the wonderful accessories our colleagues make for us.  It's one of those days when things go right.

Ellen 

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!