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

 

 

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

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

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!

Unravelling the Mystery Box(es)

This week we're waiting for a shipment to make it all the way from Addia Ababa, Ethiopia to Burlington, Vermont (U.S.A.). There are lots of lovely hand-woven items in it: among them, some that are already spoken for and some that have never been seen before. I'm not sure that I can honestly say that I'm looking forward to counting and folding some 700 napkins, but it will be awfully satisfying to look over and see fully-stocked shelves just waiting to be emptied again. And I can't wait to get my hands on the new products.

The hang-up? Well, despite all the power of the internet and tracking software, the journey of this marvelous shipment of 5 large boxes weighing at least 40 pounds each has been something of a mystery.

Item 1: The Ethiopian branch of our shipper seems to believe that the packages are still there in Addis Ababa. That's what their website says, at least.

Item 2: Somehow the boxes did make it to the airport and onto an Ethiopian Airlines plane, because...

Item 3: ...they arrived in the U.S. two days ago. Unfortunately, they arrived in Newark, New Jersey and  the customs processing center is in Louisville, Kentucky. But let's call that a minor detail.

The situation has been clouded somewhat by the fact that email in Addis has been down for several days, and that the shipping office there seems to have been emptied out by the Easter holiday (which encompassed all of last week, rather than just the three-day weekend that we might expect here in the U.S.).

Thanks to the persistent efforts of Jean Brunsky of UPS, we expect to receive our shipment tomorrow, or possibly the day after that. And once the products are here, we can finish boxing up the orders for all of you who have been so patiently waiting and send them right out again.

Amy

With a Little Help

A High School friend posted this video on her Facebook page yesterday, and I planned to put it up here with a brief comment just because I liked the song and video itself. Then I did a little more research and found out what a cool project Playing for Change really is.

The stated mission of Playing for Change is pretty lofty: "to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music." Not asking much, huh? Yet when you listen to the music, hear the unique spin each artist puts on a particular song that nonetheless holds its own as one piece of music—well, you believe that it can happen.

There are lots more videos and amazing stories—check them out!

The Playing for Change Foundation, a separate non-profit corporation born from the desire to give back to these musicians and their communities, was founded in 2008, about three years after the original project began. They have completed a music school in the township of Guguletu, South Africa; have broken ground on the "Bizung School of Music and Dance" in Tamale, Ghana; are involved in arts programs in Nepal and Johannesburg; and is working to rebuild and improve the Tibetan refugee centers in Dharamsala, India and Kathmandu, Nepal.

Amy

Fair Trade, why so complicated?

Did you know that October is Fair Trade month?  Have you seen all the articles about Fair Trade out there? Yet it seems most of the people I know still are confused about Fair Trade.  May be there are too many organizations that have fair trade in their titles, or may be everything that is being sold is either labeled fair trade or green or sustainable.  Do they all mean the same thing?

Ok ... here's what Fair Trade means to me at Creative Women:

Dyer's daughter, after school at Sabahar, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

• working with businesses that support women, make it possible for them to get jobs, move ahead in their jobs, even bring their kids to work now and then;
• good working conditions; i.e, weavers should have enough light, no one should be exposed to toxic chemicals;
• decent benefits and working hours;
• decent pay;
• a commitment on the part of management and owners, and workers, to tackling the difficult issues in the workplace; everything won't be changed overnight.

That's how I define it ... maybe a bit pie-in-the-sky.  But it makes it easier when I am looking for new producers.  If they share these values with me, I want to work with them.  And, I suspect this makes Creative Women more attractive to our customers.

Another Creative Woman

I want to tell you about another Creative Women ... this time someone in the US, rather than one of the interesting women I work with abroad.  Cathy Frank, a long-time friend, co-worker at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, and computer guru, gets kudos for putting our website together.  Now she, and her good friend, Margie Holden, have just completed and had published their first book, A Kayakers Guide to Lake Champlain; Exploring the New York, Vermont and Quebec Shore.

You don't have to be a kayaker, or even live on Lake Champlain (which I do) to enjoy this little gem.  Lots of history about our part of the world, lots of photos of Cathy and Margie kayaking.  And they did paddle ... the entire 125 miles of the lake, plus they found many coves and islands to explore.  They celebrate their love of paddling, history, natural beauty, the everyday noises of birds, kids, boats, lawn mowers, and appreciation of each other in this book. 

And I celebrate these two Creative Women ... another example of women doing the unexpected. 

 

(I'll be highlighting more of the interesting and Creative Women that I meet and work with around the world.  What a fringe benefit of owning this business.)