Creatively Speaki ng ...

It's Spring here in Vermont (with some record breaking flooding in the Champlain Islands where I live) and I'm thinking alpaca. In a few months I'll be back at the New York International Gift Fair, listening to our customers asking for something more wintery than our Ethiopian cotton and silk. So, I decided that it's time for Creative Women to branch out ... to another country(s) and another fiber. And since the Peruvian government offered to sponsor my trip, I traveled to Lima two weeks ago to attend the Peruvian Gift Show.

Floodsof2011

Lima is a bustling and interesting city. There are lovely areas for walking and looking at small shops, old architecture, and tucked away residential areas. There's also some wonderful small museums; Museo Amano, a private collection of pre-Columbian pottery and textiles and Museo Lorca with lovely gardens and a visual presentation through the display of sculpture, pottery and art, of the historical progression of the people of the Andes.

Stripes have always been popular.

LorcaCactus

LorcaGrounds

The food is terrific.  If we hadn't stayed in the 3B (a wonderful, friendly small hotel in Barranco) with their cooked to order breakfast everyday, we would have eaten out 3xday, sampling seafood, grilled meats, hip, au courant bistros, and Chifa (Chinese and Peruvian fused together into something delicious). Every morning there were lots of conversation about what/where we ate the night before.

Limalunch

And yes, I did go to the Peru Gift Show. Going to Peru (7+ hours by plane) made it possible for me to meet Bryant Archie, the founder of D.Bryant Archie, a creator of classic and contemporary textiles (throws, pillows, rugs) hand-woven in Peru. Of course, I could have met her in NY; now that we've met in Peru, we'll follow up in NY. Both our products reflect our admiration for traditional motifs, hand-woven textiles, and simply elegant contemporary style.

DBAcover

I also met very friendly and helpful Peruvian producers and designers who gave me an introduction to alpaca. I learned that there are differences between doing business in Ethiopia and Peru; Ethiopia is a "one-stop" shopping experience, where in Peru, often different businesses or coops specialize in different steps in the production process. But  I left Peru with ideas for 3 different collections of scarves and throws (all alpaca) and am now working on how to take my idea and turn it into a warm and cozy product that our buyers will wow over ... and buy.

I hope to have some prototypes to show you at the NYIGF in August.

Ellen

On the last day of my recent trip to Ethiopia, we had decided that it would be interesting for the staff (admin, weavers, sewers, fringers, dyers, tea lady ... everyone) to see what the products that they create look like in stores, on websites (some of them had never heard of a web site), in catalogs. So, I showed them the Creative Women website, links to Ochre and Anthropologie, (2 stores that carry our products), photos that I have taken, and our booth at the NYIGF. 

With each new photo, I started hearing whispering, but since the whispering was in Amharic, I didn't know what was being said. The fellow who was translating told me that one of the weavers was telling everyone that he made the towels that I was showing and that he'd never seen them look so good. His proud grin gave made me pretty proud, too.

Weaving with a smile.

Then one of the sewing women asked me (through the interpretor) if I would comment on the pillows ... how was the sewing. This was a particularly timely question, since our first pillows often arrived in VT and went straight to a local seamstress who inserted new zippers.  Today, the pillows arrive looking perfect; I showed her a photo that I took in my home, of the pillow collection. More whispering, laughing ...

Tsigist, one of Sabahar's sewers.

On of the weavers (a young man who comes to work in an ironed shirt, neat pants and loafers and changes into his weaving clothes before starting work) asked where I got my ideas for designs. I told him I look at magazines, work with Kathy on new ideas, and look around me a lot. I then suggested that he might have some good ideas for designs since he's an expert weaver, and should tell the production manager if he has any. I suspect that Sabahar has a undiscovered designer among the weavers.

The final comment came from one of the dyers ... a tall man who would smile and say hello to me each time I walked by the dyeing room.  That's as far as our conversations ever got. But, now he just said "I never thought about what happens to the things I dye.  eeing where they end up, I'm proud to make things that show the world that beautiful things come from Ethiopia." Wow.

.Dots Beach Blankets drying in Addis before being shipped to the US.