I doubt that many people think as much about design as those of us who are in the field. But for many of us, the concepts, words, and ideas become a bit repetitious. So when I was planning a trip to London with one of my grandsons and my husband, I wondered what it would be like to talk “design” with an 11 year old boy. Here are some interesting observations and comments from him … no jargon, just observations.

After at least an hour spent at the Niketown store on Oxford Street, looking at every color combination that Nike displayed and then some that we created on the computer, he commented that the “purple shoe with the red swoosh and green laces and eyelets, looked a lot like the flower bed at Hampton Court, the one with the little purple flowers and the red taller ones poking around”. The he asked me why I thought people liked purple and red together.

 I wonder how many people see a similarity between the Eye and the Liberty Store on Regent Street. Maybe spending about ½ hour inside the pod, while viewing most of London far above the ground, gave him time to stare at the construction of the Eye … all the supports and mechanics that are beautiful and functional at the same time. He saw that same concept again while running into the Liberty building, in the pouring rain. Beauty and function … a concept that he hadn’t thought of before.

Viewing the Eye and London

The Liberty store remains the same

And window shopping … although I expected him to be bored, he was a sport and began to talk about different ways that displays can get your attention …

Humour ....(we were in Britain):

Even the Queens Corgi gussies up for the Jubliee 

Clean and Simple:

Egg, elegant simplicity

Clever:

Chairs and Table @ Margaret Howell

No design jargon, just a simple reinstatement of what I think about a lot. Thanks, Daniel.

Well, I'vet finally joined the social networking crowd. I've discovered Pinterest. I started using it as a way to compensate for my limited memory. I created "boards" so that I had a place to keep track of photos and ideas that I found on the web. A board with ideas for the Creative Women booth; another for places I'd like to see; one for my travel photos; tabletop ideas, home decor ideas; and, since my lakefront flooded last year, one for ideas on how to "decorate" the shoreline after the flood.

Pinterest Board

In the past, I have created too many files with clippings of inspirational photos. I either forget about them or can't find them. Or I have too many computer files of urls that I never remember. These boards are the perfect way to quickly clip, organize and find ideas that I don't want to forget.

Once I pinned a few photos on my boards, I started receiving emails from Pinterest telling me that someone (or some 4 people) repinned my photos on their boards, or liked my pins, or were following me. I've never been sure that I liked the idea that someone is following me, in the traditional sense of following. But I learned that a friend from Ethiopia who now lives in Austria, and a friend in Swaziland, and one in Montpelier, VT were following me. And I like that idea that while I am enjoying organizing my thoughts, visually, they are able to get, just a glimpse of what I am thinking about. 

It's just the right amount of exposure for me ... and I can actually find these boards a week later.

Just spent 5 days inside the Javits Center, exhibiting Creative Women's hand-woven textiles, at the New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF). Each day I walked to the Javits, about 1.5 miles, mostly along the the High Line, the park in the sky that was once an elevated train line and is now the talk of NY. Good design abounds on the High Line.

HighLine

I would climb two flights of stairs and as I reached the top steps, started smiling as I saw this view.  Natural plantings, chunky chaise lounges attached to the original train tracks, elegant drinking fountains, comfortable benches so you can watch the foot traffic on the High Line or the car traffic below you on 10th Avenue.  By the time I reached the end at 30th St and 11 Avenue, I was ready to spend the whole day inside (although I would have rather been outside).

Once inside, I rarely left my booth, even though I wanted to see what was new and good looking.  But I realized that I didn't have to go far to see some innovative and pleasing uses of something old ... or to see a new take on a traditional object.

Two aisles down, I met the women from Makaua,(MAKAUA in the ancient Nahuatl language
has two meanings:“hand to hand” or the act of “giving a hand”). 

Makaua

Makaua hires over 400 people to grow the palm fronds, dye their amazing and contemporary colors, weave the wonderfully shaped baskets, and market them around the world. They epitomize the concept of using tradtional skills to bring new life to craft.

At the end of the show I realized that I really hadn't spent much time looking around, so I looked across the aisle at BittersCo, the wholesale and retail general store, out of Seattle, and founded by sisters, Amy and Katie Carson. This is a booth filled with interesting reruns ... one product tweaked or reconfigured that becomes something new. Their set of tin boxes, nested within each other and perfect for storing kitchen and desk paraphernalia, are hand-made in Mexico from old oil barrels. Good looking, useful, "green" ...

bitters

And, how can I resist showing our Creative Women's new throws and blankets from Guatemala ... our contribution to the new and lovely at the NYIGF? 

Atitlan

I've never thought of Halloween as an opportunity to learn something about the design process, but looking back on last weekend, I now see Halloween differently.

I spent the weekend in Providence, RI with my grandkids. I volunteered to help the 3 kids cut their pumpkins.  From the start, I should have realized that pumpkin cutting had entered a new era. First, we went on line and got directions (I didn't tell them that I have been cutting pumpkins, annually, for the last 45+ years). Then we looked at pumpkin designing sites; there's been a lot of thinking outside the pumpkin in the last few years. Amazing designs ... way beyond a smiling or frowning face. And controversy ... do you cut off the top or make a whole in the back; do you scoop out the gook before or after you cut out your design?

Being a modern grandmother, and not wanting to infringe of their creativity, I suggested that each one create their own design and go about it anyway they wanted. So,

• one chose an oblong pumpkin (aren't round ones premiun?), laid it on its side, and carved a crescent moon, a star, and meteor;
• next one cut out three stars to light up the Halloween night;
• the third one, Mr. Retro, asked how I cut my pumpkins, when "you were young." I told him there was only one way ... triangle eyes and nose, and either a mean or happy, big mouth, with fangs hanging out of it. That suited his personality just fine.

Pumpkins10.11

I drove back to Vermont that night; at 10PM, I got out the pumpkin carving knife and got going. The kids had challenged my pumpkin carving rut ... my pumpkin had to have a face (it's tradition and makes me feel good), I scooped out the gook after I carved the face, and I created a pumpkin face without any triangles. How freeing ...

Pumpkin10.11

It would be hard for a company like Creative Women — founded for the purpose of creating economic opportunities for women in countries like Ethiopia (and, okay, for getting our hands on those beautiful hand-woven textiles) — not to be a fan of a magazine like Hand/Eye, with its mission to "engender intelligent debate among artisans, exporters, designers, artists, wholesalers and importers, retailers, and consumers so that all may make smart, ethical, and inspired decisions about their activities."

And then, when they feature us on their blog, how could we not want to brag about that? Check out Annie Waterman's piece here.

Hand_Eye_05_26_11

~ Amy

Almost two years ago, a man came to our Burlington, Vermont studio to have a first-hand look at our hand-woven textiles. He told us about his business, Vermont Farm Table, where he made wooden farmhouse furniture, mostly to order, and sold it on the web. He had heard about our Ethiopian cotton tablecloths and napkins, and thought that they would complement his tables.

He was right.

Now he's opened a storefront in Burlington, and it looks terrific. I had to snap a picture with my cell phone the first time I walked by and saw his beautiful tables in the window—with a selection of our beautiful napkins arranged on top. I sent it to Ellen right away, but unfortunately didn't save it to post here. So here's a screen capture from their homepage:

Vermont Farm Table's showroom in downtown Burlington. You can see one of our Silk and Cotton Throws over the table at the back, and a Stripe Napkin hanging over the box in front.

~ Amy

I'm in Ethiopia now. Today (Sunday), thousands of women in Addis Ababa put on bright pink t-shirts and walked, danced, and ran through the city. (We did get a glimpse of some of the fantastic Ethiopian women runners.) Our shirts said it all; Ethiopian women, like women all over the world want "Choice". Plenty of men turned out to cheer  along the 5K course ... and some just came to gawk at women. Lots of fun to be with young women, kids, grandmothers, and to be in the warm sun (rather than the Vermont chill).

Take a look at a few photos; I tried to capture the women and the scene.

Walking for women.

Determined to be here.

Mother and daughter walkers.

Street along the route.

The beginning and the goal.

I love the creativity of our customers, from the buyer at this past NYIGF showing Ellen how—with a quick fold and some judicious draping—the item we had always thought of as a throw could also be worn as an elegant wrap, to helpful suggestions regarding color and design in our existing lines.

And then, every once in a while, someone comes up with something completely different.

Last November we got an email from a woman planning a baby gift for her sister-in-law, who was born in Ethiopia.

Your story caught my eye, because of the fact that the products you sell benefit the women and families of their respective countries. If I could find fabric to incorporate into the blanket that is from/reflects the Ethiopian culture and makes a difference in the peoples’ lives that would mean so much to her.

The quilt Sarah made for her new nephew.

After some emailing back and forth, we sent her a silk and cotton shawl from our discontinued GEO line; and see nicely how she's put it together to showcase the traditional tibeb design that was originally on the ends.

Her sister-in-law loved the gift (hard to imagine that she wouldn't), and wrote:

I worry that living in America all he'll want to be and know is about being American. It's not totally a bad thing, but makes me sad that my heritage might end up forgotten because of circumstances. Not being around Ethiopians and being so far away from my family are all things that can contribute to him not knowing enough about me. ·Being an immigrant is hard and raising a child in this country in a multicultural situation is even harder. So thank you for confirming that you understand and that you care about him knowing his maternal heritage. Right when I feel like all the duty of teaching my child my history and culture is all on me, you came along and gave us this extraordinary gift. Thank you for making me feel like I am not alone and that this is not just my family's responsibility.

It's pretty amazing for me to be part of a gift like that, and all I did was send her a shawl. One more great thing about working at Creative Women.

~ Amy

The New York International Gift Fair, some new and exciting orders, revamping our web site, the holidays spent in NY during the HUGE snow storm (attacking snow banks with my grandkids) ... no wonder I forgot about our blog. But now that I want everyone to know we have a new website at Creative Women, it's time to talk.

Deciding to revamp was an interesting process. After about 5 years with basically the same site, I realized that the old site suffered from "web site drift". It looked ok, all the products were there, but we had lost our image. And, some of the text was just too cute for Creative Women ... purveyors of clean, yet slightly rustic, natural, but not crunchy, and quietly stylish accessories. The new site is "fresh"; some new photos, new text, a login that brings wholesale buyers right to the prices and shopping cart, and lots of white space, so that you can think.

Take a look ... let us know what you think, if you want. Come see us at the NYIGF, Booth 6308 (January 29-February 2).

Ellen