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.

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.   

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 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.

 Sunset over the Atlantic Ocean.

• The desert … the trip from the ocean to the desert, was just two hours.·We traveled to Ndem, about a three-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 U.S.-based non-profit that works with artisans around the world, ONG Ndem has created new products that they are eager to export to the United States.  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:
ONG staff and product designer.Product development.








 

Senegalese woman hanging textiles out to dry.

~ Ellen

 … (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.

Les Nubians (carrying Creative Women bags) like stripes.

Tying the warp to make the stripes.

Hand-knit striped hats, on the side of the road, Dorze, Ethiopia.	Fat babies like stripes.

Some people can't get enough stripes …

Well, these aren't strictly stripes, but I couldn't resist showing you these plastic manikins seen in shops all around Addis.

~ Ellen

Well, I've been back from Ethiopia and Mali for over a week now. I'm always interested in how quickly I forget the parts of travel that I didn't like (lack of control over my time, sitting in my hotel room one too many nights, not getting things done at my pace) and how much I relive the parts I the trip that I loved.

Here are a few that I keep returning to:

• new product development in Ethiopia (you must come to our new booth, 6308 at the NYIGF to see what we've been working on). After seven years, we're getting better at making beautiful things. Expect to see new tablecloths, scarves, cocktail napkins, pillows, and a fabulous silk/cotton throw … all with an eye to fall and Holidays. But here's what I remember … the amazing process of making something by hand. Each one of the threads (below) is dyed by hand, then one by one, each thread is tied on the loom by hand, and then woven by hand. It's an amazing process.
  Tying_the_Warp_200
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• the beauty of the hand-crocheted shawls made by the woven we work with in Mali. It was over 100°F in Bamako, but the women of this coop sit under the shade of a few leafy trees and create beauty while earning a living.
  Mali_Crocheter_200
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• the energy and majesty of the Niger River … kids swimming, men fishing or shoveling sand from the bottom and carrying it by hand to the shore to make bricks, women doing their laundry. And in the midst of all this productive activity, we took a boat ride up the Niger to Kalobougou, the pottery island, to see women (and young girls) throwing, glazing, and firing utilitarian pottery sold throughout Mali. Another world …
  Niger_Boat_200Young_Potter_200

Enough … a lot of new images and the start of many new products.
Happy Spring …

~ Ellen

As I'm getting ready to leave Vermont and go to New York City for the Holidays, I've been thinking about all the people who have helped make this Creative Women's most successful year. Without sounding like the acknowledgment section of a book, many thanks to our customers (both wholesale and retail), the media, all those who gave me advice (mostly useful), the people we work with in Ethiopia, Swaziland, Afghanistan, and Mali, our UPS folks in Louisville and Burlington … and our staff. It's great knowing you're all out there, helping make this business possible, and being part of our mission to create jobs and make a difference.

A few updates, before the year ends …

• Creative Women is now working in Mali, with Cooperative Djiguiyaso.  We're introducing their elegant and refined crocheted pillows and a crocheted shawl at the NYIGF in January.  These wonderful new products are hand-made from organic cotton and are the perfect example of going back to the roots … using traditional skills to create contemporary products.
  Nest_Pillows_200

• Victoria Magazine, many thanks for your support; just featured us in their December issue. Take a look.

• Finally, I got to be a Disruptive Woman, and no one was offended. On December 2, in D.C., I spoke to the annual event of Disruptive Women in Health. It was great to be in a room full of people who understand the implications of what Creative Women is doing. I also submitted a piece to their blog, making the case for employment being a Public Health intervention. How nice to have an audience and be able to tell them about Creative Women, our history, and our impact on women's lives.

My greeting for this holiday season is simple … wishing you a wonderful holiday and a calm 2010.

~ Ellen