The holidays are over and it's time to move on to the New York International Gift Fair. But I'm still thinking about the 6 days I spent in NY, with family and just looking. I always soak up cities ... great places for me to get new ideas for Ceative Women ... for our products, or re-designing our booth (again), and for understanding the beauty of hand-made items.

So, three places that stood out for me; each for different reasons:

Adelaide, a little gem in the West Village, on Greenwich Street. This shop oozes good taste, a fabulous sense of design and the best displays. This holiday, the store was all dressed up for a '40s cocktail party ... reminded me of my parents and very young days.

Adelaide, 702 Greenwich Street, New York

In SoHo, Kindred Spirits, Native American Influence on 20 Century Art, at the Peter Blum Gallery reinforced what I already know, but in such a beautiful and dramatic way ... the beauty of hand-made is in the imperfections, the reflections of the human hand that made the object. I spent much time looking at the hand-made rugs ... the variations in color create by hand-dying, the lines that were not straight and the designs that were slightly random. I now know how to answer customers who want to know about consistent dye lots.

Finally, I walked by Canvas, in SoHo (full disclosure, they are a customer of Creative Women). They were featuring a Creative Women runner in their window; I was flattered and proud. I was wishing that I could magically bring some of the weavers and artisans who made the products that Canvas (also now in Chelsea) buys from us. How sweet to share the excitement of success with them. 

Canvas, 199 Lafayette Street, New York

Now we're planning for the the NYIGF. I've taken some of the display ideas I saw in NY and am using them in our booth at the Fair.  Come visit us  ... BOOTH 6308. One last vision of the holidays ... my amaryllis which just keeps blooming and makes me smile.

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New products, ( Beyond Burlap runners, Dots Tablecloths, Rattan Napkins and more) media kits, price lists, re-organizing our booth ... these seem to be the hot topics on my mind lately.  But, at the same time, I'm trying hard to make time to enjoy my garden (it's lovely this year except for the rabbits and the leek fungus), take a swim in the lake, walk before the birds stop singing in the morning, and watch the sun set each night.  I'm also trying to be "laid back" (I am a product of the 60s ad 70s.) by not counting how many days 'til August 13 and the beginning of the NYIGF.  Rather, this year I've created a contest between the NYIGF and my lovely purple runner bean.  I'm betting my runner bean will be at top of my pergola (see picture of runner bean and pergola above) before I leave for NY on August 10.  Certainly more fun than counting the days on the calendar.

In case you want to know who wins, come to Creative Women's booth at the Show ... 6308. You'll get to see our new products and find out the race results.

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

~ Ellen

The first time I traveled to Africa, I was working with the Vermont Service Corps, helping to develop a needs assessment study for a District in rural Uganda.  One afternoon, as I was spending time in Kampala, the capital, I saw a sign that said "Zebra Crossing."  I was so excited; I had never seen a live zebra before, but did wonder why zebras would be loose in the middle of major city.  I kept walking and saw the black and white stripes of a pedestrian crossing … ah, a zebra crossing.

That's what I love about working cross culturally; I have constant opportunities to challenge my perceptions of the the world and think about how others see me and my values.  When I first started working with Menby's Design, the first producer that Creative Women worked with in Ethiopia, I sat down with Menby and one of the weavers.  The weaver looked at the colors that I chose for a pillow and said to Menby in Amharic, "I don't want to weave that.  The colors are ugly."  Menby, as only another Ethiopian could do, responded, "It doesn't matter if you like the colors or not; it only matters what they think in New York."  Certainly better said by her, than me.

Sometimes I read it all wrong.  Take the netela, a lovely, gauzy shawl that Ethiopian woman have been wearing for generations.  In Addis, some women wear the same netela for days, protecting themselves  from the sun, winds, and dust as they go about their daily work.  Other women, those who can afford more than one, stick one in their bag and throw it over their head, or their suit jacket, when the weather changes.
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While looking for new products in Addis, I saw so many women wearing netelas. Some were rather dirty, often bordered with what I considered garish colors. So  when asked if I wanted to import them,  I  would just say "No, I don't think American women will wear these."

For about five years, we had a few  netelas on our shelves, but never showed them at the gift fairs. Then last year, I hung one in our booth at the NYIGF; buyer after buyer, while poking around and digging through our textiles, would be drawn to the netela.  "What's this?" they would ask while fingering the fine cotton, "Can I buy one/some?  What about these colors and the lurex ... can we change that?"  So the traditional netela underwent some westernizing (and we're still working on more changes), but the fine weaving, the soft cotton, and the delicate hand-stitching remain.  I'm hoping that my certainty that Americans won't wear these will be 100 percent wrong and we can start a new fashion trend here …
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~ Ellen