Creative Women

Ta Da ... Creative Women has a new web site and new blog

 

So busy, I forgot to write in my blog

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

 

 

Creativity Squared

Last November I wrote about Dining for Women ("Dining for Change," November 5, 2009), and how much we appreciated being able to help their mission by supplying products for one of their fundraising dinners. We participated again this year, again with excellent results.

One of the items we sent was a bag of cocoon flowers, made from silkworm cocoons after the silk has been removed. Carolyn Mayers, who has been our DFW contact person for the past three years, used the ones we sent to finish her own creative effort, this brightly colored scarf:

 

In our own product line, we use undyed flowers to edge our Cocoon Shawl:

Isn't it wonderful to see how many ways there are to use the same objects? Love to see that creativity in action!

 ~ Amy

P.S. Before the holiday shopping stress gets you down, take some time to check out the Fair Trade Federation's new  downloadable Shop Fair, Give Fair Holiday Guide. Beautiful, hand-made gifts that give back to the people who made them; that's the holiday spirit.

 

 

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 and the Devil's Cloth

Another NYIGF chapter ... last blog I wrote about an amazing woman, introduced to me in a round about manner at the Gift Fair.  This blog, I'm writing about stripes.  (No, stripes were not in the curriculum when I was getting my Master's in Public Health).  But it does seem that Creative Women is getting a reputation for lovely, slightly retro stripes and more than 10 of our customers at the Show gave me suggestions for new stripes or new products embellished with stripes.  

Creative Women's Striped Tablecloth ... one of our best sellers.

So I started wondering why people like stripes so much and found out about the book, The Devil's Cloth,by Michel Pastoureau.  Although I haven't read the book yet, I've learned a lot about stripes' history  (from monks, to prisoners, to Coco Chanel; from a way to label a prisoner or misfit to a way to add a happy touch to a room or outfit.)  So far, I'm still not sure why people like them so much, but hope to find out. Any thoughts about this?

For now, we're working on new striped scarves and throws for Spring, 2011.  I think they'll make you happy.

Ellen

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Shelves of Folded Bliss

It's not as if folding laundry has ever been a favorite hobby of mine; and although I have done enough waitressing to know how satisfying it is to have a couple of boxes of napkins ready to go for the dinner rush, I certainly never took particular pleasure (or care) in folding them at home.

Then I came to work at Creative Women. Every shipment we receive, of course, has to be counted, then shelved in a way that makes each product easy to identify and pull out for filling orders. At first, I thought Ellen's insistence that all the tablecloths should be folded the one way, all the scarves another was just possibly a little compulsive.

Within a month or so, however, I realized she was absolutely right. Give it another six months, and I started experimenting with different folds to use shelf space more efficiently while keeping the fabrics in good shape. I've been here two years now, and I've gotten a little territorial about the folding. Come on--I just want to be sure it's done right. Not that I'm compulsive about it, or anything.

But if you do it carefully, you can smooth out most of the shipping wrinkles as you go, and everything will fit better on the shelves, and those full shelves just look so much better... and, yes, I've become a little compulsive. Sue me.

This is what's making me happy today (excuse the picture quality; it's from my cell phone):

Okay, some of the stacks are starting to get wobbly, but still, there's something about shelves full of nicely-folded tablecloths (and napkins, and throws) that makes me smile.

And the scarves that I completely re-vamped when we got the new colors in. Again: full shelves, smiling Amy.

 

At least it's an inexpensive pleasure!

~Amy

People Do Read Creative Women's Blog

It's true; I got an email from Bailey Barash, the Producer of "Fried Chicken and Sweet Potato Pie", the documentary about Edna Lewis.  Bailey pointed out that the link to the video, in my last blog, didn't work.  So here it is again  ... http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/video/2008/01/Edna.  Spend 20 minutes learning about a fascinating woman, Edna Lewis.  She grew up in the rural, poor South, moved to the North, became an acclaimed chef and cookbook writer, and looks like a most elegant and classy women.  I wished I had met her, but am delighted to have this 6 or 8 degrees of separation with her.

Ellen

Not Edna Lewis, but Bertacaw, one of the fine cooks I know in Ethiopia.

Still thinking about the NYIGF ...

It's been a few weeks and I've still got the NYIGF on my mind.  Yes, we still don't have all the Blue Striped Napkins and tablecloths that have been ordered (if anyone has advice on how to keep inventory, please be in touch), but I've decided to think about the more pleasant parts of the show and this business.  So, for the next few blogs I want to tell you about some of the people I met at the show and things they have "turned me on to".  

To start, if I didn't own Creative Women, I probably would never learned about Edna Lewis, the Grande Dame of Southern Cooking.  But thanks to Angela Hederman, who ordered 13 Striped Napkins for her friend Scott Peacock (another grand name in southern cooking), I now have watched a fascinating video about Edna and her influence on cooks, especially Scott.

About.com described Edna this way, "A tall, commanding woman, Edna Lewis was also a giant in the culinary world as well as in life. The granddaughter of freed slaves, Edna would grow up to be a great chef, culinary ambassador, and caretaker of genuine Southern cooking. She would inspire a generation of young chefs and ensure that the traditional folkways of the South would not be forgotten. More than a skilled cook, Edna Lewis touched the lives of those around her with grace and the beauty of life. She will be deeply missed."

So many women have made a difference; Edna definitely is one of them. I seem to be meeting a lot of them along the way ... Creative Women all over the world.  And, I just thought that I'd learn more about business when I started Creative Women.

 

Scott Peacock and Edna Lewis