12 Small Things by HAND EYE

Posted: December 23rd, 2011
Leave a Comment

Great small gifts from Africa and Haiti

There is still time left to get thoughtful, unique, handmade gifts for the holidays. 12 Small Things is offering a collection of fair trade, hand-made gifts that gift back, by helping to support artisan communities in need around the world. 12 Small Things, along with By Hand Consulting and HAND/EYE Magazine has curated a collection of gifts from skillful artisans preserving cultural craft techniques amidst challenging social, economic and political conditions. This week we are showcasing great gifts from Africa and Haiti.

Artist Cedi in Ghana

Our glass shell necklace is made by artisans in Ghana who use recycled glass and shells to make this beautiful beaded necklace. The process involves funneling recycled glass into clay molds and firing them in a wood-burning kiln. The bead-makers make the process look easy, but it takes years of apprenticeship and practice to be recognized as an accomplished artisan. The Krobo people are known for their beads and Cedi is one of the best-known bead-makers in Ghana, with a large workshop and several employees, selling both locally and internationally.

Mozambique artisan

From Mozambique we have extraordinarily carved ebony wood vessels from Outpost Original. Crafted from sustainably sourced mpingo wood by artisans living in Mozambique’s vast woodlands, these sophisticated storage jars are both useful and beautiful. Mpingo is the Kiswahili word for the dark hardwood also known as African black wood or Mozambican ebony, and grows prolifically in Mozambique’s forests. The unique lids of these stylish lathe-turned jars are a chance for the carvers to show off their skills.

Friend with artist George Valris

For an extra special one-of-a-kind holiday gift, 12 Small Things is proud to be able to offer Haitian vodou flags by the artist George Valris. Haiti’s Ceremonial Banners, or Vodou Flags, are tapestries of sequins and beads trimmed with a satin backing. The flags represent various spirits, or lwa, of Vodou, based on religious beliefs and practices slaves brought with them from West Africa. Vodou flags, exhibited in ceremonies, serve to call down particular spirits who help practitioners with their personal problems and aspirations. Because slaves were forbidden from practicing Vodou, they also adopted Catholic saints to represent the various spirits of love, water, trees, crops, etc. We are happy to be able to bring these and other thoughtful, handmade gifts to you at 12 Small Things.

Happy holidays! Laurie

Posted: December 4th, 2011
Leave a Comment

Great Small Gifts from Asia

As the newspapers and television stations continue their media blitz of ads for holiday gifts from department stores and malls, 12 Small Things provides a welcome alternative, showcasing handmade gifts from artisans around the world. 12 Small Things, along with By Hand Consulting and HAND/EYE Magazine has curated a collection of great small gifts from skillful artisans preserving cultural craft techniques amidst challenging social, economic and political conditions. This week we are showcasing great gifts from Asia.

Tara Projects artisan in India

Our luminous amber glass jewelry, is made by artisans with the Tara Projects in India. The Tara Projects has been working since the early 1970s to fight exploitation and poverty, and for the protection of artisans against social injustices. Over the years, they have extended their services to reach nearly 1,000 artisans in several states in India. The Tara Projects provide support in the production and marketing of handcrafts based on fair trade principles, while also addressing needs of grassroots craftspeople. They fund a number of community projects such as health programs, schools, training centers, and literacy programs, impacting the lives of hundreds of children and adults in India.

Craft Link artisan in Vietnam

Another popular gift this season is our hand-dyed crinkle silk scarf, created by artisans with Craft Link in Vietnam, who twist the fabric while it dries. Working closely with the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi, Craft Link helps preserve traditional craft skills such as weaving and embroidery of the tribal groups. About 10% of the population of Vietnam is comprised of ethnic hill tribe peoples living in rural mountainous areas who have little access to markets. Craft Link, a non-profit organization, works to assist small Vietnamese craft producers find market opportunities and promotes awareness of ethnic minority crafts and culture. Craft Link also provides marketing, design, and management advice to other disadvantaged groups, like street children and people with disabilities.

Mitra Bali artisan in Indonesia

The third gift we’re featuring this week is a generous bowl and plate set, created by artisans in Indonesia working with the Mitra Bali Foundation. Designed in collaboration with Keith Recker of HAND/EYE Magazine, the pieces are made of slip-cast ceramic, with the wave detail added by artisans in the remote village of Pejaten, Bali. A non-governmental, non-profit organization, the Mitra Bali Foundation in Indonesia, acts as a market and export facilitator for small craft producers. These small producers represent the diverse Balinese culture that attracts tourism to the area, but because they live in more remote areas and work on a small scale, haven’t benefited by the economic influx of the tourism industry. We are happy to be able to bring these and other thoughtful, handmade gifts to you at 12smallthings.com. Up next, great small gifts from Africa!

Posted: November 13th, 2011
Leave a Comment

Great Small Gifts from Guatemala and Peru

With the holidays just around the corner, 12 Small Things, along with By Hand Consulting and HAND/EYE Magazine has curated a collection of great small gifts from around the world for thoughtful gift-giving this season. All the products are handmade by skillful artisans preserving cultural craft techniques amidst challenging social, economic and political conditions.

La Casa Guatemala

A number of gifts in the collection are from Guatemala, imported by La Casa Guatemala. La Casa was founded as a retail store in Guatemala City in 1994, selling fine textiles, colonial-style antique furniture, and folk art relating to the everyday life of the indigenous Mayan population. They have exported an increasingly wide range of Guatemalan handcrafted merchandise since 1995, and are committed to generating sustainable, optimum income-producing crafts, including new opportunities for existing artisan groups, and training for incipient groups.

Guatemalan women

Among their most unique products are the Indigo Tote and Weekend Bags, made from repurposed traditional fabric used for skirts worn by Guatemalan women. The indigo-colored fabric is woven by men on foot looms in the area of Sacatepequez. The fabric is then stitched together by women in lengthwise panels with multicolored thread embroidery for added embellishment. Each tote and weekend bag is made from vintage cloth that varies slightly along with the colorful hand embroidery, and is trimmed in fine leather.

Indigo dyers Guatemala

Another great gift from Guatemala is La Casa’s Indigo Cotton Scarf. The soft, loosely woven cotton scarves are dyed by a Tzutuhil Maya women’s cooperative in San Juan La Laguna on the edge of Lake Atitlan. Indigo was an extremely important dye for Mayans throughout the period of the Spanish Colony, but indigo production virtually disappeared in Guatemala during the 20th century. The indigo used for these scarves represents an effort to reintroduce traditional materials and techniques to Mayan artisans.

Peru embroiderers

A third great gift featured this week is an embroidered belt from Peru imported by Jenny Krauss. The beautiful, floral pattern wool belts are hand-made by women’s cooperatives in Ayacucho, Peru, a region hit hard in the 1980′s by the Shining Path terrorist group. After the group was suppressed in the 1990′s, small artisan groups were formed to help women generate income by creating products using ancestral embroidery techniques. Each belt is a one-of-a-kind work of art, using a contemporary take on traditional Andean techniques. Find these great gifts and more at www.12smallthings.com. Next, Great Gifts from Asia.

Posted: September 11th, 2011
Leave a Comment

Small Surprises

Times Square

Just when you’re not sure how everything is going to come together, it does, almost magically. Such was the case when I was in New York for the International Gift Fair, for my job as a sales representative with Keena and for my website 12 Small Things. I was lucky to be able to share a hotel room near Times Square with my friend and merchandise advisor, Karen Gibbs from By Hand Consulting. My first two days there I had worked with two of our Keena vendors, first in the Roost booth at the Piers and then at the Chilewich booth at the Javitz Center.

God fountain

Ready to spend my third day visiting many of of our other vendor’s booths, I was on my way walking to the Javitz Center on one of the beautiful mornings when it wasn’t raining, and stopped to take a picture of a wall fountain with my phone. Good thing I did, maybe it was a premonition, but I found a message from my good friend and now customer Darcy Lee of Heartfelt. We decided to meet for lunch at the gift show and as we ate our overpriced hotdogs and salads, she convinced me to play hooky and go downtown with her to shop for nick nacks at her favorite-finds stores.

Umbrella ceiling

Darcy and I hopped in a cab that brought us somewhere in the mercantile district, I don’t know where, but it was door-to-door shops filled with hair clips, or polyester scarves or floppy hats or paper umbrellas; all little specialty wholesale shops selling mass-produced stuff. Definitely not your hand-made, one-at-a-time, fair trade artisan products, no way. We were in this one store which sold nothing but hair accessories and as Darcy was busy gathering items for her store, I walked around timidly, uncertain how I felt about all these inexpensive little clips and hair ties. As I walked around the corner of one aisle, I heard opera playing softly out of a radio perched on a shelf above my head. I looked up and saw a long row of fabric floral hair clips cascading down toward me as the singer’s aria wafted over the store.

Hair clip

Maybe it was the music, or maybe it was my mood, or maybe it was the hair clip that looked like a gardenia from my wedding bouquet, but in that moment, I got it. I made peace with my love/hate relationship with “stuff”. One can find beauty in the simplest of things, whether made by hand or machine. There are no rules, it all counts, and should be accounted for. The hair clip is being made by some factory in Asia where the employees are probably grateful for the work and is affordable for a young woman to purchase who is probably equally appreciative. Or maybe not. Maybe it just is what it is. Or maybe it’s beauty is better revealed in the abstraction of a cell phone photo. I couldn’t be certain what it was, but I realized the moment was a turning point for me. The self-selecting blinders were off, everything was fair game. Kind of overwhelming and liberating all at once.

Fascinator

I had to lighten up. I found Darcy talking with a Hasidic Jewish man about whether it was OK for women to shake his hand after a business transaction. He wouldn’t budge on his beliefs, although Darcy gave a good argument, but he did allow us to put a feather hair clip on his hat. No photos either, were permitted. I however, in my newly liberated state of mind, tried on multiple hair clips and fascinators, feeling a little like Camilla Parker Bowles and asked Darcy to capture the moment for posterity. I bought my daughters some mink hair ties before we left the shop and hopped on a cross town bus just as the rain started up again, grateful I’d played hooky and learned so much that day.

Posted: June 23rd, 2011
Leave a Comment

Suddenly Summer

Moms at JCC

From angels in February to suddenly summer and I’m still not sure where the time went. Between Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day 12 Small Things was busy showcasing hand-made hearts from Haiti, Kenya and Guatemala along with recycled glass necklaces from Ghana and jewelry from the forests of Colombia. To supplement website sales, I joined forces with friends for a three-way trunk show of handmade products at the Apollo Cafe and also made appearances at a couple of Appel and Frank shopping events including Babes and Babies at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center. I don’t remember when I’ve ever seen so many pregnant and young mothers in one place before.

In between shows and sales I picked up some part-time work with Paul Terry and Associates, my teacher from The Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center where I attended the business planning classes almost two years ago. I enjoyed learning about fellow student’s business plans for opening new restaurants and clothing stores in and around San Francisco and remembered when 12 Small Things was just an idea on paper not that long ago. Partnering with By Hand Consulting and Hand/Eye Magazine was a great asset for 12 Small Things this past year, but I still needed a full-time day job to make ends meet.

While attending a party at The Liberty Cafe for my good friend Darcy Lee, the owner of Heartfelt, to thank her for her work on behalf or the Bernal Height’s merchant community, I met a mutual friend, Catharine Keena. I had first met Catharine when I was considering starting 12 Small Things more than five years ago, and we have kept in touch ever since, saying hi at gift trade shows. One conversation led to another and I am now happy to be working with Catharine for her manufacturer’s representative company Keena. Keena represents 30 different product lines featuring tabletop, decorative accessories, personal care and stationary to retailers west of the Rockies. And I feel very lucky to have as my sales territory, my own back yard of the Mission, Bayview, Potrero Hill and thankfully Bernal Heights.

Andrew and Dana of Teroforma

My first week of working with Keena took me to the Stationary and Furniture shows in New York. It was great to be back in the hustle and bustle of the city and I saw some beautiful product design and met many interesting people with unique visions. One of the lines we represent, Teroforma, had a display of custom barware at the furniture show, over which was a sign that read, “Work with Good People. Make Good Things.” I couldn’t agree more. One exhibitor in particular caught my attention, Arxe , from Spain, featuring hand-crafted furniture and textiles made of recovered old industrial materials and antique linen. Following the trend of less is more and embracing recycled resources, this was premium product to lust after, having been previously worn and made better by age.

candy wrapper dresses

Landing back in San Francisco, I’m always happy to be greeted by the SFO Museum in the United terminal, this time featuring “Second Chances“, folk art made from recycled remnants. As the show’s curator explains, ‘industrial development and mass production supplies an ever-increasing quantity of goods. Almost as quickly as new products are made, old products are discarded, producing massive amounts of salvageable materials, which become raw material for the folk recycler—limited only by his or her imagination. In the words of artist Earl Simmons, from Bovina, Mississippi, “Everything I look at, I say, ‘I should be able to make something out of that.’ It’s like giving it new life, giving it a second chance in life.”

Liv, Rob and Jo

As the days of summer begin, I am grateful to be connected to such a creative community, involved in producing and selling product that resonates with the conviction of the maker and the interests of the customer. A push and pull, a give and take, and a giving back, all entangled in a life cycle that keeps us waking up in the morning to accomplish the next small thing, that could be big. In the midst of it all, let’s not forget to enjoy the seasons as they rush by, and those who make it all worthwhile. Happy summer!

Posted: January 17th, 2011
1 Comment

Angels in February

As we enter the third week of January already, I’m finally able to sit down and reflect on the month past along with my wishes ahead for the new year. Holiday decorations finally put away, kids back at school and 12 Small Things by HAND/EYE‘s new Valentine’s Day collection up on the website, I have a rare Sunday afternoon free to myself. December was a blur of activity with holiday sales events and a lot of birthdays to celebrate along with Hanukah and Christmas. And then there was the morning of December 10th, when unbeknownst to me, our metal angel candleholders from Haiti were featured on the homepage of Yahoo!

Angel candleholders from Haiti

Thanks to guest blogger Starre Vartan from the Mother Nature Network, I woke up that morning to find sales on fire and our phone ringing off the hook. Finally one of our customers shed some light on the phenomenon when she asked me how we got on Yahoo’s home page. I hadn’t a clue, I told her, but I think it has something to do with an angel. We quickly sold out of all our angels in less than an hour and I called my partners Karen and Colvin from By Hand Consulting and Keith from HAND/EYE Magazine to see what we could do. Of course we wanted to to try to fulfill as many orders as possible, helping our artisans in Haiti during this difficult time and getting these beautiful small works of art to our customers in time for the holidays. Unfortunately, as much as we wanted more angels, the political unrest in Haiti shut down all business during most of December.

Jo and Alina wrapping angels

Our artisans in Haiti assured us they’d begin work on a new shipment of angels in the new year once the situation had stabilized. I called and emailed as many people as I could who had wanted our angels but had not been able to purchase them before they had sold out. I spoke with customers about their personal connections to Haiti and was quite moved by their stories. One woman told me about the work her brother had done this past year as a doctor in Haiti. While he was working there a man had asked him to take his daughter back to America in hopes of a better life. While obviously her brother was not able to take the child, he often thinks about the people he met there, and his sister wanted to give him a special remembrance. Another woman I spoke with wanted to give an angel to her son’s care-givers who are from Haiti. I was happy to have found a couple extra candleholders to send to a few people who first called me that morning, and carefully made a list of others who were willing to wait. In the meantime, I had a lot of packages to ship! Thankfully my older daughter Johanna and her friend Alina had just come home from college for the winter break and we all packed boxes together that weekend.

Mark and Elane

After I shipped our last orders on December 23rd, I finished my own gift shopping and enjoyed the holidays with family and friends. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner there was not a lot of time to relax, and my friend Mark Johann helped me photograph our new artisan collection on New Year’s Eve day. We are offering a lot of wonderful hearts from artisans in Haiti, Kenya and Guatemala along with red and pink jewelry from Ghana and Colombia, plus fun silk scarves from Vietnam. Mark and his friend Mario did a great job shooting the collection and Elane from Look Models looked terrific in all the different scenarios we shot.

As we look forward to the year ahead, I am excited for all the possibilities for 12 Small Things by HAND/EYE. In addition to our collection for Valentine’s Day, we will be adding new products for Mother’s Day and Summer, and we are already starting to plan for Fall/Holiday 2011. (I know there will be some more angels in our future!) For now, I look forward to shipping hearts from Haiti and other communities of artisans in need around the world, sending gifts of love this Valentine’s Day. And next month, as the trees start to bloom in San Francisco, we’ll be shipping more angels from Haiti to our patient customers-in-waiting, sending along our thanks and hopes for a more peaceful and prosperous new year.

Posted: November 25th, 2010
4 Comments so far...

Giving Thanks for Small Things

Our booth at the SF Women's Expo

As the holidays quickly approach I wanted to take a minute to be thankful for the year that has flown by. We have received so much support for our website collection 12 Small Things by HAND/EYE, showcasing the work of artisans around the world. From neighborhood street fairs in rain or shine (many in the rain), to trunk shows at local businesses and friend’s homes, to events like the Green Festival and Women’s Expo, I have had so many people express their interest for the work we are doing to help artisans in need around the world.

This season, with the additional support of my partners at By Hand Consulting and HAND/EYE Magazine, I have even more help in sourcing unique product and spreading the word about our collection. Karen Gibbs and Colvin English from ByHand Consulting, have selected this season’s wonderful gifts with great care for the artisan’s work and a discerning style that compliments this fall holiday season. Keith Recker and his writers at HAND/EYE Magazine do an amazing job of bringing the work and stories of so many talented artisans around the world, to readers through their printed and online magazine publication, weekly emails and blog.

HAND/EYE Magazine

This past month they featured our artisans from: Casa de los Gigantes in Guatemala who make our beautifully carved serving spoons from the roots of coffee bushes, Mitra Bali working with small handcraft producers in Indonesia who make our oversized ceramic cups, Hanoi-based Craft Link working with the Vietnamese artisans who produced our ceramic tea set, Swahili Imports, whose artists in Mozambique produce our ebony jewelry collection and the Snow Leopard Trust, whose craftspeople make our adorable baby booties. The work these and other organizations are doing around the world to help support craftspeople and their families in some of the most challenging parts of the planet, is truly inspiring. Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already for both HAND/EYE Magazine‘s online and printed publication as well; a work of art in itself that makes a great gift for someone who loves handmade crafts from around the world.

Green Festival, SF

I am also thankful for all the other fair trade vendors I’ve met through the shows I’ve been doing this fall. While not always financially productive, due to overhead costs, bad weather and still a shaky economy, I’ve learned so much through these venues about sharing common values and finding like minds with fellow merchants and loyal customers. It’s so nice to have people recognize us and share how they first discovered our website. One customer I met at the Green Festival recounted how she was hesitant to buy anything new in this economy, remembering how she and her sisters used to get excited about receiving hand-me-downs from their neighbors every year as their children grew up. It didn’t matter if the clothes were used, they were new to her. In this country, we have grown used to buying new clothes and household goods as a matter of routine, not realizing how most of the world is forced to get by with so little.

Thankful for family

While I am so very grateful to live where we do with a roof over my head and the means to provide for our family, I am often thinking of those in the world who live with so much less. Showcasing and selling the beautiful work of artisans around the world who need markets outside their communities in order to provide for their families, is one small way I can help. With gift-giving season upon us once again, the opportunity to give more with our purchases, is right within our reach. Happy holidays and thank you all again for supporting 12 Small Things by HAND/EYE.

Posted: October 6th, 2010
5 Comments so far...

12 Small Things by HAND/EYE

Karen Gibbs

Colvin English

I am so excited to launch 12 Small Things new Fall 2010 collection in partnership with By Hand Consulting and HAND/EYE Magazine! Karen Gibbs, co-founder of By Hand Consulting, has been advising me on my collection since we first met years ago when she was working with Aid to Artisans and I was attending their workshops during the New York Gift show. She and her partner, Colvin English, have been working for over 15 years together promoting handmade goods through Aid to Artisans, the wholesale artisan company Melange they co-founded, and their work today with By Hand Consulting, advising retailers and governments about the value of handmade indigenous crafts.

Keith Recker

Karen introduced me to Keith Recker who has been writing about the beauty of handmade crafts for the past twenty years with Aid to Artisans and on his own with HAND/EYE Magazine, HAND/EYE Blog and now, HAND/EYE Shop. Karen, Colvin, Keith and I all met up during the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market, to talk about our mutual interest in suppporting artisans around the world. We have a lot of combined experience working in-house for great retailers like Gumps, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, The Gap and Williams Sonoma. And we all wanted to somehow be able to give back to those in need who could benefit from our experience. We felt our combined businesses had great synergy to be able to extend our reach to a larger network. Our 2010 Fall/Holiday collection is a rich collection of unique products from inspirational artisans who’s stories we can’t wait to share at 12 Small Things by HAND/EYE.

Colvin in New York

I made my annual trip to the New York International Gift Fair this August to meet with some of my artisan groups and receive product from Colvin, who was there teaching artisans from Pakistan and Nepal learn helpful business skills for American retail markets. Colvin showed me beautiful handmade paper products from artists in Nepal as well as hand- block-printed silk scarves from artists in Pakistan whose products we will soon be featuring in our current collection.

With Omar and Alden

I also met with my friend Alden from Aid to Artisans and Omar, a visiting artisan from Africa who had expressed his interest in 12 Small things just minutes before I arrived at their booth. We had to capture the good timing with a picture for posterity. With my product samples in hand, I returned to my friend Ann Stratton and her husband Ruedi Hofmann‘s home in Harlem to rest for the night and prepare for our Fall/Holiday photo shoot the next day.

With Regina and Ann

Ann and Ruedi are both wonderful international photographers who have worked from their New York studios for the past 20 years in very successful careers. Like me, their children are now older and starting college, so we were able to commiserate while Ann and I had fun making beautiful pictures together. With my friend Jeffery Hasseler’s help from Look Model Agency, we were able to shoot with two professional models for a few hours each day, Regina who is now on Verizon billboards across the country, and Victoria who was running off to film a commercial later that night. Ann typically shoots still life images but seemed to be a natural photographing Regina and Victoria modeling our jewelry and scarves, and did an amazing job shooting all the great home accessories we have in our new collection. In her spare time Ann is launching a cookie website, selling her fabulous baked confections that she used to make for Christmas gifts. With the holiday season just around the corner, my new partners and I hope you’ll shop 12 Small Things by HAND/EYE, knowing your gifts will keep giving as they help support artisans around the world.

Posted: July 27th, 2010
Leave a Comment

Summer Stories

Terry's garden party

Summer in San Francisco can often be cold, windy, foggy and frustrating. It’s often the best time to get out and explore other cities to get a taste of summertime. My good friends Terry and Ray Paetzold hosted a summer garden party for me, to introduce 12 Small Things to friends at their beautiful home in Lafayette. Terry’s parents and my father were best friends in their later years living in southern California. As our children have grown and our parent’s have passed away, Terry and I have grown closer with each milestone. Terry is a terrific chef, having cooked and catered with some of the best in the Bay Area, and has started a cooking school called In Terry’s Kitchen. Terry served a variety of appetizers to complement my artisan products from around the world, including India, Africa and Mexico. The weather was hot, the guests were lovely and everyone seemed to be having a good time enjoying Terry’s delicious food and wine while shopping generously in support of artisans in need.

Hope for Women

I’m pleased to introduce two new products to my 12 Small Things collection for summer. The delightful floral note cards on my homepage are handmade by women in El Salvador, imported by the fair trade company Hope for Women. In 2001, massive mud slides and a devastating earthquake left many families in the highlands of El Salvador homeless and jobless. With their fields destroyed, many people began traveling to low-paying factory jobs in the capital. As an alternative, a group of enterprising women formed Arte Comasagua, an artisans’ organization that handcrafts stylish designs from native flowers and plants. These women now work locally, caring for their families and saving for their future. Hope For Women, run by Evan Goldstein and his dad from their office in Connecticut, is a socially responsible organization committed to providing sustainable employment for economically disadvantaged women worldwide. I met Evan when we were both attending the artisan gift show in Lima Peru in 2008, and have been following the great work he does for women artisans in India and South America.

Appetizers with dragonflies

The other new product I am pleased to feature, is hand-painted bamboo balancing dragonflies from Vietnam, imported by Far East Handicrafts in Vermont. I met one of the partners, Kirk Richmond, at the New York gift fair last summer and among all their interesting products from artisans in Nepal and Tibet, were a few brightly painted dragonflies that Kirk balanced for me on his fingertips. The dragonflies are made by Reaching Out Handicrafts, located in Hoi An, near Da Nang on the Coast of Vietnam. This self-organized crafts group provides employment and an extended family for many people who were affected by the defoliant Agent Orange, used during the Vietnam war, that caused innumerable birth defects among the population. Reaching Out Handicrafts is a great example of people working together, helping each other through very difficult life experiences. Far East Handicrafts Importers were founded on Fair Trade principles in 1988, and work directly with crafts people to ensure fair wages and good working conditions.

Santa Fe Folk Art Festival

My latest summer adventure took me to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for the annual Folk Art Festival. Never having been before, I wasn’t sure what to expect except for warm weather, which there certainly was in abundance. The other thing in abundance was people! Bus loads of people, anxious to shop from all the different collections brought by the artists themselves from all over the world. I tried to work my way in and out of all the tented booths featuring the products for sale, but often had to pass by for all the crowds in front of me. While perhaps a bit uncomfortable for my shopping pleasure, the crowds were a great advantage for all the artisans who can support their family and fellow workers for a whole year from the proceeds they earn at the festival. I met my merchant advisor and good friend Karen Gibbs and her partner, Colvin English from By Hand Consulting. They were volunteering at the artisan booth “A Million Hearts for Haiti“, helping to raise money for Haitian artists, along with their friend Keith Recker, the editor of HAND/EYE magazine. Keith had also worked the opening party the night before where he sold rum drinks to help benefit HAND/EYE Fund’s Artisan Grant program. Between the party and two days of selling stone, metal and fabric hearts for Haiti, Keith and friends were able to raise significant funds for artisans in the devastated country.

Keith, Karen and Hearts for Haiti

Fortunately for me and others in need of a break from the crowds and heat, Santa Fe has two amazing folk art and history museums right there in the fairgrounds at Museum Hill. At the International Folk Art Museum I was able to catch the a bit of a presentation given by one of the women from the Gahaya Links Cooperative in Rwanda. Gahaya Links was one of the ten women artisan cooperatives featured by the museum in their special exhibit, “Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives That Transform Communities”. I toured the museum’s creatively displayed collections featuring miniature sculptures of entire towns and village scenes from New Mexico’s history plus small puppet theaters, dolls, ceremonial objects and clothing all presented imaginatively for the public’s pleasure and education.

Drummers from Africa on stage

Fortified by air conditioning and a meditative break, I rejoined the crowds to finish my tour of the booths and listen to live music first from Cuba and then an African group sporting none other than bagpipes. On one of my last stops I finally met Anna O’Leary, my contact for Echery Pottery and Barro Sin Plomo, the organization working with ceramicists in Mexico to help transition them to lead-free glazes for their pottery. I was first introduced to this beautiful collection of Mexican pottery through Aid to Artisans, who launched the project with the help of scientists, doctors and designers including Mimi Robinson from San Francisco. Anna invited me to a benefit that evening for Barro Sin Plomo hosted by Chris and Patti Webster at their amazing Santa Fe home. After guest introduced themselves to one another while listening to live music, we were given a demonstration by one of the ceramists from Mexico who showed us how she sculpted intricate candelabra. Her family is currently being sponsored by Barro Sin Plomo to switch over from their hot, lead glaze kiln, to a new lower temperature kiln that works with lead-free glazes. Not only is this new system safer for the artists involved, it is also safer for the family living around the glazes and kiln and cooler for the household.

Anna, Eric and Kevin O'Leary

Anna and her father, Eric O’Leary, a well-renown sculptor himself, spoke to the guests about the years of dedicated work by all involved with Barro Sin Plomo and the success stories resulting from their efforts. As I stood listening to the speeches, watching the candle votives flicker in the darkness, while faint sounds of thunder rolled in from the desert, I felt so lucky to be associated with people doing such great work for others. As I returned to the Folk Art Fair Sunday, the crowds were much thinner and I had a great chance to meet with potential partners for my business who are all about helping artisans around the world. But that’s a whole other story, yet to be told this summer.

Posted: May 3rd, 2010
Leave a Comment

Moms and Mother’s Day

Soap Box Moms

As Mother’s Day approaches, I’d like to share with you three stories about mothers who are working as fair trade artisans trying to make a difference for their families and communities. My first story is about a group of mostly single moms who make luxury soaps from their homes in New Orleans. Fondly referred to as “Soap Box Moms”, these women are raising their children while trying to make ends meet in a challenging economy still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Once a working single mom herself, Beth James founded the company “Queen B” to make fragrant garden scented soaps and lotions with help from local women in need of a job where they could work from home.

Silk Scarf project

My second story is about artisan mothers who are part of “The Silk Scarf Project”, a non-government organization created to help struggling rural communities in northern India who previously depended solely on agriculture to survive. Children had to work on the farms, and fathers often had to leave their families for work in the city. The Silk Scarf Program teaches these communities how to grow, spin, dye, and weave silk into beautiful scarves. This project has empowered women in the villages to earn an income and operate a business from their homes, enabling their children to attend school. I purchase these amazing scarves from Dolma Designs and 108 Mala who work directly with these resourceful women.

Jann Cheifitz and daughter

Jann Cheifitz started her first business making T-shirts as a teen in South Africa living under apartheid. “They became my form of protest, like wearable graffiti,” says Cheifitz, now a mom living in the East Village of New York. Jann was a political activist and taught people how to print up their own designs through a community arts project. Inspired by the punk do-it-yourself ethos, Cheifitz later moved to England and sold her T-shirts on the streets of London. She finally moved to New York and teamed up with fellow South African Carole Scott to start their own company “Lucky Fish”, making unique, graphic designs on casual clothing for adults and children from their fair trade factory in Brooklyn.

With my family Rob, Olivia and Johanna

I feel honored to have been introduced to these women and to be helping to support their projects through 12smallthings.com. I also feel very lucky to be a mom this Mother’s Day to my wonderful daughters and among my community of family and friends as we help support and celebrate one another. Happy Mother’s Day 2010.