tools

Much of my time lately has been spent doing one of my favorite things: crafting.
Or should I say... krafting... krafting with kenyans :)

I get to come to the office in the morning and spread out all the silly supplies all over the table and braid fabric strips and make plastic-bag-flowers and draw bead designs and use my expert exacto knife skills to cut patterns out of cardstock....... whilst listening to sweet tunes j.thor's africa playlist....... whilst drinking tea and eating chipoti- the morning office ritual.


We've been coming up with some new products for the PTC groups to make. Oh man, it's exciting. All kinds of ideas floating around. We want to capitalize on africa-loving baylor culture, and maybe even market specifically to different clubs (beginning with one that might like a lot of wine-and-silver-blue colored things...). We can personalize almost anything, we get to use really beautiful african materials and fabrics- and a lot of recycled things, and the people that are making them are AMAZING, so grateful for the work, and really good at what they do. Really the possibilities are endless.

Our hope is not only to help them make new products that we can use for markets that we are associated with, but also to teach them more about marketing different products to different people, and researching new markets so they can begin to expand themselves.

So we're been visiting the groups, spending loooonnnng amounts of time explaining (through the language barrier) exactly what is it I mean- which color is which ("is this the shiny blue, or the solid blue?"), how to tie the knot so it doesn't fray, drawing detailed, color-coded, dimensioned diagrams, and pointing out the subtle differences in crochet styles.

That women on the right is Rukia. She's the the leader of Kawangware A group, and she's legit. She takes charge and gets the job done, my kinda gal. Last week she led us around town to some of the sketchier, cheaper places to buy tools. We bought yarn, bags, crochet needles, thread, beads, cloth. It was like going crazy in Hobby Lobby but even better :) I know I harp on the whole empowerment thing, but there's something about helping people buy tools- just raw materials that in time will being something awesome.

Maybe I'm dreaming, but we might just see a new sustainable, socially responsible, africa-chic accessories line hitting upscale boutiques in 2010.... who knows :)

Stay tuned for more info (and photos!) as this project unfolds...