TAFA Market Focus: Jefferson Street Studios

"Quilt Reflection I" by Robert Davis

TAFA is having its first public event during the AQS Quilt Show in Paducah.  We are excited to introduce TAFA to the public at large and are hoping to raise funds for our new website.   We have a silent auction and raffle, both available to online participants and a member exhibit and vendors.   These are ways in which you can donate to support our efforts.  This blog will feature the works and vendors during the time leading up to our show.  You can see all of the TAFA Market posts in one place by clicking on this link. 

Today's TAFA Market focus zooms in on:

Jefferson Street Studios

Visit Jefferson Street Studios on TAFA

"Limbo", Art Quilt by Helene Davis

Bob and Helene Davis are two of my favorite people in Paducah.  I don't see them very often, but when I do, there is always a feeling of "home".  Both are members of our Paducah Fiber Artists group and often host our meetings at their home and studio on Jefferson Street.  We are all disappointed when Bob fails to make his expected chicken dish...  And, I am constantly reminded of them in my home as they have been extremely generous to me over the years.  When I first moved here, they gave me a couch which I use daily.  I also have fabric, thread, books and other odds and ends they have given me.  

Helene and Bob will each have two pieces in our TAFA Market show, all four shown here.  Helene is way up there, if not at the top, of my list of favorite art quilters.  She has mastered surface design, always coming up with unexpected results that ooh and aah us at our meetings.  And, I love the way she quilts!  Tight, close rows of machine stitching that make her quilts stiff, almost rug-like.  Helene also works with clay, creating gorgeous pieces that compliment her textiles beautifully.  I have found that many of us have had this marriage of interests, fabric and clay, which I find very interesting.  I worked with clay before moving into fabric and like to think that clay actually taught me how to sew.  I knew the basics and had done quite a bit of embroidery before my years with clay, but I learned how to see in a different way once I had done dimensional work.  

"Missing" by Helene Davis using her dyed fabrics.

Bob and Helene purchased a late 1800's industrial building which they renovated into a drop-dead gorgeous home, studio and gallery.  They have been our drop off site for packages arriving from our other TAFA members who are participating in the TAFA Market.  The back of the space is Helene's dyeing and sewing studio, the middle area houses living quarters and the front is the gallery.  Bob gets the monster garage.  Both are avid gardener's and have landscaped the outside beautifully.  They turned an eyesore into a must visit stop if you come to Paducah.

Inside the gallery at Jefferson Street Studios, Paducah, Kentucky.

If you are coming to Paducah for the AQS Show or for our TAFA Market, you must also stop by at Jefferson Street Studios.  Helene's quilts will be available for sale, along with her hand-dyed fabric and consignment items from some of our Paducah Fiber Artist members.

Bob is the people person and eclectic in his endeavors.  Coming from an engineering background, his quilts are precise and exercises in color and structure, where Helene's are organic and experimental.  Bob also does a lot of photography around town and has worked on an ongoing project where he reduces images of people to line drawings.  He has captured many of the local artists in this way and I hope that he someday publishes a book on them.  He did the drawing at the left of me four years ago and I almost kissed him because he made me look so young!

Bob is another of those people who has worked with clay.  He has made thousands of porcelain beads and has a display case of them at 212 Broadway, just around the corner from our TAFA Market.  You will have to stop in there, too as HeART of Healing Gallery, another TAFA member, and myself also have permanent booths there.   HeART of Healing specializes in vintage kimono and molas from Panama.

Jefferson Street Studios has started to show other artists in their gallery with excellent results.  They are just outside of the LowerTown boundaries, the artist neighborhood in Paducah, and I believe that their presence will encourage other art related studios to move into that area.  Take note:  If you are coming to Paducah, you MUST visit Jefferson Street Studios.  If you are not coming to Paducah but would like to purchase one of Bob or Helene's pieces pictured here, email me.  We can ship it to you after the show.

"Quilt Reflection II" by Robert Davis

Jefferson Street Studios:  1149 Jefferson Street in Paducah, Kentucky.

TAFA Market Focus: Jefferson Street Studios

A Different Memory Quilt: Mom and Dad's 50th Anniversary

Donna Rae Gislason and Cliffored Eugene Biel

This year Memorial Day weekend was a special time indeed.  My parents celebrated their 50th anniversary in Wisconsin.  There was a big party organized by my brother and sister-and-law at a hotel, my sister had worked on invitations, sang at the reception, put party favors together, and I offered to make a memory quilt for my parents.  Ha!  I knew that it couldn't be big as their wall space is already loaded with the memories 50 years can accumulate.  And, as my mother told me many Christmases ago, "Please!  No more art!"  She just didn't know where to put it all and it ended up in drawers.

So, the challenge was to come up with something that they would want to display, that would not be too intrusive and that could reflect my genius.  Heh, heh.  I chewed and chewed and chewed on ideas.  The celebration was getting closer and closer.  (I had had TWO years to get this together, but of course....  procrastination is queen.)  I toyed with an idea of creating something that could be hung on the wall or folded into a box.  As my parents have had Christ and the church as the anchor of their lives, I was trying to figure out how to make a cross shape work in that way.  If you flatten out a box, it will look like a cross...  Well, I gave up.  I ended up making a "book" with memory pockets.

"50 Years", Memory Quilt by Rachel Biel, front

I transferred four of their wedding photos on to fabric and stuffed the inside with cardboard to stiffen the panels.  The panels are held together with vintage sari fabric and decorated with vintage lace and fresh water pearls.  The whole thing can be folded up and stored as a book.  One structural headache was figuring out how to make the piece stable enough to stand upright an yet have enough room to fold it up.  This was resolved by crimping the sari fabric at the top with decorative clamps, not pictured here.

"50 Years", Memory Quilt by Rachel Biel, back

The back of each panel has a pocket for memories.  I used vintage crocheted doilies to make the pockets.  Then, I sewed little sachets out of old photos, also transferred on to fabric, and stuffed them with lavender.  A friend from Brazil made a booklet for them which fits in the pockets and an aunt also came up with a little collage.  The pockets also hold all the cards they got at the reception.

Each panel was machine quilted, front and back, before I assembled them together.  The tricky part was flipping the panels once the sari borders were added.  I closed the tops with  a fiery red trim that also has some symbolism, at least for me.  Flames often adorn the tops of Mexican religious popular art.  In this piece, these are the flames of love.

"50 Years", Memory Quilt by Rachel Biel, detail, cake

Cliff and Donna Biel, September 2010

Fifty years is a long time to be married, especially nowadays when 25% of couples in the United States choose to live together in partnership rather than being married.  My own marriage only lasted for four years.  Are my parents soul mates?  Their personalities are very different from each other, as are their interests and hobbies.  I'm sure that this has been a source of frustration from time to time, but I cannot imagine one without the other.  All of us are rather eccentric, difficult people in our own way, but at the core of their marriage is the belief that their union is holy, set apart to do God's work.  Within that framework, they bend and accept and work towards becoming a better partner for the other.  It is not a perfect marriage, but one that I tried to emulate.

"50 Years", Memory Quilt, detail, Hope Lutheran Church

A year after they were married, I was born.  Six months later, they took off to Brazil for 18 years of service as Lutheran missionaries.  They were 24 and 26 years old.  Babies, it seems now.  They went through language school, immersed themselves in a culture that experienced profound transformations while they were there, and gave each of us a childhood we will never forget.  I have started to document some of this in my blog, Biels in Brazil.

Biels in Brazil

Relatives whom I had not seen for years and years came to the reception, a wonderful reunion!  One of my aunts brought a gift which was very exciting for me and this blog that I am working on.  She had saved the letters my mother had written during their early years in Brazil.  Loads of them, packed with interesting information of life in Brazil during that time.  I will slowly transcribe these letters to that blog.

Another highlight at the reception was a viewing of the dress my mother wore for her wedding.  The dress had originally been made for my aunt LaVonne, who married my Dad's oldest brother the year before.  Stan and LaVonne are my godparents.  Many years later, Laurie, their daughter, also wore the dress in her wedding.  My sweet niece, only 11 yeas old, modeled the dress and all former brides posed with her.

 

Wedding dress with former brides.

Fifty years points to one undeniable and inescapable truth:  we are all aging.  My parents are now in their 70's, I am approaching 50 and my brother and sister agree, "Yes, my hips hurt, too."  We have almost lost my father twice now, once to a diabetic coma and once to heart disease.  We came together to celebrate a life well lived, while lurking behind that joy is the certainty that we will also come together to bury one another.  Who will be around ten years from now?  We don't know.  What we do know is that their love for each other and for each of us empowered us to come into our own selves fully and with courage.  Within our flaws, weaknesses and failures, there is also the certainty that we have been loved, accepted, forgiven and blessed.

Was my gift a success?  My father wrote me in a thank you note:

"Dear Rachel,

The celebration of our golden was golden indeed.  Thanks for being a part of it.  We appreciate all of the hours of work and creative effort it cost to make the quilted family panel you made.  We will always cherish it.  Donna is already making plans of where she wants to take it and who to show it to.

You children are all so special to us!  Each is so different from the other.  Each is gifted in a different way, yet the bonds of love and faith hold us powerfully together.  

Again, thank you!

Love, Dad



Yes, it seems that they liked it.  However, I am the one who is filled with gratitude.  Mom and Dad, I thank you for those fifty years of love and example that the two of you have given us.

"50 Years", Memory Quilt by Rachel Biel, detail, Kiss

A Different Memory Quilt: Mom and Dad's 50th Anniversary

Paducah Loses Pioneer Artist: Sarah Roush

Sarah Roush, Paducah Pioneer of the Arts

As I sat down this morning for my usual perusal of emails with coffee, waking up to the world and all of its demands, my eye caught a sad announcement on IList Paducah.  Sarah Roush had lost her battle with cancer...........   I had heard last week that she was not doing well and that hospice had been called in.  All my good intentions of visiting her "soon" vanished as I read the article.  I missed my chance to say good-bye.  Life, so fleeting, once again slapped me with the reminder of the great passing, of death, of a closed chapter.  Sarah, I'm sorry I was not there to tell you how much you meant to me.  This is my good-bye to you.  

 Read about Sarah on IList Paducah

I moved to Paducah in 2005 from Chicago.  There are two streets downtown that have cobble stones, housing some fun boutiques, restaurants, shops, a museum and a theater.  One of the buildings has a cafe at the street level with apartments on top and an outdoor seating area at the back.  The front was covered with handmade ceramic tiles.  Peeking through the windows, I could see that there were all kinds of interesting clay accents throughout the space.  Doors were covered with arches embedded with 3-D tiles, parts of the walls had protruding sculptures.  Very cool!  The space was for rent.  After 20 years of working in retail spaces in Chicago, I toyed with the idea of opening a shop in Paducah.  This space could be a gallery/cafe.  My then husband, Mohammed, was a chef...  ah, the ideas ran through my head.  Although my main love is textiles, I had worked with clay for three years and still miss it.  I called the number and found out that the owner was very sick.  Several months passed until I finally met Sarah.  She was the owner and the artist who had created all of the tiles and clay work that adorned that building.  Another building on Broadway, Paducah's main street, was also covered with Sarah's tiles.  I was enchanted.  Paducah's School of Art is appropriately housed in that building.

Rachel Biel standing in front of one of Sarah Roush's walls, 

April 2009

 Sarah and her architect partner, George Fletcher, were among the first to envision Paducah as a haven for artists.  Both left indelible marks on the city through their careful restoration of buildings in key locations.  Sarah came to Paducah in 1987 and was instrumental in bringing other local artists together through group shows and events.  Even as her health deteriorated, she was a fervent advocate for artists who fell outside of the City's revitalization and promotional efforts with LowerTown and the Artist's Relocation Program.  Facing financial difficulties incurred by her health problems, Sarah lost several of her buildings, selling them in order to pay for hospital bills.  Her life, struggles and death, are all a testament to me of how upside down our system is, especially in view of how poorly artists are rated in our society.  

Sarah and Monica Bilak

The pictures to the left are from a party at my house in April of 2009.  Sarah was witty, fun, and embraced life with a passion not often found.  She loved flowers and gardening, but lived downtown in the third story of one of her buildings.  So, George built her a rooftop garden.  He lugged all the lumber up himself, creating a large covered deck filled with pots where Sarah could grow her tropical delights.  She built a mosaic on one of the walls, using clay and shards of broken plates and other objects.  Marbles and mirrors caught reflections of light. 

Sarah Roush, 2009

Inside, there was a living area.  Nice, but chaotic, filled with textiles and wonderful objects.  Sarah was not only a friend, she was also a customer.  She was one of the few people in Paducah who felt the shared my passion for tribal textiles.  She bought several pieces from me over the years, surrounding herself with inspiration from faraway places.

Most of that top floor was taken up by her studio.  The sight of it is overwhelming.  A huge space filled with creatures of clay, one part blocked off for works on paper.  On and on and on...  I often wondered what the weight of all this clay was doing to the building's structure.  Many of the pieces were fragile and pieces had chipped off.  Dust hid the vibrant colors on some of the ones that had been in place for a long time.  This was a garden of soul, an entry into the muse of an artist who just wouldn't stop, at least not without a big, long fight.

Sarah's art is unlike anything I had ever seen before.  Her work in clay used molds from dolls, religious icons, and animals to create new creatures.

 "Angels" by Sarah Roush

Runny glazes in brilliant colors fused the pieces together, often in violent collision.  Verging on grotesque, her clay work is also humorous and playful.

"Puppy" by Sarah Roush

 

"Columbus" by Sarah Roush

The "discovery" of the New World: a baby riding on a snail carrying a gun.  We also shared a similar interest in politics and social change.  Sarah kept up on what was going on locally and in the world.  She translated her anger at injustice into her art.  But, when cancer became a focal point in her life, her art left the outside world to focus on what was going on inside of her.  She began to narrate her life, her body, and her disease through watercolors and then computer collages.

"Torso" by Sarah Roush

The watercolors bring in some of the chaotic techniques used in the clay: the runny colors, the use of common imagery coming into a new form, but they are softer, beautiful.  Rubber stamps fill the spaces, creating texture within the colors.  Almost all of the images are of human forms, although the messages within them still harken to commentary.

"Teacup" by Sarah Roush

Her most recent work, digital imagery, explores these human shapes even more intimately.  Now it is truly autobiographical as she uses x-rays of her body as the key design element in the story.  Sometimes you have to look for them, to know that they are there.  At other times, the x-rays are obvious, stark, morbid if you don't know the story behind them.

"Boo" by Sarah Roush

In "Boo", Sarah's humor is again evident.  Does the ghostly image of skeleton and skull scare you?  Death can be scary.  But, so can life with constant pain.

A big change in the new works is scale.  The clay and watercolor pieces are large, demanding of wall or podium space.  They boldly say, "Look at me.  I am here.  You cannot pass me by."  The collages are small, ornate pieces, jeweled by their frames.  They invite scrutiny.  Treasures that can be held and studied.

"Inhabitants" by Sarah Roush

Sarah really loved her new direction.  To me, they sing of the "Day of the Dead", the embracing of our mortality, of our connection to the past and to the future.  Sarah chose to die.  She told her people that she was finally ready to stop the chemo.  All of this work helped her to face what lies ahead, to come to peace within herself.  How many of us have that courage?  I hope that when my time comes, I will have a piece of Sarah inside myself that will help me into the next phase of life.  (Yes, I do believe in an afterlife.)

If Sarah is now a ghost, I hope that she will haunt me and fuse with my muse.  Sarah, if you can hear this, know that I am honored to have been your friend.  I am filled with regret for not having been there, for not having shared more of your burdens.  But, I am also filled with joy for having known your spirit.  Thank you!

Sarah Roush, you remain with us.

Links on Sarah:

Sarah's website

IList Article

Paducah Sun Obituary

Condolences

 

Donations can be sent to The Paducah School of Art, In Memory of Sarah Roush, 409 Broadway, Paducah, KY 42001.

Paducah Loses Pioneer Artist: Sarah Roush

Sidney's Ties, A Weaving of Memories

"Sidney's Ties", detail, by Rayela Art, 2009

It really helps to explore the boundaries of one's potential artistically when there is a patron in sight. In my case, Joyce Levy has been that benefactor. Formerly a board member of the now defunct Textile Arts Center of Chicago, Joyce's love of art and textiles has given her the pleasure of supporting an unknown like myself with fairly large projects. Projects that I would not have been able to explore without the financial backing. I started quilting in the early 90's and even with limited skills, she commissioned four quilts in memory of her brother Bruce. The quilts were made from Bruce's t-shirts and went to his wife, parents, best friend and Joyce. You can see those quilts and learn more about their story in my former post.

Rachel Biel Taibi (Rayela Art) with patron, Joyce Levy.

Joyce, a brilliant lawyer, comes from a family of talent and enthusiasm for life. Her mother, recently deceased due to a medical error, was a psychologist and an avid collector of folk art from around the world, including a large collection of Native American silver work. Bruce, a cancer victim, was a mathematician, a minimalist, but gifted with words. The patriarch of the family, Sidney Levy, is recognized around the world for his work in marketing and behavioral management. Sidney is now on my short list of patrons. He commissioned me to make something interesting out of the ties he had worn for the last 40 years. Thus, "Sidney's Ties" came into existence.

"Sidney's Ties", A Woven Quilt
Hand-stitched, 37" wide x 61" long

"Sidney's Ties", back

"Sidney's Ties", closer views, top and bottom

After Bobette passed away, Sidney went through a purging phase and moved to a smaller place. At 88 years of age, he no longer wears his ties. What to do with them? So many memories tied up into them... Ties worn to work, ties purchased at favorite stores, ties received as gifts, ties that went overseas... These pieces of silk represent a lifetime of woven history, thus weaving them together make an added statement of all the memories that tie us together.

Sidney Levy, patriarch of creatives.

I have not had the honor of meeting Sidney in person, although I have had the pleasure of speaking to him on the phone and via email. I was tickled to find a video of him on the web, an interview posted by "Life in Perpetual Beta":


Find more videos like this on Life in Perpetual Beta

The project started with a visit from Joyce to visit Sidney in Arizona. They spread the ties out on the bed, over the quilt I had made in Bruce's memory. "Surely something can be made of this!"

Ties laid out for "Sidney's Ties".

My initial mock-up was quite different from the final piece. Some people plan everything out before they dig in. I don't. I work from an intuitive level, changing things as I go. This can be difficult in a commission as the future owner of the piece has to be as free spirited as I am. When I asked Sidney what the budget was, he said, "Go until it is finished." A mandate like that can only come from someone who understands and has experienced the creative process.

"Sidney's Ties", mocked up.

I like texture and have been exploring how to make my textiles more dimensional. I had seen a demonstration of rushing at the quilt show and thought that would work for framing the photos. I had to gut the ties to make them pliable enough for gathering. This was also the first time I had worked with fabric transfers. I used the pre-treated fabric sheets that Caryl Bryer Fallert sells at her shop. I stuffed each photo and quilted around the body outlines. These ties were the special ones. Joyce had written little notes attached to them and I wanted to incorporate her words, but ended up not figuring out how to do that in a way that worked for me.

Joyce and Bruce as children, "Sidney's Ties"

Young Sidney, "Sidney's Ties"

Bobette at 23, "Sidney's Ties"

Sidney, who wore all these ties...

I used buttons, glass Czech beads and fresh water pearls to lighten and highlight the central figures. They glow when they are under a spotlight. You will notice that the piece is not straight. I don't like straight lines. Maybe I can't even do them, but I know that the ethnic textiles that I so love are often uneven, crooked, worn and all of that tells me a story. So, "Sidney's Ties" is also crooked. Life is beautiful, full of wonderful memories, but Sidney and his family have also had their share of grief, of the pain that can make any straight back crooked. So, this tribute to a life well-lived hopefully captures some of the dualism that propels each of us from youth into maturity, from life to death, and from need to abundance. I thank you, Sidney and Joyce, for the great pleasure this project has given me!

"Sidney's Ties", back detail.

See Sidney's bios at the University of Arizona and at NorthWestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

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Sidney's Ties, A Weaving of Memories

Fruits of My Hands: Scissors in the Garden

Fruits of my garden.

I have to admit that my eyes sometimes roll around in my head when I go to a blog to look at textiles or art and all I see are the artist's flowers.... Well, this summer I had a bit of a conversion experience as I tackled my yard. I planted flowers and foliage, cleared a plot of land for a vegetable garden and labored to fight invasive vines, grasses, and weeds. I pulled, yanked, tilled, watered, seeded, and did my best to coax a yard which had been neglected for decades into something productive. Every bug in the book came to feast and then weird spots and molds showed up on my precious babies...

My baby veggies, so eager to live!

When you nurture something from a seed, there is a great source of pride and fascination to see it grow into a plant, especially if it also feeds you. At least, this is true for me. I have always had a few potted plants, but had never really tried to be the backyard gardener. I figured farming was in my blood and it should come naturally. Ha! I planted everything too close and had no idea that a tomato plant could grow to be over six feet tall. My friend, Tom, is the director of Angelic Organic's Learning Center. I called him for help and he recommended that I read John Jeavon's book, How to Grow More Vegetables (and fruits, nuts, berries, grains and other crops).

How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine

What a great resource! Of course, I had done everything wrong, but there was still time to correct some of the mistakes. The soil was nitrogen poor so I added some organic fertilizer and started a compost pile.

Garden plot in June 2009

Some things grew very well, while others got eaten up by bugs or a pest. I had the best luck with tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers, and pumpkins. Oh, and I got lots of wonderful basil!

Garden plot in August 2009

The sweet peas dried up with the heat of summer, the lettuce shoots up into large stalks, I did get some green beans, but then a worm got on to them, and forget the broccoli! My goodness, did that get infested! Jeavons and other authors in books I checked out from the library, all talked about what can feast on your precious plants. But, the worst of all are snails and slugs. Jeavons described how they go slug hunting at night, so I figured I should go out one night with a flashlight and take a look. The slugs were everywhere! It revolted me so much that I was almost sick! I had nightmares from them, big, fat, slithering monsters invading my veggies and chomping away. How disgusting! I tried the salting and that was too horrific to endure, plus it is not good for the soil. So, I bought pellets, similar to "Sluggo" which are approved by organic gardeners. The slugs eat them and dry up in a few days. But, one slug can lay 300 eggs, so it's a long process, especially if your neighbors are indifferent to what lives outside their doors.

My cucumbers, zucchini and green beans.

It has been fascinating to go outside and decide what I am going to eat that day based on my little harvest! I feel sad to see that Fall is upon us and that soon I won't have these delicacies. My respect for my peer artist friends who also garden has grown. I was just in Chicago visiting friends and a few of them had some gorgeous gardens, all of which renew the spirit and provide beauty to the eye. My friend, Roberta, is a ceramic artist and her garden is adorned by sculptural pieces.

Roberta de Oliveira's garden in Chicago.

Chris and Joyce won a neighborhood award for their garden. Their goal was to do away completely with grass and the result is a lovely mix of flowers and veggies.

Chris an Joyce's garden in Skokie.

The most surprising garden I was across the street from my husband's apartment. He lives in a densely populated urban area on Chicago's north side. A couple of Vietnamese women have taken up a bunch of the grass areas and planted vegetables. Apparently, they are out there every day, bent over their plants, and they share the produce with whoever wants it.

Vietnamese women gardening in Chicago.

Chicago has made a commitment to become the greenest city in the United States and has even established a successful green roof program, so I guess I should not be surprised to see any plot of available earth being used to grow food.

However, there has been a consequence in my ability to produce another fruit: I have only touched my scissors to cut off veggies and bad leaves, no fabric! This is the age-old pattern of the farmer/crafter. Food is the priority in the summer months and the time for waiting becomes dedicated to production of functional goods. For centuries, people have worked the soil and then used the winter months for projects which can be done inside the home.

One of my favorite photographers on Flickr, Baba Steve, has caught many of the vendors from around the world. These places also produce many of my favorite crafts!

Vendor in Assam, India by Baba Steve

1. West Africa, 2. Tajikistan, 3. Darjeeling, India, 4. Pakistan
All photos by Baba Steve

In fact, the production of handicrafts and farming are recognized as partner industries by most development organizations. The Peace Corps has combined the two in their strategies for decades. They were the ones that brought Scandinavian sweater knitting patterns and techniques to the indigenous Quechua of Otavalo in the 1960's. This has grown into a multi-million dollar industry with traditionally dressed Otavalo Indians selling sweaters in markets all over the world. (See some consequences.) Oxfam International works with similar groups in Asia, Latin America and Africa. The United Nations reports on how poverty is especially dire in rural areas and how the internet has become the new tool to bring income into these distressed areas.

Vendor in Afghanistan by Baba Steve.

Does that sound familiar? Am I not doing the same thing? I live in a small town in Kentucky where job opportunities are limited. My income is mostly generated by my online stores. A friend of mine from Ghana told me how now business is all done on cell phones, both by farmers and handicraft traders. Having the ability to live where you grow your food and make your craft also has deep implications in how societies are able to structure their family units, preserve their traditions and maintain ownership over their land, a problem that USAID identifies for many struggling communities who live in rural or forested areas.

No, I will not roll my eyes anymore at other bloggers who garden and love their flowers. Whether our scissors are inside, cutting some fabric or thread, or outside, harvesting some fruits, we are all part of this wonderful tapestry that makes Earth a better place to live!

Making some earth...

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Fruits of My Hands: Scissors in the Garden