Strathaven Ethical fair.

On saturday I took my fair trade goodies to a fair at Strathaven Academy. It was very poorly attended so I didn't sell much ..... which is always a bit disappointing! .  But,  I love going to their events as they are very supportive of fair trade and don't charge a stall fee .... so even if you don't sell anything  it's essentially a great opportunity to sit and chat with other fair traders and the lovely ladies who run the event.

As usual I spent nearly as much as I earned and came away with some wrapping paper from Neema fair trade and ethical gifts.  This paper is gorgeous and i'm not sure if I'll be able to cut it up for wrapping.  I may have to save it for crafting.

  A beautiful handmade basket from Rwanda

and a tea towel from India.  I love this pattern.  We have a picture in a similar style, clay painting from Gujerat.

These traders will be at the Kyle Academy Fair trade christmas fair, so if you also like what you see, I'll be putting out some more information soon.

Bunting, Tanzanian style

I sold some bunting this week. Its been a while, I'm not sure why as it really is very lovely.

Besides the fact that bunting is both beautiful and useful,  Moyo developed their version as a way of using up scraps of fabric.  

They still do that to a certain extent but in reality they wanted every triangle back and front to be special so now both scraps and new kanga are cut.  Each triangle has to be cut out separately.  Because the weave on Kanga is very loose it's difficult to get a perfect triangle.  As a final touch they added some small masai type beads and sparkly sequins to give them extra pazazz.

The bunting is sold in a netting bag, originally conceived as a gift bag, I've found with the sets that I own, that they are really useful for keeping the bunting folded and flat so that they don't get all creased.

Summer fair Tanzanian style

I was recently sorting through my photo stock and came accross these of Moyo in Tanzania.  

They were taken whilst we were exhibiting at the bi annual Makutano fair.  It's a showcase for tanzanian artists and crafters with NGO's and small businesses attending from all parts of Tanzania and Zanzibar.    

 It's not so hot in Tanzania, but very humid,    If I'm ever complaining about being cold in Scotland I try to check myself and remember that humid heat.

thats me looking very hot!

Ayeasha, the very talented designer at Moyo. They are working on a website of their own, but if you want to see just how talented she is, take a look at her designs on our website  Kibibi designs completely original, contemporary African design you won't find anywhere else!

As with most of these events we had a tiny space to fit in all our products it was quite a squash, barely any room for the customers to walk around.

We were able to display it all though.  Now when I attend fairs, I only have a table and have to leave most of my home decor, cushions etc at home. 

Happy days, I miss them!

kids doing fairtrade

For a few months now I have been volunteering at my childrens school, helping the teacher run a lunch time fairtrade group.  We spent the first year working on gaining fairtrade status for our school.  You can of course still do fair trade without getting the status,  but it was a good process to go through as it gave the group a focus to get us started and warm us up for future activities.

Now that our application has been submitted we are looking forward and making plans for the next school year.  At our weekly meetings the ideas flow freely.  We have a long list of exciting options and next week we'll have a planning meeting to narrow them down and decide which ones we want to move forward with ....

I'm not sure there are enough days in the school year to cope with it all.  One of the best ideas has been to do an interactive assembly around fairtrade, something along the lines of who wants to be a millionaire where the audience votes...... a message i think,  to us adults that our usual assembly offerings are boring and old fashioned!  Along side this they are working on a fairtrade section for the school website and developing lesson plans for the geography teacher to use with first years.

In writing this blog I've been trying to think about why they are so enthusiastic in their participation.  It goes without saying that they are all fully on board with the principles of fair trade... being acutely aware of the unfairness of it all.  But it's more than that.  Participating in the fairtrade group allows them to put into practice a whole array of things they are learning at school.   We have the computer expert who is doing the webpage,  the mental maths expert who loves to do the tuck shop, the artist who is making our banner,  the ideas person who is listened to.  The group allows them all to do what they are good at and be listened to by their piers.   They run the group, chair it and take the minutes .... they are in charge, they are awesome and they love it!

One of their favourite activities is to face the public.  We run a Fair trade friday tuck shop and sell tea coffee and snacks at parents evenings and other school events.  These are always the most popular activities and the kids are queuing up to volunteer.  So that I don't have to 'choose' someone,  we have a points system (inspired by another FT school, Stonelaw high) whereby points are given for the least popular activities and the students with the most points get to do the things they want.   ..... not sure quite how this will work at the moment, the problem being that they all attend every activity and so all have the same number of points!

I'm told that exciting things are being planned for fairtrade, ethics and the curriculum so hopefully there will be updates on this topic.