I didn’t write my usual Friday email yesterday.
Maria and I are in Rhinebeck, New York, for the Country Living Fair, and after a very full first day yesterday, I’m finally sat down to write last night.
It has also been a heavy week. Like so many of you, I’ve been thinking about the news—and particularly about women, the cultures we grow up in, and the spaces we are allowed to occupy within them.
Last weekend, I attended an Afghan wedding. For all of the celebration, only women were allowed inside. It was joyful and fascinating and completely different from any wedding I had attended before.
Then I think about Guatemala, where traditional ideas about gender can still be deeply rooted—and yet so many of the women we work with are extraordinary artisans, businesswomen, mothers, teachers of generations-old skills, and primary breadwinners in their families.
I don’t have a tidy conclusion to any of that. Maybe I’m simply noticing, once again, how much more complicated—and more interesting—people become when we actually know one another.
Which brings me to a new bag we brought with us to Rhinebeck.
It may be the most Intertwined thing we’ve ever made.
The fabric begins in Guatemala: traditional cortes from Zunil and Salcajá, sewn into bags by the artisans at Ruth & Naomi. Then, here in Greensboro, our Afghan friends A & Z add a horn buckle from Morocco. And the shape itself is inspired by the Japanese knot bag.
Guatemala. Afghanistan. Morocco. Japan.
Four different cultures, brought together in one small object.
That is the part of this work I never get tired of. Handmade things carry ideas with them. Techniques travel. Textiles get another life. People who may never meet one another can still contribute to the same creation.
Maybe that’s one small version of what we mean when we say "connection changes everything."
And now Maria and I are here in Rhinebeck, getting to watch these bags begin the next part of their story.
I hope you have a peaceful weekend,
Ginger
Leave a comment