Lotus Gallery Featured Artist of the Month - December - Elly Bead

LOTUS (Local Opportunity for Training in the US) is Creative Women of the World's sister-store. Located directly above the shop, LOTUS gives local artisans the opportunity to develop and grow their own products and helps them display and market them! We will be featuring one of our LOTUS artisans each month and holding an open house so that you can get to know them and see more of their work. We'll be starting with out fabulous jewelry artists Sandy and Nicole from Elly Bead!

Originally from Chicago, Sandy has now lived in the Northwest Ohio area for more than 18 years. She has been part of the graphic design/printing industry for 25 years plus, but when she moved to Hicksville, Ohio, she had to reinvent myself, and find other artistic ways to express herself, and make a living! She has worked in many mediums over the years, but making jewelry has been the most gratifying of all. She loves that she can incorporate many different and unusual materials in her pieces, such as a mix of found and recycled items, hand-forged wire and metalwork, handmade lampwork glass and clay beads, high quality semiprecious stones, freshwater pearls, and a little bit of nature, which allows her to present ever-evolving original pieces of "art to wear". Sandy strives to make people, women especially, feel truly excellent about themselves and their choices, and she believes that all the love, wonderment, and passion that she puts into making one of her jewelry designs, will be felt by the wearer. Sandy is currently the president of the Black Swamp Bead Club, a member of the Toledo Artist Challenge group, and the Toledo Rockhound Club.



Sandy's daughter Nicole has recently joined Elly Bead, and as a jewelry artist, Nicole deeply believes that her creations begin their own special life once in a client’s hands. Nicole is passionate about creating unique, funky pieces. While Nicole received professional training in various art areas including cosmetology, her scarf making is mostly self-taught. A fan of handcrafted jewelry herself, one of Nicole's goals is to provide the general public trendy and well-made handcrafted designer jewelry without the high price tag. Many designs are limited editions featuring rare colored materials collected by the designer herself from all over. Nicole's Designs are noted for their vibrant colors, often funky yet meticulous construction and the delicate balance between the style and materials used.

Since first introduced to the public in June of  2014, these girly, sweet, funky and easy to wear designs have been treasured by customers all over.



How did you begin creating and where do you draw your inspiration from?
SANDY: I have always been intrigued by nature and anything unusual or ""offbeat"". I draw great inspiration from the magic that lies just beneath the “ordinary”, and  I try to capture that along with the art & beauty of the natural world in all my designs.

NICOLE: I began creating at a very young age with my mother. She was my inspiration.



What’s your favorite piece of work that you have created?
SANDY: My favorite piece would have to be my signature piece that I started  my business with, which is my Funky Art Bracelet (F.A.B.) It is still my biggest seller, and I still love to make them! Each one is so different and colorful, and they are double sided so it's like getting two bracelets for the price of one!

NICOLE: My scarf necklaces.


What are you working on at the moment?
SANDY: Currently, I am working on a series of jewelry I call "Modern Geometric Meets Organic Nature" which was inspired by, the often unnoticed, everyday life of the industrial material world amidst the living, organic world. Using cold-form fabrication, I create  a visible interaction with geometric forms and nature. Each design has a calm, serene feeling with a twist of fun mixed in.

NICOLE: Currently working on learning how to arm knit.

What are you doing when you’re not creating? What (other) hobbies do you have?
SANDY: I am a Zumba Instructor, and I love it! I am certified in Zumba®,  Zumba Gold®,  Zumba Toning®,  and Zumba in the Circuit®
NICOLE: Taking care of my son and my other hobbies include cooking and spending time with my loved ones.

Do you admire any artists? What about their work speaks to you?
SANDY: In the jewelry world, I truly admire Kate McKinnon, her work is totally amazing! She inspires me to always find a new or different way of looking at my work.

NICOLE: Banksy. Mr brainwash. It's different. It says so much without saying anything.

What would people be surprised to know about you?
SANDY: I think people would be surprised to learn that when I was much younger, I was a run-way model.

NICOLE: Everything. I'm very mysterious!

Where else can we find your work?

www.etsy.com/shop/ellybead /www.facebook.com/EllyBead


Please join us for their open house on Friday, December 12, 2014 from 12:00-2:00. More event details on our facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/events/1530668240508258/

"Saving Face" by Justin Wade

When I was 18 years old, I made the decision to follow in the footsteps of my brother, father, and grandfather by enlisting in the United States Air Force. During my stint in basic training, the news came from our drill instructors that Saddam Hussein had finally been captured. As a unit, we celebrated the victory of the United States military and as a new recruit it truly felt like I was stepping into an organization that makes giant progress in ridding the world of dictators and oppressors. After leaving basic training, I was fortunate enough to be deployed state-side and assist in disaster clean-up following hurricane Katrina. For seven years, I truly felt like I made a difference by assisting my fellow airmen and officers by completing my mission stateside, so others could focus on their missions overseas.
During World War I, the way countries handled war completely changed. Instead of meeting on the battlefield with lines of marching soldiers waving bayonets for the glory of their country had changed into long, drawn out battles of attrition. Soldiers were thrown against insurmountable defenses in hopes of breaking down the barrier, but were only met with artillery strikes and eventually the worst tragedy to come from the war, chlorine gas. Knowing they needed more soldiers, countries utilized propaganda heavily. Defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view”, propaganda gave people who lacked information on the war a broad idea that the enemy their country was facing was a large, evil, menacing monstrosity that need to be quelled, or the entire world was doomed.

Thanks to Google, we can now be one hundred percent sure that the German people are not giant club wielding monkeys who kidnap women while invading our shores, but regular human beings just like us who happen to live in a different portion of land on this giant floating space rock. Sure, they speak a different language and have some cultural differences, but if hating someone could come down to the things they like that we don’t, I need to formulate a war strategy for invading my brother’s home in Bloomington because his choice in music is different from mine, so he must pay the price. While you’re probably thinking “life doesn’t work that way”, understand that propaganda was SO successful during the World Wars, entire magazines such as ‘The War Pictorial’ and ‘The War Plotters of Wall Street’ were printing 250,000 copies of their issues at a time and would just DROP them anywhere knowing people would pick them up.
In today’s world, however, we’ve been blessed with what is arguably the most powerful tool in the world, the internet, which gives us the greatest gift in the world of unrestricted knowledge. Instead of sorting through giant, thick copies of your parents encyclopedias, you can hold your phone up to your mouth and say, “How many whiskers do cats have on their face?” and be given 1,840,000 websites willing to give you the information (seriously, I just checked). So when I hear we’re at war with Iraq or Syria or Afghanistan, the information I want to discover is no more than two clicks away. So telling me that an entire country is full of evil people who want to kill me specifically isn’t going to work anymore. Human beings today are more unified as a single race than ever before. Living in a melting pot of a country like America, I can meet a Muslim, a Christian, and a Buddhist inside a Starbucks on any given day, and have a pleasant conversation about the weather or sports while drinking a ‘triple-shot mocha pumpkin spice super venti latte’ (no clue if that’s a thing).
So when I came across a post on my personal Facebook page that depicted a regular Muslim man sitting in the grass with the words “Whatcha thinking about?” above him, and beneath him a picture of an American sniper saying “Wind speed, drop rate, bullet velocity, things like that…” while staring down the barrel of a .50 caliber sniper rifle, I was a bit upset. I scrolled through the comments and found plenty of ‘lol’ and ‘roflmao’s, I also saw a lot of racial discrimination, calling him a ‘raghead’ and ‘terrorist’ simply because he was dressed in modern Syrian disha dasha and a kufi on his head. He could be a doctor, or a butcher, or a taxi driver, but because of where on the planet he was born, he was immediately considered a member of ISIS.
I voiced my opinion that just because the man was middle-eastern doesn’t immediately mean he’s evil or a member of any terrorist group. The picture was merely painting very broad, generic image that Americans are a strong, powerful military force, and if you even look middle-eastern, get ready to stare down our barrel. I was immediately met with people telling me they don’t have a problem with the picture, and that if I was going to complain, I should look at the videos and pictures ISIS has been posting. That’s what got me. I should be okay with our usage of propaganda because a truly evil, radical group of Islamic terrorists are doing the same thing, only worse.
America is truly the greatest, most powerful country that has ever existed on Earth. Martin Luther King, Jr once said “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” What this means is that in times of great pain and sorrow is when we need to rise up and spread love and hope. What it doesn’t mean is to match that cruelty with our own, or to yell back even louder. King followed that quote with another, saying “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Yes, a radical terrorist group hates us and is posting some of the worst things you can find on the internet. Our job as the strong is not to sink to their level, but to be BETTER than that. As the greatest country in the world, we should be setting the example for the world. The message should not be one of retribution, but of hope for a resolution.
I’m not such a pacifist that I believe peace can be always be achieved by diplomacy. I understand the quote ‘to prepare for peace, we must prepare for war’ at least in some way rings true. As ISIS continues to spread like a cancer, our goal shouldn’t be a war against Muslim culture, but like a doctor removing poison before it spreads. There isn’t a single evil race on Earth. Let’s stop painting each other in broad strokes and face the facts: I was born here, someone else was born over there. That’s the biggest difference. It’s not worth fighting over.

You Choose!

“Gimme a dolla!’” 

Anyone who has traveled to developing countries or walked the sidewalks of their own town has probably heard that familiar request.  There are real needs everywhere!  But there is a story hiding behind every demand.  Sometimes people see themselves as helpless victims, expecting another person or another organization or another country to take care of them.  They find it hard to focus on what is “right” in their life when so much “wrong” is bubbling up.

Years ago I had a young man in Cap Haitian, Haiti come up to me on the street and begged for a dollar.  I wasn’t unwilling to help but I wanted to know his story.  So instead of dismissing him with a dollar, I boldly asked, “What have YOU given to someone today?”

He looked at me like I had three heads!  “Why is this white woman asking me this?” he seemed to be thinking.  Apparently he saw himself as helpless unless somebody whom he believed had what he needed would it give to him. 

But I saw an able-bodied, strong young man so I pushed a little more and asked if he had helped carry a load for an old woman or maybe fetched water for a thirsty old man from the town square’s water pump.  Clearly these were within his realm of possibility.  It would cost him nothing but would put him into the position of giving rather than just expecting to receive from others.  He walked away shaking his head in confusion. 

I was sad because he had missed the principle of reciprocity.  He had failed to see that unimaginable resources to meet your legitimate needs will open up when you look to resourcing others first.  Every one of us has the ability to choose!  When a real need is staring you in the face, it is easy to become fearfully fixated on that need and become oblivious to the needs around you.  When you obsess on your must-haves, you will miss the freedom that comes from choosing to live in the place of love rather than fear.

I talk a lot about Grace M. in Kenya, but she is so inspiring to me, and I have learned so much from her.  As a budding entrepreneur she has a young daughter to raise alone.   Obstacle after obstacle has slowed the vision of her own creative business but she keeps encouraging the women she oversees as they build their businesses.  In all the time I have known her I have never heard her complain.  I have never seen her become bitter.  Instead she stands strong in her belief that God loves her and will not abandon her.  When her circumstances seem threatening, she turns within, asks God to show her how to meet those needs with creative solutions and then chooses to believe that WILL happen in perfect timing.  Then when she meets with the Mwangatu women or she and I talk, she asks how she can pray for US.  She has chosen love rather than fear!

I want to live like that today.  I want to trust the Resource within and choose love rather than fear!  I know it is there I will find freedom.

Six Passport Stamps and One Thousand Stories

This last winter and spring has been a wild schedule of traveling to five countries within four months but rather than feeling depleted, Nicole and I are feeling energized from each of our experiences.  Every story adds to our sense of purpose and mission at CWOW—training women who are rising out of poverty, human trafficking or disaster with the power of creative business development!

Nicole and I were both able to work in Kenya with Grace and the Mwangatu women as well as some of the other artisan groups in Nairobi.  Grace is a beautiful example of servant leadership as she keeps looking for ways to empower the women with whom she works.  We invite you to partner with us so her work can grow.  

In Uganda Grace and I visited Josephine’s work with unwed teenage mothers at The Fortress.  It was exhilarating to see the young girls learn a new skill of soap making which would prepare them for setting up their own businesses when they moved back to their villages.  That ability to support themselves and their child gives them self esteem and independence. 

In India we had the privilege of visiting the artisans with whom Handmade Expressions, one of our key vendors, work.   Most of them are located in the colorful Rajasthan area of India.   We got to participate in the ancient tradition of block printing, observed wood carving and weaving in villages north of Delhi and were mesmerized by the delicate technique of reverse applique created by the artisans in the desert near the Pakistani border.  We are proud to partner with Handmade Expressions as they support an Indian non profit organization that makes sure the skilled people they work with get consistent orders as well as training and services for practical needs. 

We had a stopover in Japan on our way to Indonesia so we tried to make the most of the long weekend.  I wanted to take Nicole to visit the Nozomi workshop in Ishinomaki where I had previously consulted but it turned out to be a huge national holiday so it didn’t work out.  But we do keep contact with the Nozomi team and were able to get a new shipment of beautiful pottery shard jewelry created by the tsunami survivors.  It is selling fast as it always does.  The women are SO encouraged by your support!

Indonesia turned out to be even more than we could have ever imagined!  We at CWOW were honored to be invited by Yayasan Pondok Kasih to do business training and product development for both Muslim and Christian participants in YPK’s training center and out in a village.   At the end of the training, many of the 30+ participants expressed through tears and warm embraces that this was JUST what they needed to have the courage to step into creative thinking and sustainable businesses.  They continue to meet regularly for mutual encouragement and accountability. 

While in Surabaya we also spoke at rallies for transgendered persons using the medium of live art, found beauty in the faces of the mentally ill living in an institution, created jewelry with women rescued from human trafficking, held babies at YPK’s spotlessly clean orphanage and were inspired by a strong group of women praying with vigor for their city, their country and the world.   We gave AND received transforming love!  YPK is an Indonesian foundation that has triggered a beautiful peace movement across Indonesia promoting understanding and mutual respect while advocating for the poor and marginalized.  Mama Hana, the founder, is totally focused on offering love wherever she goes and to whomever she meets.  Her dedicated staff has also caught the vision and allows God to work through them in astounding ways!  We are entering into a more long-term relationship with YPK and look forward to the creative energy ahead!

All of this is made possible through your tax deductible donations to our mission fund or by your purchase of products in our CWOW and LOTUS stores.  The mission fund and store operating funds are NOT co-mingled so you can rest assured that your donation will go to the mission of training and artisan development alone.  Thank you for changing the world through the power of creativity!

Lorelei

Donations are accepted online at GoCWOW.org.  or by mailing a check to:

CWOW (Creative Women of the World)

125 West Wayne

Fort Wayne, IN 46825

"Thank you Hope!"

You never know who you may randomly meet someday who will forever change your life.  I met her in a Japanese restaurant a few years back and she quickly became a close friend and consultant to Creative Women of the World.  Hope Sheehan has a lot of gifts and she generously shared them with our staff ever since she arrived as a volunteer and part time consultant at CWOW in November of 2011.  In those early days she and I strategized our plans as we laid the foundation for a strong organization that would benefit women around the world.  We both cared deeply for women who felt trapped by poverty or human trafficking and needed to know they had options that would lead to freedom.   The benefit of business training that CWOW offered could dramatically change their lives so our CWOW staff wanted to give them our best! 

Hope was finishing her degree in business when she arrived and had found a lot of exciting new ideas she was eager to try at CWOW.  She enthusiastically led two team trips to Haiti.  On one she offered business process training and on the other she took a group of doulas and birthing assistants.  All of them had life impacting experiences there.  Back at the Fort Wayne office her training in 5S organization helped her show us how to make our systems more effective and streamlined.  Her training in mind mapping was a method that really resonated with the way my mind works.  I could see the big picture and see more clearly what the next action steps needed to be in any given area of our organization to move us closer to our goals.  She had a way of seeing potential obstacles that could derail us if we didn't pay attention but fortunately we did and they didn't!

Over the last two and a half years we have laughed together, cried together, seen wildly successful dreams come true and learned hard lessons from things that didn’t work out as we wished.  But in all of it, Hope carried a deep passion for making a difference in the lives of those all around her.  Her greatest joy is in seeing someone succeed that she has mentored.  Now as Hope moves on to new areas of consulting and working I know she will continue to take joy in watching the success of CWOW continue to flourish.  I know her heart will smile with pride remembering the part she played in making it happen!

Thank you Hope!  You WILL be missed!

Goals are being achieved!

It’s exciting to know Creative Women of the World is going in the right direction as we watch our mission being accomplished.  Our primary goal is to offer access and choice to women who are working their OWN way out of extreme poverty, human trafficking and disaster through creative business development.  One of our great examples of achievement is in Kenya, thanks to Jen Foster and Grace Mwangi.

Jen was CWOW’s first long term International Advocate and w  She introduced us to a Kenyan friend of hers with whom she had worked on a previous volunteer trip.   Grace had been married to a wonderful man named James who headed an organization that matched volunteers from overseas with local needs.  Sadly, early in their happy marriage he was ruthlessly murdered.   She was left with a young child and no income.  She is an amazing woman though and could not be defeated.  She begged God to help her find a way to use her creative skills to build a business that could support her daughter and her.  She was excited to become connected to CWOW and quickly saw potential for herself and other women in her country!

as assigned to Kenya in 2012.

Jen spent her first term developing relationships with the group of women Grace had gathered to be trained for business.   Jen and her first term co-advocate, Tina Moseley and I did the initial training and then Jen carried on from there.  Our goal was to prepare the women to develop their own businesses that could support them enough to send their children (and in some cases grandchildren)  to school, to pay for medicine and to provide sufficient food and housing for their families.  They named their business “Mwangatu”, which means “Light of Hope”.  Jen mentored them through normal business obstacles.  She encouraged them to keep accurate records so they could keep their businesses going.  She gave them spiritual tools to keep them encouraged.  And all the while, she gave more and more of the leadership to Grace.  When I went to Kenya this past February and in the two trips Nicole Moore took, we observed a beautiful level of confidence and eagerness in Grace to move forward.  She spoke eloquently at an Africa Discipleship Conference in Nairobi then traveled to Uganda with me and proved herself a true leader!  Surely, THIS is what we at CWOW hoped for!

While Jen was mentoring women for CWOW, she also had a major responsibility in overseeing the Kenya Simba Scholarship program.  She visits children who have received sponsorships in four schools spread out over the country.  By turning over the leadership of mentoring women to Grace, she now plans to devote full time toward building more sponsors so these precious children can be educated. My husband, Ron, and I sponsor Sarah at Rimbe school near Mombassa and it is with great joy and purpose we send in our regular support checks.  I hope you too will consider sponsoring a child! Follow the link above to find out how.

Jen will be returning to the States the first part of May.  I hope you will express to her how much you appreciate the work she has done for CWOW to empower women by reminding them of their value and encouraging them to honor the gifts within them that have prepared them to run sustainable businesses.  Good work, Jen!  Thank you!

A Cleaner Outlook

On a hot and sunny day in the middle of Kampala, the capital of Uganda, a man was leaving his church prayer meeting where he was praying that God’s purposes would be carried out in his life and that he would be able to earn an income.  At the very same time three women were praying for a soap project through which God could provide health and hygiene for the girls living at the The Fortress, a home for pregnant teens.  Miraculously the man and the three women met each other on a random crowded street and everything changed in that moment for all of them!  It happened like this…

Grace Mwangi and I had only one full day left in Uganda.  We had been working for a week with the girls at The Fortress, had ordered a bunch of jewelry, counseled them and enjoyed playing with their babies.  It had been wonderful, but one glaring reality kept gnawing at me.  In the entire house I never saw one bar of soap or liquid detergent!  Everything from hands to dishes, to floors seemed to be washed with just water.  Babies were crawling all over those floors but they seemed far from hygienic.  As Grace and I discussed it we wondered how we could help.  We thought about buying lots of bars of soap but they would soon be used up and then what?  Grace wondered out loud if they could MAKE soap!  She used to make it in Kenya and had a vague idea of the components.  We asked where one could buy soap ingredients and Ann, a friend of The Fortress thought she knew.  So we started our trek downtown to the wholesale market area.  We walked block after block weaving between moving cars and dodging speeding motorcycles clutching our bags tightly in the mass of people.  After a sweaty hour, Ann was stumped.  We were all praying but the place wasn't anywhere to be found!  Suddenly she spotted a man carrying an unlabeled jug of green liquid.  How she knew it was shampoo is beyond me but figured he must know the soap ingredient supplier. He DID and in fact she convinced him to take us there.  It’s a good thing he did because it was buried in the back of an alley of shops with huge unmarked blue plastic barrels just outside the soap shop.  The makeshift shelves behind the counter were lined with random recycled jugs, soda bottles and plastic bags filled with caustic soda, silicate, glycerine, petroleum jelly, soda ash, perfumes and coloring agents. Our noses stung, then we sneezed and our eyes watered with the huge amounts of chemicals that surrounded us.  I wished we had a way of making only natural soaps but no one seemed to know how to make an effective soap that way and the internet was nearly impossible to access.  We reminded ourselves to make sure all the supplies were kept far out of the reach of the babies at The Fortress. 

We soon found out our newfound friend Immanuel was an expert in soap making and just happened to have the lists of ingredients for several kinds of soap in his backpack that day!  Ann is very persuasive.  She not only got him to stay and help us choose the correct ingredients, she even convinced him to follow us back to teach the girls how to make the soap that very day!  We bought all we needed to make more than 40 liters of liquid multipurpose cleaner, 30 liters of shampoo, a dozen jars of Vaseline-like “Jelly” and scores of bars of hand soap! 

At first Immanuel said he needed to be paid $200 to teach the two days of classes but when Ann told him what a great cause it would be to help these girls he came down to $60 plus the cost of all supplies.  The supplies came to $140 so about $200 the girls got trained in something that could help supply The Fortress’ needs but would also give the girls personal business potential when they left the home and needed to support her child for years to come!

Ann was ecstatic thinking about the possibilities.  She was taking notes like crazy right along with the girls so she could teach her neighbors. The girls were so excited they started rubbing the shampoo onto their heads as soon as it got produced.  They began dreaming up packaging and marketing plans.  They were sure every hair salon in the area would buy huge amounts from them and their church was big enough to provide a LOT of buyers.  I got more hugs than I have gotten from ANY project ever!  What a satisfying way to help!  It is what CWOW is all about.  We didn’t GIVE soap.  We taught them how to make soap and now it is changing their world!