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#1 | |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
ALL ACCESS Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Virginia
Posts: 7,416
Local Time: 12:53 PM
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Product (RED) project in Mali!
Ok, I'm seriously thrilled about this. Several of the volunteers that I worked with while a volunteer in Mali ended up staying in Africa and working on various projects with other groups. One of them just forwarded this press release to me this morning.
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And now I have to go find out how to buy these bogolan bags so I can support the artisans in Mali. ![]()
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"I can't change the world, but I can change the world in me." - Bono |
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#2 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Rage Ave.
Posts: 18,749
Local Time: 12:53 PM
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there's a hallmark store here ya know
__________________![]() i t hink it is really awesome that they are doing th is. when i saw the new hallmark products i was really excited about the bag the most, because i love crafts from other places. ![]() |
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#3 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 28,211
Local Time: 01:53 PM
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Is this it?
![]() The links won't post for some reason but you can go to hallmark.com, they have a whole page about the bags and other info about all the (RED) products they will have |
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#4 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Rage Ave.
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Local Time: 12:53 PM
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yes that's the one! isn't it purty?
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#5 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 28,211
Local Time: 01:53 PM
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It is pretty, I wonder how much they will be. They also have (RED) musical cards, I LOVE those musical cards. They have one with a version of Over The Rainbow that I love, I have to get that.
Haha, they have Let's Get It On too |
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#6 |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
ALL ACCESS Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Virginia
Posts: 7,416
Local Time: 12:53 PM
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Yep, that is it.
![]() From the website: "Bogolan (or mud cloth), a traditional fabric art form, is handmade by artisans in Mali, West Africa. Cloth is handwoven into strips from 100% unbleached Malaian cotton, hand-tinted using clay from the Niger River and then laid out in the hot West African sun. *By choosing this bag, you're helping artisans provide for their famlies, carry on a centuries-old craft and boost Mali's developing economy. This is the first export to use Mali's African Growth and Opportunities Act textile visa." As I was just explaining to one of my coworkers, there are so many people involved in the production chain. Subsistence famers grow the cotton, often poor women (widows, single mothers, etc) in cooperatives card the raw cotton and make it into thread. Then it is woven by hand on a traditional loom into strips of cloth. Then the cloth is dyed with traditional techniques using mud and plants. Then it is sewn by tailors into a finished product. Then the product is purchased by a local handcraft export group who then sells it to a company like Hallmark. Basically, when you buy one, you are indirectly supporting every person involved in that chain, not to mention the families that their income provides for. *sigh* This is making me homesick for Mali. lol.
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"I can't change the world, but I can change the world in me." - Bono |
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#7 |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
ALL ACCESS Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Berlin
Posts: 6,739
Local Time: 07:53 PM
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Perfect example for a value added approach to GDP.
![]() ![]() Great idea. I wish they will eventually discover Germany as a market for Product (Red). |
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#8 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Rage Ave.
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i got a bag today!! :giddy: i loves it! thanks for the info sula ;D
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#9 | |
ONE
love, blood, life Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: It's a very, very mad world.
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#10 | |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 28,211
Local Time: 01:53 PM
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#11 |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
ALL ACCESS Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Virginia
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Local Time: 12:53 PM
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On the website it says they are $19.99. Which I can tell you from experience is definitely more than fair considering the amount of hand-labor that goes into making one of them.
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"I can't change the world, but I can change the world in me." - Bono |
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#12 |
Blue Crack Addict
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yes, sula is right mrs. s. it was just $19.99
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#13 |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
VIP PASS Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: NYC
Posts: 5,741
Local Time: 01:53 PM
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I got my bag today! I got the Kalikali bag
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#14 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 28,211
Local Time: 01:53 PM
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Wow, only $19.99? That's definitely more than fair. I will look for one hopefully today, it seems like this could actually make a difference there. Not as much as sulawesigirl and other people have done, but it makes me feel like I can do some small thing.
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#15 | |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Mar 2007
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#16 |
Blue Crack Distributor
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: I'll be up with the sun, I'm not coming down...
Posts: 53,698
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I bought some of the wrapping paper when I was there last week.
I saw the bag but I was too cheap to get it. ![]() |
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#17 |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: and if you don't know where you're going...any road will take you there..
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I got 3 rolls of the paper and one of the music cards. I was very excited and part of me wanted to clean out the display!
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#18 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Nov 2002
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The store I was in today already had the ornament, I wish I could have bought that too. I got a bag, the one called the finkumba. That was the one my friend and I liked best, I liked all of them though. She gave me a great idea, she thought that would be a good secret Santa/office gift.
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#19 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Rage Ave.
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taken from the (RED) blog
From Daydream to Reality: The Making of the Hallmark (PRODUCT) RED mudcloth bag
Our friends at Hallmark visited Mali twice this year to work with bogolan (mudcloth) artisans to create the Hallmark (PRODUCT) RED Mali mudcloth bag (available at Hallmark Gold Crown stores). Erin Dennis, an art director at Hallmark who went on these trips, shared her stories and photos with us to let us know how the bag was created and sent over here from Africa. Many thanks to Erin! To see more of the Hallmark (PRODUCT) RED collection, go to HALLMARK.COM/RED. --bn There’s so much to say about the two trips to Mali that I was part of... I hardly know where to start. This field might be as good a place as any: ![]() This field was as close to a desert as I’ve been. It was acres of finely raked rows, and I was told it would be full of green as soon as the rains came in a few weeks. I couldn’t really imagine it as a farmer’s field, on a dry 100-degree day in June! In September’s rainy season, the transformation was amazing: ![]() Beautiful, green grasses and crops everywhere. They grew – like so many parts of our project have – quickly and in surprising and beautiful ways. We met many warm friends and wonderful souls while in Mali. We told each of them along the way that they were going to be introduced to Americans through their hard work and beautiful craftsmanship. ![]() ![]() Here are some pictures of people we worked with and some that just smiled and said hello. I know that’s not enough to really introduce you, so we’re doing the next best thing. We have made Mali mudcloth bags together, handmade by some of these fantastic people, and telling you the story of how they came to be. ![]() ![]() ![]() Bogolan, or mudcloth, is a time-honored craft that started simply as a way to decorate a hunter’s garment. Women, already powerful in their roles within the village, created a visual language through the patterns. Each element has a meaning, and tells a story –usually about connection and family or village life… and isn’t that what Hallmark is about too? A highlight was to meet Boubacar Doumbia, a well-known bogolan artist and expert. He was one of many who taught us about meanings in the patterns, which you see on our packaging. One thing I thought was unique is how each one has a positive twist that is very Mali. For example, the crossroads – an X – where you and I might bump into each other, is a place to meet and have a conversation, and a place to honor spirits. The one that represents an alligator is surprisingly defined as “good neighbors,” because when you build your village next to a river, you need to figure out how to get along with your new neighbors! ![]() ![]() Another expert was Samuel Sidibé from the National Museum of Mali, in Bamako. An elegant man, whose fabulous display of textiles at the museum is worth a trip! ![]() |
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#20 |
Blue Crack Distributor
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: I'll be up with the sun, I'm not coming down...
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I just was in a Hallmark yesterday. No ornament there yet.
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