Today on The World, there was a segment discussing child labor. Specifically, they were talking about exactly the issue that we're trying to deal with at Bamboo Village Educational Fund: children dropping out of school in their early teens to become migrant workers. Click here to read the transcript from today's broadcast. You can also check out their photo stream here.
This also prompts me to stop procrastinating and let you know that Zhang Lin has been accounted for! Daniel just returned from China on Sunday.
Showing posts with label charity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charity. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
She's One!
Happy Etsyversary, Bamboo Village!
Well, Saturday marks my one year mark on Etsy! In one year, we've accomplished so much! I've refined my product line and introduced a bunch of new designs. We've made over 300 sales, and raised more than $1000 for the Fund, including money raised through the shop as well as direct donations.
In the first year, I was also invited to participate in a gallery show, and now have some of my own items for sale in a bricks and mortar store in Seattle, and yet another design being used by a Chinese brush painting artist as her price tags. I've also had a few of my items on the home page at Etsy, in January I was a featured artist on Poppytalk Handmade, and have been spotlighted on several blogs. I've had the privelege of sending Bamboo Village Press goodies to four continents and at least nine countries. Wow, that's more than I ever dreamed of, really.
We've also had the immense and humbling experience of working with these amazing guest artists:
OUOU Designs
Anonymous Guest Artist
Sea Find Designs
Jealous Jewelry
Altinay Designs
Field & Sea
Additionally, we have another new guest artist, waiting in the wings! We'll be unveiling the stunning items she's contributed in the next month, as a part of the celebration!
Thank you all for making this year so amazing, but mostly, for making it possible for us to sponsor Zhang Lin less than 5 months after we started Bamboo Village Educational Fund. The next year promises to bring with it lots of surprises, lots of new successes and creativity.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
新东西- New Stuff - Crickets & Compasses
Here I am in my second week of self employment, and only now do I have a chance to check in! It's been a real process of adjustment, getting used to the new flow of time and trying to reorganize my space without spending a ton of money. Things are finally settling down, and I've got some new introductions to make!
Emblem of Courage
I've been working on this new design for a while - I had the idea a few weeks ago to pair a screened image of a hand-written letter in Chinese with some sort of symbol. I took the letter of introduction we received about Zhang Lin during the process of coming to sponsor her education and made it ready for burning a Gocco screen. Then I spend quite some time toying with which symbol to overlay. Too busy and it would fight with the Chinese characters. Too simple, I could end up with something meaningless. Finally I settled on the cricket, a beloved little beast in Chinese culture and a symbol of courage. Courage seemed like a perfect match for Zhang Lin, who has been through so much in her young life.
Last night I did the printing, both on moleskines, cards, and tags. They came out so well! I'm excited about posting them in my shop as well as using these cards in my Bamboo Village correspondence. Whether or not this story means anything to you, I hope the design will stand on its own as a beautiful print.
Ancient Compass
During the process of developing the cricket design, I was suddenly inspired with another design idea which ended up being a quick and successful print. I launched the Ancient Compass Moleskine last week and have met with great success and attention. Every time I list one, they generate more traffic than any other item in my shop. These are a great gift for guys - evidenced by the fact that every one that's sold has been purchased by men! Very exciting!
The design is a modified photograph of a fengshui luopan (风水罗盘） - a compass used in hard core feng shui consultations for determining energy flow in physical space.
More Cozy for the Coffee
Finally, I whipped up a couple more french press coffee cozies (one and two). These pretties have been warmly received in the shop since I made up the pattern last month, so I've got one on the needles just about all the time now.
December is turning out to be my best month ever, for more reasons than just Bamboo Village Press. I'm so excited to be fully engaged in this new endeavor, and can't wait to get more work done on the Educational Fund! Coming soon, we've got a new guest artist, and I will finally be able to do some writing about life in rural Sichuan, China.
Emblem of Courage
I've been working on this new design for a while - I had the idea a few weeks ago to pair a screened image of a hand-written letter in Chinese with some sort of symbol. I took the letter of introduction we received about Zhang Lin during the process of coming to sponsor her education and made it ready for burning a Gocco screen. Then I spend quite some time toying with which symbol to overlay. Too busy and it would fight with the Chinese characters. Too simple, I could end up with something meaningless. Finally I settled on the cricket, a beloved little beast in Chinese culture and a symbol of courage. Courage seemed like a perfect match for Zhang Lin, who has been through so much in her young life.
Last night I did the printing, both on moleskines, cards, and tags. They came out so well! I'm excited about posting them in my shop as well as using these cards in my Bamboo Village correspondence. Whether or not this story means anything to you, I hope the design will stand on its own as a beautiful print.
Ancient Compass
During the process of developing the cricket design, I was suddenly inspired with another design idea which ended up being a quick and successful print. I launched the Ancient Compass Moleskine last week and have met with great success and attention. Every time I list one, they generate more traffic than any other item in my shop. These are a great gift for guys - evidenced by the fact that every one that's sold has been purchased by men! Very exciting!
The design is a modified photograph of a fengshui luopan (风水罗盘） - a compass used in hard core feng shui consultations for determining energy flow in physical space.
More Cozy for the Coffee
Finally, I whipped up a couple more french press coffee cozies (one and two). These pretties have been warmly received in the shop since I made up the pattern last month, so I've got one on the needles just about all the time now.
December is turning out to be my best month ever, for more reasons than just Bamboo Village Press. I'm so excited to be fully engaged in this new endeavor, and can't wait to get more work done on the Educational Fund! Coming soon, we've got a new guest artist, and I will finally be able to do some writing about life in rural Sichuan, China.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
this is what happens...
When one posts only once a week, what happens is either you end up leaving out significant pieces, or you end up with a post that is rather more like a word smörgåsbord. Hopefully this will not be the trend here at Bamboo Village, because we are soon getting wireless internet and will not have to be computer-sharing as much. Hooray for our household!
Here is our week in review, working backwards:
I love knitting while watching tv, and these cozies are super-easy! Strangely enough, my own French press is still without its own cozy, but I think I'm going to fix that today. It's getting cold enough that the coffee is cold before I get to my second cup. I've always wrapped a towel around the cylinder, but I want my own cozy! Here's the new one, just added to Bamboo Village Press:
measuring out the rice
anise cloves
Yesterday I went to spend the day with Knittah, her husband and close friend Amy. It was a lovely, crisp fall day, perfect for slow-cooking meat. Don't worry, dear veggie friends, there will be no photos of the pork. This is one of my all-time favorite recipes, and it's always a hit with guests. It's very easy, and ridiculously scrumptious. It's the "Shanghai Ham" recipe from the Joyce Chen Cookbook, and is just one of many crowd-pleasing meals from this great collection of Chinese recipes.
红烧猪肉
Shanghai Ham
4lb fresh pork ham, butt or shoulder [we always use shoulder, bone-in is best, but buy more than 4lbs if you're getting one with the bone]
1 cup dark soy sauce [if you can, buy your soy sauce from an Asian market. it will give much better flavor than the kikkoman you usually get at the regular grocery]
1/2 cup sugar [honey is also ok!]
1TBS dry sherry [i skip this and use a splash of white or rice vinegar]
2 [generous] slices of fresh ginger - or 2 whole cloves garlic
few cloves star anise
1/2 - 1 cup water
Sear and scald the pork by soaking it in boiling water for a few minutes. Rinse with cold water.
Place the pork with all the ingredients in a large sauce pan or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer. Turn the pork over occasionally until tender - about 2 hours or more. Remove cover and increase heat. Baste the pork until about 1 cup of liquid remains (about 15-20 minutes). Skim fat and serve it hot or cold.
Unexpectedly, the gathering of friends yesterday also opened the birthday lead-up, complete with gifts and talk of cheesecake.
I received these two awesome books, appropriately, from Knittah. I think we have an unspoken pact to support each other's knitting obsessions on our birthdays. The first book, Last Minute Knitted Gifts, has been a long-time favorite. The photographs are stunning, and I like almost all of the projects. It was among my last batch of overdue library books, and was destined to be so again, so this is super-awesome!
The second, Knitting Nature, is as artistic as the previous is practical. The patterns are simply mind-blowing, so this will be a book of patterns to aspire to making.
I've also included here a gift from Knittah's aunt, Mother Earth and her Children, which was signed by the author. If you don't know the story behind this book, take the time to look it up. It's completely worth it.
On Friday, my sister and I were fortunate enough to take a 2-hour hike at the Wissahickon, one of my favorite places for outdoor bliss in this area. I say fortunate because it was our last chance to see the foliage before it all dropped to the wintery ground. Here are some of the photos... you can see more on Laurie's blog, linked above.
covered bridge along the "forbidden trail"
japanese maple, in full autumn glory
And, although that is not a *week* in review, it's all I've got in me! Stay tuned next week for a new moleskine design honoring Bamboo Village's China roots and Zhang Lin, our sponsored student.
Here is our week in review, working backwards:
Cozies a go-go.
I love knitting while watching tv, and these cozies are super-easy! Strangely enough, my own French press is still without its own cozy, but I think I'm going to fix that today. It's getting cold enough that the coffee is cold before I get to my second cup. I've always wrapped a towel around the cylinder, but I want my own cozy! Here's the new one, just added to Bamboo Village Press:
Saturdays are for Delicious Food
measuring out the rice
anise cloves
Yesterday I went to spend the day with Knittah, her husband and close friend Amy. It was a lovely, crisp fall day, perfect for slow-cooking meat. Don't worry, dear veggie friends, there will be no photos of the pork. This is one of my all-time favorite recipes, and it's always a hit with guests. It's very easy, and ridiculously scrumptious. It's the "Shanghai Ham" recipe from the Joyce Chen Cookbook, and is just one of many crowd-pleasing meals from this great collection of Chinese recipes.
红烧猪肉
Shanghai Ham
4lb fresh pork ham, butt or shoulder [we always use shoulder, bone-in is best, but buy more than 4lbs if you're getting one with the bone]
1 cup dark soy sauce [if you can, buy your soy sauce from an Asian market. it will give much better flavor than the kikkoman you usually get at the regular grocery]
1/2 cup sugar [honey is also ok!]
1TBS dry sherry [i skip this and use a splash of white or rice vinegar]
2 [generous] slices of fresh ginger - or 2 whole cloves garlic
few cloves star anise
1/2 - 1 cup water
Sear and scald the pork by soaking it in boiling water for a few minutes. Rinse with cold water.
Place the pork with all the ingredients in a large sauce pan or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer. Turn the pork over occasionally until tender - about 2 hours or more. Remove cover and increase heat. Baste the pork until about 1 cup of liquid remains (about 15-20 minutes). Skim fat and serve it hot or cold.
Gifties!
Unexpectedly, the gathering of friends yesterday also opened the birthday lead-up, complete with gifts and talk of cheesecake.
I received these two awesome books, appropriately, from Knittah. I think we have an unspoken pact to support each other's knitting obsessions on our birthdays. The first book, Last Minute Knitted Gifts, has been a long-time favorite. The photographs are stunning, and I like almost all of the projects. It was among my last batch of overdue library books, and was destined to be so again, so this is super-awesome!
The second, Knitting Nature, is as artistic as the previous is practical. The patterns are simply mind-blowing, so this will be a book of patterns to aspire to making.
I've also included here a gift from Knittah's aunt, Mother Earth and her Children, which was signed by the author. If you don't know the story behind this book, take the time to look it up. It's completely worth it.
Autumnal
On Friday, my sister and I were fortunate enough to take a 2-hour hike at the Wissahickon, one of my favorite places for outdoor bliss in this area. I say fortunate because it was our last chance to see the foliage before it all dropped to the wintery ground. Here are some of the photos... you can see more on Laurie's blog, linked above.
covered bridge along the "forbidden trail"
japanese maple, in full autumn gloryAnd, although that is not a *week* in review, it's all I've got in me! Stay tuned next week for a new moleskine design honoring Bamboo Village's China roots and Zhang Lin, our sponsored student.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Shop News
Coming up this week, you'll be meeting Bamboo Village Press' new Guest Artist, Lori from JealousJewelry. She very generously donated these gorgeous earrings to raise funds for Bamboo Village!The earrings are now listed in the shop - I hope you'll check them - and Lori's shop - out!
Hooray for awesome artists!
Friday, August 31, 2007
Summer End
With no Internet at home right now, it's been a challenging week, lemme tell ya! Here's a bit of what's happening in Bamboo Village, despite the lack of DSL...1) We sent the money over to Zhang Lin! This is so exciting, I can't even bear it! I can't believe this really happened. Eight months ago I was meeting Lin for the first time, and now we're really sponsoring her high school education. This is such an unexpected turn in my life path, and I'm really thrilled to have it be happening!
2) Today I received some gorgeous earrings for Bamboo Village Press, donated by a new Guest Artist, Lori of Jealous Jewelry on Etsy. I'll fill you in on all the details either this afternoon or after the long weekend. As soon as my summer sale is over, I'll be putting her gorgeous earrings up in the shop along with some other brand new products.
3) Way on the other side of the world, the rice harvest is under way. Several years ago I got to be in DaMiao Village for the rice harvest, and I can tell you it's really an incredible process. There's absolutely no mechanization. I have some photos of the rice harvest and other DaMiao Village shots still residing in an old online album on Webshots. I hope to post more about it next week.
OK, my time is out for this morning! Just a reminder: several items are currently discounted for my summer sale through September 8th. Anything left from the sale section will be leaving the shop after the 8th, so get them while you can!
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