Lots of new pieces on the site…check them out *here*.

news from Nest:

Manali: (Bengali meaning: Bird)

Manali grew up in Kolkata’s largest red light district, where her mother still works as a prostitute. Manali dresses in American jeans and T-shirts because she says she doesn’t want to wear the same clothes her mother has to wear. She has a lot of friends in the red light area, kids who grew up like her. She gets into arguments a lot because she is not afraid to say what she thinks. However, she is the first to say sorry, because her friends are the most important thing she has. Manali takes the bus by herself. So, the other kids think she is not afraid of anything. But Manali admits, “I am afraid of the dark.”

I knew Manali for a year before she invited me to visit her mother in the red light district. Her mother was getting ready for work, tying up her hair on top of her head and calling in to us from the water-pump outside that she shared with the women next-door. “Manali must go to school, or else she will end up doing what the rest of us do,” she said firmly.

I sat with Manali on the 6×6 (ft) bed, in their 6×8 (ft) home.

“Do you want to go to school?” I asked Manali.

“Yes, I want to learn English so that I can speak with the foreigners!” she told me in Bengali.

Manali has agreed to learn how to read and write in Bengali first. Then, she plans to learn English. Money raised from kantha sales go towards her education.

From Tucson to Philly – I’m off to the Buyers Maret | The Buyers Market of American Craft (also known as the Rosen Show) starts at the end of the week in Philadelphia. The Rosen Show is a carefully selected, wholesale tradeshow where artists/artisans/jewelry designers can meet and sell directly to retailers.  Aiko Designs will be in attendance in booth #633.  This event is open to the trade only.  More on the show from the Buyers Market web site:

For fine-craft artists who have decided that wholesale exhibiting is the best way to spend more time in the studio and less time on the road, the Buyers Market of American Craft (BMAC) offers the world’s largest venue for artists to meet qualified buyers. This show provides a professional setting for the development of wholesale contacts and to generate new business for both buyers and sellers.

Craft gallery and specialty shop owners make up the largest percentage of our attendance while other retailers include museum shops, boutiques, department stores, furniture, jewelry, mail order catalogs and clothing stores.

I spent a few days in gemstone heaven this past week.  Tucson is definitely “the” place to buy stones.  I’ve been to smaller shows and to places like Thailand to look for stones, but there’s nothing like going somewhere where there are 50 different venues filled with hundreds of gem dealers from all over the world.  I saw vendors and buyers from Japan, Spain, Brazil and Hong Kong.  Some of the venues are huge tents that are at least a city block large and are nice and air conditioned (it was around 80 degrees in Tucson!). For me, finding the right stones is exciting and inspiring — makes me want to get to work!

The Tucson show is on and I’m going! The Tucson Gem & Mineral Show has been held since 1955 and is one of the (if not “the”) biggest in the world.  There are about 50 different gem show events in Tucson where the small city is taken over by gem dealers and buyers from all over the world.

As most people, I’m on a very tight budget so will mostly be looking for inspiration and am hopeful that this will be the first trip of many more to Tucson for the big show.  I won’t have to say, “I’ve always wanted to go” anymore!