Etsha Weavers Group is based over 1,500 kms. away from the Capital city of Botswana. This has helped create a sustainable employment and income for all its weavers.

As experienced art class basket weavers they felt the prices that they were getting for their work was not enough and did not justify the work they put into weaving. Weaving baskets is a lot of hard work and it can take months or even a year to finish a large basket. They were tired and ready to stop weaving!

Etsha Weavers Group suggested them to form a group and try to market their artworks directly to the consumers. They now have 24 women in their group and they were able to sell most of the artworks to collectors from many different countries. They are keen to continue with their weaving skills and if they can find more customers they will allow more women from the community to join the group. Maybe one day they can have the world University of Basket making in Etsha.

<!–* parts / source compiled from various websites –>

Sephari, (pronounced safari) is a collaboration of artisans and merchants from all over the world who craft beautiful and rare treasures. Sephari is about craftsmanship, artistry, connecting with each other around the globe, and eco-creativity.

Eco-creativity means both eco as in green and eco as in economy. Some Sephari artisans and merchants live in struggling and remote economies and it is our mission at Sephari to help them through ECOnomic-creativity.

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Museum Quality Open Basket
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Museum Quality Closed Basket
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Museum Quality Closed Basket
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They restore the deleted blog.  Really, they had time for us?  That is so great to have their help.  Anthony said to protect your administrative access.  I did not sign up for the account myself, otherwise I would have.  Seems like the signer upper kept a small factoid to herself.  You know that if you wite for a company and they pay you for your work that the company gets to use that work.  Just because you leave does not mean that you can delete what you created while being compensated.

I had my account attached to our companies wordpress account so I thought all was good.  Nope.  Gotta have that admin priviledge on your account otherwise you are just a lowly user.  Our myspace, facebook did not make it back like wordpress.  Those companies were not helpful in anyway.  Remember that service sells and it will be fun to watch their little internet empires crumble.

On with wordpress and guard your admin priviledges!!!!!

touche

peace out

Einstein playing his violin.

We want to call it a lost art, though it is alive and well. It feels lost because you hardly ever see a violin being made. As uncommon as the shoeshiner, bumping into a violin maker seems is an unlikely occurrence for most folks. And since Sephari loves to surprise its devoted blog followers with the interesting tidbits of the handmade artisan world, we’re bringing to light this special practice.

What makes violin craftsmanship so interesting is the alive, organic way it births a violin. It is as raw and intangible as bottling wine. Every inch of wood is different, each breathes different and will sound different combined with any other particular piece of wood. Wood, the product of these magnificent gigantic life forms that we love as trees, is an organism, that we are shaping into a music bearing tool for our humanly desires. Einstein discovered string theory through a single violin note–explaining the world through the perfect beautiful loops of sound these instruments played.

The anatomy of a violin.

The basic anatomy of a violin consists of a body (or corpus), a neck, a bridge, a soundpost, four strings, and various fittings. The fittings are the tuning pegs, tailpiece and tailgut, endpin, possibly one or more fine tuners on the tailpiece, and perhaps a chinrest, either attached directly over the tailpiece or to the left of it. The anatomy is similar to a guitar, except violin making involves more delicacy. It also involves constructing a bow, which guitars of course do not have. The bow consists of a stick with a ribbon of horsehair strung between the tip and frog (or nut, or heel) at opposite ends. Yes, you heard us–horsehair. Violinmaking involves ingredients zanier than a Harry Potter spell, like animal glue, catgut, and peg dope.

There is a plethora of violin makers in America, which of course comes as a surprise, like when you find out that crossword competitions hold national conferences. There are followers for every niche! A trusty violin maker will most likely hail from the A.F.V.B.M, aka American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers. And the Violin Society holds a conference (every?) year that lets people of all abilities attempt to make their own violins. And of course there are violin/bow making competitions, complete with judges and international speakers.

And while we have you on this violin kick, enjoy a couple videos on the interesting world of violin making.

Madonna with her Malawian child David Banda in 2006.

The controversy swirling Madonna’s attempted adoption in Malawi has now settled; the higher courts have ruled in her favor, overturning a local court’s decision to disallow the Material Girl to adopt Chifundo “Mercy” James. The local court had ruled against Madonna because national law requires a person be a resident of the country for 18 months before adopting. The higher courts waived this rule in Madonna’s case, because… because she is Madonna. Well, also because: “In our judgment, the welfare of infant CJ will be better taken care of by having her adopted by the foreign parent rather than for her to grow up in an orphanage where she will have no family life, no love and affection of parents.” But really, its MADONNA. A woman with a net worth of $325 million, and wants to focus all her attention on this one country!

Which brings us to the point at hand–Madonna’s involvement in Malawi. Sephari covers international and world topics because we are an international and world shoppe, who tries in their own small way to help the greater global market. Madonna has been doing this in Malawi; a fact that is hard to swallow for those who think the African-baby-adopting fad in Hollywood is exploitive and insincere. However, Madonna has been investing in the country of Malawi for many years. She produced and made the documentary “I Am Because We Are“, to bring attention to the poverty and AIDS of the country. She also co-founded a nonprofit group, Raising Malawi, that provides programs to help the needy.

Malawian girl carrying fish on her head.

It is amazing that Madonna, or anyone, discovered Malawi. Malawi is a tiny, tiny country in Africa. It is in east Central Africa, a very tropical place composed mainly of farmers and agriculture. It is known in Africa as the “Warm Heart of Africa” because its people are so hospitable and friendly. However, Malawi, like many other African countries, suffers from dire poverty and has few resources to change its future. It just implemented free public education in 1999, and still that system struggles.

So we say, if this is a fad in Hollywood–to help others–then please let this fad rampage on. We applaud action, and cheer on Madonna’s international efforts.

Tibetan monk creating sand mandala at the SF Asian Art Museum.

A word of Sanskrit origins, mandala means “essence” and “having” or “containing.” It also translates to “circle-circumference” or “completion,” both derived from the Tibetan term dkyil khor. A mandala is best known as a concentric diagram having spiritual and ritual significance in both Buddhism and Hinduism.

A variation of the mandala, sand mandalas, was recently featured at The San Francisco Asian Art Museum. A sand mandala is a traditional mandala except made in colored sand. Interesting enough, especially to watch a Tibetan monk create one.

Mandala made of recycled trash by Virginia Fleck

However, Sephari found a variation of mandala that is perhaps even cooler than that. Mandalas made of recycled trash. We discovered these artistic masterpieces from Virginia Fleck, an American visual artist whose current residence is in Cuba. Her work combines popular pop art sayings from trash bags, paper, and the like, with the traditional symmetrical rules of the mandala. You can see her portfolio here.

The jewelry is exactly what it sounds like: like Al Gore and Avril Lavigne met up and had an arts and crafts day. The jewelry is made from recycled skateboards. MapleXO, the name of this group of hip skater chicks from Oregon, realized that the beautiful art on skateboards, as well as their durable wood, could easily be hand-crafted into funky eco-friendly jewelry.

Despite its green ties, the essence of MapleXO is that this jewelry has skateboarded. That means, the jewelry has grinded a park bench, flipped in the air, and slid on a hand rail. The jewelry is not embellished–no paint or designs are added to any of the items. And of course, no two items are alike!

Maple XO gets Sephari’s Unique of the Week Award and a very high hi-five for green creativity.

So you best come! Check out the event website for more urban bazaar-ness.

She won't be at the event, but others just as talented will be!

We will be hosting a fun and eclectic event of raw talent and entertainment, in Sacramento California on Saturday May 23rd.

Check it out:

Sephari Launches Event in Sacramento, CA.

Article on Sephari Event and Owner

Narcoleptic human behavior

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Innocent dog.

You have to see this. Its hilarious, and you feel bad for laughing, but you can’t stop.

 

Sangoma is Afrikaans for one who has the inborn ability to decipher the language of ancestors.

The role of traditional African healers, also known as sangomas, used to be synonomous with “witch doctor” (remember Medicine Man with Sean Connery?). The witch doctor was the village healer, the doctor, magician, and nurse; that is, until the advent of modern science and technology. The witch doctor soon faded to the background, along with the rotary phone and horse/buggy contraption. It also didn’t help the sangoma cause when they were linked to murdering babies and sacrificing animals, etc. So what every happened to the witch doctor? Dismissed like the ring pop in the early 90s?

Sean Connery the Scottish witch doctor.

Nope! Featured in the BBC World News, South African healer and business woman Amanda Gcabashe is combining old South African healing traditions with the utility of the world wide web. She is the old school witch doctor come to haunt the glorious NET.

All kidding aside, it is a good article. Its also a telling report of the changes in South Africa and the effects of modern technology on the world’s poorest continent. It is strange and interesting how we clutch to our traditions while embracing newness. I wonder if they’ll do a healing session via Skype?

You can visit her site here and read the BBC article here. Til then, why don’t you fascinate some kiddies with Alkaseltzer in water! (random Medicine Man reference)

Etsy–”the place for all things handmade”–apparently does not support handmade goods from struggling artisans and merchants in developing countries! They disabled Sephari’s store front on Etsy, without giving any reasons. What the hey!?#!@!

I think what bothers me more is the improbability of these struggling artisans to ever be able to use Etsy on their own (due to lack of technology and a major language barrier), which greatly restricts them from reaching their target audience and truly sustaining their craft. Sephari is their option instead of Etsy, but we (Sephari) don’t yet have the audience that Etsy draws (we also don’t have the millions of investors). Capitalism aside, this is the INTERNET, folks. It should be a free arena when everywhere else is penny pinching.

*Note: Sephari is a free service to all artisans, regardless of country origin or need. Sephari does not charge per item or monthly maintenance, and Sephari pays for shipping, taxes, duties, and handling of all products sold.