Featured Collection: Onyx Carvings from Pakistan
Heathcote Earthings is privileged to carry this elegant and whimsical collection of hand carved onyx pieces courtesy of the fair trade charity, Ten Thousand Villages. And we’ve expanded the collection for this year’s Festival of Trees. We feature shapes that include plenty of curves to show off the varied striping and mottling of onyx–turtles, frogs, sleeping cats, elephants in two sizes, apples, pears, a disk tea light candle holder and a new item, a candle holder that cradles a tea light on one end or can be flipped to hold a taper candle!
What I love about these carvings is that, when they cut into a block of onyx, they never know what they’re going to reveal in terms of pattern! It looks unique every time! Pale greens, blacks, browns, tans, whites, oranges, reds; cloudy, muted, mottled, striped, wavy, spiderwebbed, you just never know!
These pieces are a fixture in our booth. They make great gifts, so we offer a “threefer” deal: Buy three or more carvings and we’ll take a dollar off each one. Each includes a gift box so they’re holiday friendly. How about a turtle for you, a frog for that aunt who collects, an apple for the teacher and a candle holder for that person on your list you’re not sure about?
Here’s the background on this collection, from the Ten Thousand Villages site:
Dominion Traders works with underprivileged artisans who make stone and shesham wood crafts in the city of Karachi. It disperses orders to 20 independently owned and operated onyx workshops that employ between 100 and 150 people. Each workshop group owns its own equipment and rents or owns the facility. Most are family businesses employing several family members. These workshops are scattered throughout Pakistan, and employ artisans who speak different languages and practice different religions.
A notable feature of Dominion Traders is that people of different religions and creeds work together in friendly and cordial relationships. Ten Thousand Villages purchases carved stone items including lamps, animals, paperweights, bookends, vases, candleholders and chess sets as well as carved shesham wood coffee tables and nesting tables from Dominion Traders. Ten Thousand Villages has purchased products from Dominion Traders since 1983.
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My Marsupial Neighbors–Sugar Gliders?!?
Hippie Hoo. I’m my usual strange mix of indignant and enamoured. One of the vendors near me at this year’s Festival of Trees is a double booth of young guys selling tiny marsupials from Australia called sugar gliders. These little critters seem friendly and easily bonded to humans, very appealing as “pocket pets,” which happens to be the name of the business. Hmm.
I held one in my hands and let it climb on me. They undulate and leap around and they’re charming. But when I got home tonight I went online to get the scoop. I don’t think these guys are telling people that these are social animals who NEED their own kind. If you buy just one (and one costs $400+, including specialized equipment and a year’s supply of food) it will become depressed, no matter how much human companionship you give it.
I have to smile at myself because I immediately want one and am outraged that they would sell tiny sensitive critters in a loud, crowed festival. I don’t know what to think about a $400 flying hamster! Should living beings be impulse items offered at a holiday festival?
Update: On the second day of the show, I visited the sugar gliders late in the day. The “ambassador” pets which the salespeople used were exhausted, asleep in their handler’s grasp, while the sellers continued their pitch. It was difficult to watch. I have to say I don’t think Pocket Pets, Inc. operates with the best interest of their animals in mind.
I did, however, find potential ethical breeders online last night. One listing stated that the breeder was declining last minute orders for Christmas, to avoid impulse decisions from buyers. That is an excellent sign.
Also online, it appears that Pocket Pets Inc. is countering websites offering warnings to people who might want to own this pet. Apparently they have odor issues, bathroom issues, etc., which the countering site calls “myths.” The language on the countering site is identical to the talking points on the Pocket Pets site and their sales pitch. So please read a variety of sites and meet breeders in person to make your own assessment if you’re considering one of these pets!
Conscious Consumerism: Our Final Fair Trade Show of the Year
Join Heathcote Earthings for Kennedy Kreiger Institute’s Festival of Trees
I’m up to my elbows in hacky sacks, recycled purses and bamboo xylophones! Heathcote Earthings has a choice spot next to the entertainment stage at this year’s Kennedy Kreiger Festival of Trees, November 28-30 at Maryland’s Timonium Fairgrounds! Last year, we had 20,000 people per day through the doors! The organizers came close to turning people away due to fire codes! Let’s hope this year’s party will be as big. Come on down!
I’ve expanded our line of fair trade purses, hats and scarves, including some winter treasures. I’ve restocked and added to our musical instrument department, all fair trade, too. And to keep you warm and “blessed be’ed” for the holidays, Native Scents smudge sticks and sweetgrass braids are back!
In these tough times, not all festival vendors are sticking with it. At the York Fair, we were approached by three different competitors who wanted us to buy them out. We obliged one, and now we have thousands of pieces of magnetic jewelry, the supercharged hematite strands that can be a bracelet, necklace, choker, headband, etc. We have an amazing array of colors accenting the hematite, from colored crystal to cloisonne to gemstones. And, with several sizes available, our bulk acquisition means we’ll sell them at great prices!!!
Like to collect elephants? We have onyx figurines in two sizes and clay elephant trios, as well as several stuffed elephant ornaments and elephant cloisonne jewelry. I’ve also found some fun new cats for our cat collectors! Pig collectors on your list will love our Peruvian three-legged lucky pigs, piggy bank and piggy bowl with spoon. Frog and turtle collectors will find treats on just about every table!
And in addition to our traditional tumbled stones and gemstone jewelry, we secured a breath-taking collection of animals, Buddhas, etc., carved from opalite quartz, a stone that takes light in, refracts it into soft colors and holds it in the shape of the carving. I love it. I kept a piece from the Crystal Cottage booth at the 2007 Maryland State Fair and when my friends brought more this year, I had to have some for Earthings, despite its high price tag.
The photos with this post are of other attractions at Festival of Trees. I’ll keep you posted as things come together. Thanks in advance to my sweetie, Kathy Landers, and Regina Tessone for helping with the booth!
Obama Ba-Da-Bing
“Obama is Change” but some things never change. I know well that sex and women’s bodies sell everything in Western culture. I discovered this t-shirt, with celebrity women allowing their images to be idealized, on Barack Obama’s site. I was searching for an image to accompany a post expressing my giddy elation that he’d been elected. But my bubble was burst, so here’s my witness that we can do better. We can be many changes!
And if not, some staffer from Obama’s campaign has a great future laying out department store ads in the Sunday paper!
