Craft For Health

Playing Fashion Designer after being Kidnapped and Held Hostage

Empowerment from an Unlikely Situation

by Veronica Cizmar

 

I have always wanted to work for myself and received the opportunity about 6 years ago. Having just been released from 16 months of being held hostage and tortured by my former fiancé, I was left with battling post-traumatic-stress-syndrome. Not being able to work and completely bankrupt, I realized it would be quite impossible to merge back into the workforce and toil for someone else. My hostage situation left me with a volatile temper creating at the time, tension in all relationships.

 

With the help of karate classes I began to deal with my anger issues and gradually came to a place where I could once more enter the workforce. But what to do? Collecting vintage was an old hobby I did as a teenager so along with a friend, began selling vintage clothing on ebay. It proved popular enough to launch a website. A year later I took the company solo and expanded to what it is today - a successful online vintage store, Some Like it Vintage.com. Donating 10% of all my sales to local women's shelters, I am proud to help others who may need escape from a violent situation.

Being a lover of all things vintage connects perfectly with my recycling lifestyle. Sorting through my vintage clothing shipments, I often find garments I can not sell. There is a certain amount of cleaning and repair that is needed with most garments, but then there are those gems that transmit inspiration. Inspiration to alter them slightly or go beyond just a simple re-sewing of a button - these pieces need extra loving care. I name this my 'Creative Vintage'  line of clothing. A garment that is updated or changed by sewing other vintage trims or fabrics; shortening or lenghtening...maininting a vintage style but with an urban edge to it. Playing fashion designer allows me to escape from the administrative side of my business and utilize the creative side of my brain! It is equal to a mini holiday allowing me to relax and be thankful for all that has come to me.

Today I am kept busy with running the website, volunteering with and donating to women's shelters, and training in martial arts. Last year I received my first degree black belt in Wado Ryu karate - a proud accomplishment I also share with women at the shelter through monthly self-defense workshops.

 

To see the Creative Vintage line, visit www.somelikeitvintage.com or http://www.somelikeitvintage.com/category/creative-vintage/catId=3112678

Aid to Artisans in Haiti in the Wake of an Earthquake

 
Handmade Art by Haitian Artisans  

In 2005, Stray Dog Designs decided on papier mache as the medium for our newest designs, and on Haiti as the place to get the job done.  A key part of our mission at Stray Dog Designs is to offer the artisans who create our products the opportunity to work in their medium of expertise.  Partnering with Haiti fulfilled this, sinse their artisans have a long, distingquished history of working with papier mache. Haiti was also in line with the two other aspects of our mission:  Making a difference by supply those in need with sustainable jobs, and using recycled materials whenever possible. 

 

Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, with multiple problems – political corruption, gangs, a huge drug trafficking trade, destruction of natural resources, and general suffering of the masses.  It has the highest rate of AIDS, malnutrition, and infant mortality in the region.  More than two thirds of the population has no stable employment.  The UN has described the human rights condition as “catastrophic,” and the once flourishing tourist industry that helped Haiti stay afloat until the 80’s has all but disappeared

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Aid to Artisans (ATA) were only too happy to help us.  They set us up with a workshop in Port Au Prince.  It was on the border of the largest slum and each morning we were greeted with gunfire of rival gangs warring for turf and shooting at UN blue helmets.  Certainly not the best environment for working, but it definitely reinforced why we were there.  You can build schools, clinics, food distribution centers, and housing, but in the end people need a stable place to work, and a trade for which they are paid a living wage. Fortunately, the spirit of the people with whom we worked prevailed.

 

And in 2007 Jane Gray debuted her new designs for floor lamps, table lamps, stools, mirrors and novelty items, all of which reflect the excellent melding of modern design concepts and old world artisan skills coming together in the medium of papier mache to create a new world of possibilities for everyone invovled.