Israeli Artist's Co-op Closes Down: Lessons Learned

Vitrina Co-op

Hagar, of Gilgulim, excitedly posted about the new co-op she was working with in March of 2010.  See the other post here.  Unfortunately, the co-op did not last beyond a year of operation.  Hagar shares some of her insights on why it failed.  Undaunted, she plans on forming another group.  Sometimes it takes a painful experience to understand the potential pitfalls of a project.  Once those addressed, success is much more likely!  Here is what she says:

Why did our artists' co-op die so young?

Eight good artists and craftsmen, highly motivated and hardworking, with a jewel of a shop, an elaborate contract and fairly good understanding between them were the force behind Vitrina Co-op.  Still, our artists' co-op closed on March 1st, just a year after the grand opening.

We may put the blame on world's economy or on Israel's summer social revolt, but actually, we have to look for the answers inside our group itself.  A few of the reasons for failure include:

• Lack of patience and eagerness for quick success.
• An uneven share of sales as opposed to equal expense sharing.
• An absence of understanding that our power comes from being a group and that the shop should be run as one business. 
• The lack of acceptance that running a street shop is very different from selling from one's studio.
• That joining an artists' co-op means an artist has matured from a hobby phase to an active marketing and selling stage. 

Vitrina co-op was a highly interesting and enriching experience for me and I still believe that an artists' co-op is a very good solution for arts and crafts marketing.  I am already looking into forming a new artists' co-op!

Inside Vitrina Co-op

Read more about how to establish a co-op to free artists from their loneliness:  Post on Hagar's blog.

You can keep up with Hagar and her next endeavors on her blog.  Hagar makes beautiful jewelry out of vintage ties and other odds and ends she finds at thrift markets:

Shop Gilgulim on Etsy!

How about you?  Have you ever participated in any type of a co-op? If so, are there any valuable lessons you would like to share with us?  We would love to hear them!

On the Road With TAMMACHAT: Cotton Weaving in Northern Thailand

Bantan weaver at her loom

Junhom Bantan is a Northern Thai weaving group that specializes in eco-friendly, natural dyes and handweaving. They weave with handspun cotton, as well as stronger, unbleached cotton yarns. TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles has been working with this group since 2007, building a fair trade relationship. On Christmas Day, 2011, we began a 2-day visit to the small villages where group members live and work. These cultural traditions are still alive and well, thanks to the efforts of Mai, the woman who acts as the group's manager,and whose mother started the group many years ago. A keen interest in natural fibres and natural dyes in Japan, as well as other countries, continues to provide a market for their eco-textiles.

See our photo essay about Junhom Bantan.

Ellen Agger, TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles

Let's get together and feel all right



Vitrina- A cooperative artist's shop



Sometimes dreams come true. Than they are no dreams anymore and one has to work hard to make them live. The long way to get together and feel all right!

In October, I wrote a post about cooperation and my wish to create a cooperative of artists where I live.

On March 1^st I am going to join VITRINA, a cooperative shop that will include eight artists; two ceramic artists, one fashion designer, two jewelers (including me), one soft recycled material artist and one who does great items for children. Another participant will curate and purchase items of artists outside the group.

Sharing expenses and working hours

This shop has been working for the last two years but is going to go through a dramatic change when doubling the number of participants at the beginning of March.

The basic idea of this cooperative is to share expenses such as  rent, advertisement, accounting, packaging as well as working hours at the shop. No incomes are shared.

The group gets together once a week in order to get to an approved agreement we are going to sign, share the shop's space between the artists, redecorate the shop and create display facilities for the changing needs and to get to know each other.

We are all very excited about this experience and believe our dream has come true.

Communicating in order to make a dream come true

Wish us luck!



The Oshiwa Shop on Etsy: Lots of new textile stamps!

Oshiwa Printing Stamps

The Oshiwa Namibia Team is a small fair trade carving group that focuses on making carved wood stamps and frames.  The stamps are available in their Etsy shop:

The stamps can be used to print on fabric or paper and to press into clay or soap.  Beautifully carved out of Wawa wood, why not use them as pieces of art in themselves?  Attach hangers on to the backs and hang them on the wall.  (A great guy gift!)  The Oshiwa sets have been assembled with continuity in mind and would look great as a wall unit:

Oshiwa Printing Stamps

Oshiwa made a conscious decision to go green with their wood:  the wawa wood comes from Ghana's Department of Forestry, harvested from wood grown as part of a sustainable forestry project.  Prices reflect the sourcing of the wood, paying fair wages to the artisans and shipping the stamps to the United States.  What?  They are in the United States?  Yes.  Due to the difficulty of shipping and making financial transactions from Namibia, Oshiwa has partnered with Rayela Art to market the stamps.  Rayela Art is based in Kentucky, USA, and Oshiwa stamps can be shipped together with any purchases made from the Rayela shop or the Afghan Tribal Arts shop.  All three of us are members of the TAFA Team.

Carving an Oshiwa textile stamp.

Many of our TAFA members dye and print on fabric to make their own designs.  Stamping with Oshiwa designs can produce lovely results!  Some examples:

Aren't they all just stunning?  The Oshiwa shop is now stocked with a great selection of sets and there are about 100 single stamps that still need to be listed.  Check the shop for new additions in the next week or so.  The single ones make great stocking stuffers for the artist in your family.  The stamps are priced by square inch with the sets reflecting a 15% discount.  They are the best investment for any serious fiber artist working with surface designs.


For more information on Oshiwa and the stamps, visit www.oshiwa.com.  You will find info on both how to use and care for the stamps.

 Happy Holidays from the Oshiwa Namibia Team!

The Girl Effect: Educating Girls Can Change the World

By Catherine Salter Bayar 

There are no coincidences. Just as I was about to post on my blog, Tales from Turkey, about my primary motivation for creating our handcraft workshops, the Universe beat me to it.

Please read more here. Learning about the "girl effect" is no big deal. But it may just save humanity.

http://bazaarbayar.blogspot.com/2010/11/girl-effect-hits-home.html

A Cultural Exchange Knit Up

Hand/Eye Magazine has featured an article I wrote about our upcoming fiber arts workshops:

A knitwear designer finds a common language through craft.

Twelve years ago, I moved to my husband’s lovely Aegean town filled with Greco-Roman and Byzantine ruins, tourists, and 30,000 inhabitants. While there were other expats around, I didn’t move to Turkey to cling to my culturally American quirks and remain an outsider. Until I learned Turkish, how could I connect with my many new female relatives, none of whom spoke English?

Read more here.


Bazaar Bayar's TAFA Member Profile 

I am not alone- Is cooperation the solution for us?

Chicken Coop's Path

 

By Hagar Arnon Elbaz

Reading our fellow TAFA Team posts gives me a lot of encouragement to keep dreaming and going in the path of what I really want to do. For quite a long time we have wanted to create a cooperative of artists. I live in a little town surrounded by a very beautiful rural area full of little  wineries, tiny cheese and food producer's workshops and lots of artists. This area was chosen to serve as a test case in an international project for recycling and cooperative work.  Lucky me! 

I am a great believer of sharing and cooperation in life in general. For a few years I have been following a few women's cooperatives. I got convinced that cooperation is a major way for us artists to survive.

Gallery 12 in the Kibbutz kfar Giladi

One of these cooperatives is situated on the north of Israel in the Kibbutz kfar Giladi, right on the Lebanese border.  It is on a street accessed only by pedestrians which has of a number of  former chicken coops that were turned into artist galleries and coffee shops.  The last Lebanon war (summer 2006) brought this outstanding project to an end. The tenants of "The chicken coop path" were asked to add safety rooms to the galleries and they had no funds to do so.  Everybody left except for a cooperative of 12 women that is called Gallery 12.  Each woman in the co-op is responsible for the shop one day a week and during the rest of the time may work in her studio or on a day job. Other rolls such as marketing, bookkeeping etc are also shared and are the expenses.

Gallery 12

Tomorrow I start taking part in a course for cooperation that will teach me how it really works. Interesting information that I will surely share with you.

Note:  The pictures of Gallery 12 and the "Chicken Coops Path" were taken on a Friday afternoon and unfortunately the gallery was closed. 

Hagar's Member Profile on TAFA

East Meets West: Fiber Arts Aid Cultural Exchange

by Catherine Salter Bayar



We've launched a project on Kickstarter, the creative arts crowd-funding site, to help us fund our East Meets West fiber arts workshops, in Istanbul's Sultanahmet, starting March 2011.

• Can fiber arts bridge cultures? 
• Will women from multiple countries knit up new versions of traditional skills?
• Is there a common language of craft?

Read the whole story here and spread the word. Thanks!

Visit our shop on Etsy for gorgeous cultural textiles: