Friday 21 December 2007

Christmas cards

This year I decided I would save a tree and send e-cards instead of paper cards. It seems to me charities haven't really caught on to this as a fund raiser. It was surprisingly hard to find any, and even harder to find ones I liked. I eventually found this from Engineer Aid, who don't even insist on a donation (though they do invite one).

e-card from Engineer Aid

I bought just half a dozen "real" cards to give to some special people. I was so pleased to find these Traidcraft cards from Bangladesh, handmade using traditional embroidery techniques and various papers: cotton, straw, jute.

red triangle embroidered card
embroidered Xmas tree card
red square embroidered card

Cotton paper is new to me, but I was especially pleased when one turned out to be made of water hyacinth paper, after having learnt all about the problems it causes just a few months ago.

reverse of card

And since my visitors are all special people, please consider these to be your cards :) Let me know which one you like best.

3 comments:

  1. I've noticed how paper-art from the Baglidesh & India regions often have a specific gifted form of charm to them - or, perhaps it's because i know someone who's really good at this sort of stuff.

    I really enjoyed the image with the harp - reminds me of the Marx Brothers :)

    Looking forward to catching up with 'Things Fall Apart" during my break. I've already been enchanted by the first few pages!

    Wishing you a great holiday season and grand new year for 2008 ;)

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  2. Paper that is meant to last a long time is made out of cotton or linen. It has been expensive. When I work in the Department of Records, they used a heavier version to draw the dimensions following the bearings of plots of each city block(s). They ordered it from Italy at the time.

    I like the one with the red square.

    Have a Happy Christmas.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ladybanana thank you. Have a wonderful break!
    Aka r'aquel I agree - they do have a style and charm of their own. I'm glad you're enjoying the book. I hope you and yours have a great holiday too:)
    Hathor I didn't know that about cotton paper. It must have been really good quality to be worth importing all the way from Italy. Merry Christmas to you too :)

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