Inspirational Polka Dots: Wall Stickers Motivate African Entrepreneurs
Nov.22
During the holidays, many of us feel put on the spot when asked what we are thankful for. Sure, there’s the reflexive but genuine answer of “family, friends and good health.” But how often do we really pause and think about how lucky we are?
If you are reading this blog, the odds are high that you are extremely lucky. Removable wall stickers and wall decals are definitely a luxury item. We don’t need them to survive. Like most art, WallCandy designs have only one purpose — to make us happy. Yet, with Thanksgiving, Christmas and Chanukah upon us, I believe that wall decals remind us of an obvious reality that we often take for granted.
Having an interest in wall decorations means that we are fortunate enough to have walls.
That’s why WallCandy Arts is proud to support Art Aids Art, an amazing entrepreneurial training project that helps unemployed single South African mothers tap into their creative talents and run their own businesses. The California-based organization’s Women’s Skills Training Project helps mothers turn fabric painting, silkscreening and jewelry-beading into sustainable careers.
With the help of seed money from a retired Texas school teacher, Arts Aid Arts built an Art & Education center for the impoverished community of Khayelitsha and helped turn the area into a must-visit destination for tour groups interested in Fair Trade socially-conscious artwork and souvenirs. Since 2003, the philanthropy project has been selling the women’s splendid handicrafts — including artisan jewelry, bead & wire art, dolls, handbags and clothing — at house parties and gift boutiques across America.
We’re proud that our removable wall decals have helped brighten up the Khayelitsha Art & Education Center and are not only making a decorative impact, but a pragmatic one as well. Our Chalkboard wall stickers are now serving an admirable classroom role, with the heights constantly being repositioned to serve both children and adults. And our festive Dottilicious wall stickers, a bubbly polka-dot palette of ice cream colors, dominate the walls at the art center.
The prime reason: The bright dots symbolize the South Africans’ love for beadwork.
Kids at the community center participate in a "Love Train!"
We recently caught up with Dorothy Yumi Garcia and Tom Harding, co-founders of Art Aids Art, as they gear up for the holiday shopping season — a time that can make a tremendous impact on boosting economic development in South Africa and serving as a business role model to impoverished communities around the world.
WallCandy: One of your objectives is to attract more tourists to parts of Cape Town perceived to be too dangerous to visit. How does the situation look now? Are you attracting tour groups who want something else to do after their wildlife safaris?
Tom: Tourism in South Africa as a whole is strong. The 2010 FIFA World Cup put the country in the spotlight and dispelled myths of extreme crime, dirt roads and wild animal attacks at night. When people ask if we’ve seen lions, we respond, “We can’t afford to!” For most folks, the only access to big game is on safari. At eKhaya eKasi, our center in Khayelitsha, we have made progress in attracting groups who are interested in authentically engaging with local people through art, food and conversation.
WallCandy: What’s new with your training workshops?
Dorothy: We’re currently providing training in fabric painting and silkscreening, along with independent entrepreneurial skills, to unemployed mothers. The women are learning about the value of telling stories from the township through their designs, thereby giving their work distinctive and authentic character unique to Khayelitsha.
Achieving self-sufficiency enables women to feed their families, send their children to school and avoid risky practices such as transactional sex for food and shelter. In the AIDS capital of the world, taking such risks can be lethal. For women who are already infected, economic independence decreases the need for risky sexual behavior that spreads the virus, and strengthens immune resistance through proper nutrition made possible by consistent income.
WallCandy: What would you say is the most rewarding thing about the Art Aids Art program?
Dorothy: We relish opportunities to involve people’s passions and creativity to have a positive impact on the world. Women in South Africa make change by handcrafting beautiful fabric and jewelry that allow them to earn a living, and these objects also brighten the lives of those who buy them. In turn, the objects create connections that inspire Americans to volunteer their energy and resources, and a sustainable circle of change is created. Love makes more love.
WallCandy: How do our chalkboard wall decals fit into your program?
Tom: For the majority of residents in townships, reusing is a means of survival, as poverty is high (51% unemployment). The reusable chalkboard decals have fit perfectly into educational programs at eKhaya eKasi, allowing for instructors to take notes and write class comments and questions for all to see. In addition, in the senior citizen program, they are used to help participants learn how to sign their names. The large size of the chalkboards makes them an ideal teaching tool for such activities where fine motor skills are not yet developed.
Furthermore, the fact that the chalkboards can be moved to different positions on the wall allows for them to be lowered during child-centered activities, which fits perfectly with the inter-generational nature of our programming.
WallCandy: Dorothy, we noticed a brief “Wizard of Oz” reference on the Art Aids Art Website. Are you a Dorothy of Oz fan — and if so, how do you compare her upbeat outlook to what you do at the center?
Dorothy: Like the “Wizard of Oz,” South Africa’s history revolves around the struggle for home. During Apartheid, non-White South Africans were forcibly removed from their homes and relocated in inhospitable places like Khayelitsha, which is essentially an expansive windswept sand dune.
eKhaya eKasi means “Home in the ‘hood.” We started raising funds brick by brick and used the Yellow Brick Road as a metaphor. Our goal was to create a home that would serve as an oasis where residents could access previously unavailable services and create opportunities for themselves.
I think of Dorothy of Oz’s story as emblematic of a seeker’s journey. It is fraught with challenges and turmoil – she is carried away from her home, attacked, thrust into a position of responsibility, and must stand up against injustice. In this respect, it mirrors the experience of most South Africans. Dorothy and her friends use brains, heart and courage to overcome challenges, much like the women with whom we are fortunate to work.
WallCandy: AIDS is part of your organization’s name. What is the situation in Cape Town now?
Tom: The situation with AIDS is complicated. Estimates for townships such as Khayelitsha, one of Africa’s largest with approximately 1 million residents, are that infection rates have risen above 30 percent. Because of the tremendous stigma surrounding the disease, as well as the lack of universal testing and treatment, many people with HIV unwittingly spread the virus.
Consequently, our current programs are not advertised to serve HIV+ clients, as this would very likely discourage participation by association. We simply assume that any of our clients could possibly have the virus (whether they know it or not), and provide awareness and prevention education, as well as condoms, at every opportunity.
Dorothy: Women are especially impacted by the AIDS crisis. With employment more readily available to males, many women are forced to rely on men for economic support, which often means trading sex for shelter and food. The phenomenon of the “sugar daddy girl,” or a young woman who couples with a significantly older employed man, is increasingly common. Abuse, psychological trauma, and AIDS infection are frequently the tragic result.
WallCandy: What is the most effective way for us to help these women right now?
Dorothy: Since 2003, house parties – offering beadwork, fabric, jewelry and wearable art for sale – have been the single most powerful method of volunteer support. Hosting a party is not only fun, it has multiple benefits. First, transactions create immediate income for South African artists and support our education, literacy and health programs. Our goal is to help people to help themselves. House parties often have a ripple effect. By educating party goers, the events expand Art Aids Art’s family of supporters, who are often inspired to host future parties.
Tom: Students can launch an Art Aids Art club at their school or college campus, creating opportunities for educating their peers about South Africa and initiating participatory service projects.
We also accept in-kind donations for our programs. Used laptop computers, for example, can seem outdated here, but serve as valuable teaching tools. Multicultural children’s books and black infant dolls (no Barbies or Bratz, please) are useful for our literacy work with young children. We have posted recommended book lists at the Art Aids Art Website.
Finally, international travelers can participate in an Art Aids Art service learning trip to Cape Town, which includes accommodation at a beautiful seaside location, Blue On Blue Bed & Breakfast. These weeklong visits to South Africa blend cultural tourism and volunteering, the latter of which makes them tax-deductible as a donation to Art Aids Art!
WallCandy Arts encourages you to check out some of the fabulous gifts handmade by women in Khayelitsha this holiday season. We also look forward to supporting future Art Aids Art projects.
On a lighthearted note, we’d like to thank Tom and Dorothy for field testing our wall stickers under the most harsh conditions. We just learned that our Dottlicious decals do not hold up well in a sandstorm and we’ve just sent out some replacements.
For the record, as durable as our wall stickers are, they also can’t handle direct exposure to hurricanes, tornadoes or volcanic eruptions.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Pixie Dust Countdown: The Top 9 Fairies of All-Time!
Jun.13
Let Entertainment Weekly worry about the “Top 100 Movie Characters” and let Rolling Stone worry about the “Top 100 Rock Album Covers.”
In honor of our new “Sweet Dreams Fairies,” we’ve researched America’s most fascinating fairies and are eager to present our latest rankings to you….
NUMBER 9: DWAYNE “THE ROCK” JOHNSON
Most of us have fond memories of scoring a few bucks everytime our gums bled as a kid, but how many of us had our teeth knocked out by mean-spirited professional hockey players? In this 2010 destined-to-be-a-classic movie, wrestler-actor Dwayne Johnson plays an NHL star with an affinity for punching out smiles. He’s sadistically nicknamed the “Tooth Fairy” on the ice, but he goes too far when he tells his girlfriend’s daughter that there is no such thing as the tooth fairy. “Oh yeah?” says head Tooth Fairy Julie Andrews, “Now we’re going to punish you by forcing you to work on our staff!”
Yes, Julie Andrews has such power. Only in the movies.
NUMBER 8: GRAFFITI ARTIST SHEPARD FAIREY
It’s not so much that we admire the urban graffiti artist best known for defacing buildings with Andre the Giant stencils (another pro-wrestler fairy connection!) and later, creating those famous Warholian red-white-and-blue Obama prints that tout HOPE and CHANGE. Shepard earns his spot on the list for courageously forging on with his Fairey surname despite the years of playground and locker room torment he must have endured.
NUMBER 7: FAIRY PENGUINS
The smallest members of the penguin family, the 16-inch Fairies are usually found frolicking off the coast of Antarctica, Souther Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. They snack on anchovies, kril, plankton, crab larvae and sea horses. They don’t bother chewing anything and swallow their food whole. Their feathers often have a blue tinge, which makes them absolutely the cutest members of the penguin family, too.
NUMBER 6: PIXIE THE TATTOO ARTIST
She’s a tough cookie on TLC’s reality series, “L.A. Ink,” but she’s got a family-friendly side. Some of her body art includes cupcakes and the Care Bears!
NUMBER 5: PIXIE OF THE X-MEN
Brandishing translucent dragonfly wings, Pixie is able to distract her friends and enemies with her magic hallucination-inducing Pixie Dust. The dust seems to have different effects on different characters. Sometimes it causes people to see unicorns or teddy bears. Other times, brightly colored bubbles. Pixie is able to teleport herself and large groups to far-away destinations. Her magic skills are so widely respected that she’s even begun to give Doctor Strange formal training.
NUMBER 4 : CINDERELLA’S FAIRY GODMOTHER
Years before electric hybrid cars and Volkswagens refitted to run on discarded French fry oil, the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella transformed an ordinary pumpkin into a royal chariot. Wish she would do something about the BP oil spill.
NUMBER 3: GLINDA, THE GOOD WITCH OF THE NORTH
Our sources tell us that not only was Dorothy’s savior in the Wizard of Oz a “good witch,” but she was also a good fairy. And it is gorgeous Glinda who is the first Oz character to stand up to injustice whenever and wherever she sees it.
NUMBER 2: TINKERBELL
Forget about Peter Pan. If you want true street cred with Boys Who Never Grow Up, you have to reinvent yourself as a video game!
NUMBER 1: SWEET DREAMS FAIRIES
Hey, you didn’t think we were going to rank the SDF girls any lower, did you?
What I love about the Sweet Dreams Fairies, besides their ability to drown out nightmares with “Confection Protection,” is the retro ice cream man feel to the graphics. It’s Candy Land. It’s Sammy Davis Jr.’s “Candy Man.”
At a time when cupcakes are BANNED at elementary school birthday parties, I admire fairies willing to take a stand and celebrate who they are. When you are in the fantasy world, lollipops and jelly beans are so much more fun and colorful than broccoli and asparagus.
Although the parent in me compels me to add that in the real world, your girls should eat their greens first and then dive into the cupcakes (in moderation).
It should be noted that Sweet Dreams Fairies, like all our stylish removable wall decals, contain absolutely no calories!
What’s Your Fairy Name?
Jun.6
Names are very important. Some parents fret over those “1001 Baby Names” books or even bring in consultants before committing to a boy’s or girl’s name in the delivery room.
Names shape personality. They define us on resumes and job applications based on people’s preconceptions of who they have met with the same name. And of course, some names sound sexier than others. Would you rather date a Benjamin or a Mortimer? Would you rather date an Amber or a Mildred?
In honor of WallCandy Arts’ recent immersion into Fairyland — check out our cute Sweet Dreams Fairies removable wall decals — we thought it would be fun for our customers to find out what their Fairy Names would be if they ever sprouted wings.
British artist Sue Edmunds, who designs customized fairy sculptures like the one above, created a Fairy Name Generator that will instantly convert your name into one respected by woodland creatures everywhere. Sue does not handle the logistics of legally changing over your birth certificates or driver’s license, but her delightful device will determine your strongest talents and give you fashion advice for pulling off the look.
To test out the Fairy Name Generator, I plugged in the name of WallCandy Arts CEO Allison Krongard, who created the Sweet Dreams Fairies.
Should Allison ever opt for the witness protection program, here is her Fairy identity:
Your fairy is called Gossamer WillowglowShe is a caster of weird dreams.She lives in spiderwebbed wonderlands and insect grottos.She is only seen in the light of a full moon.She wears tiny black spiders on her dresses. She has delicate green coloured wings like a cicada.
So go ahead and explore your inner Fairy. You know you want to!
(BTW, if fairies aren’t your thing, Sue Edmunds also offers a Vampire Name Generator for the Twilight crowd. We don’t have a line of vampire wall decals, because quite frankly, we’re in the business of crushing nightmares — not creating them!)
The Universal Language of Fun: Wall Stickers & Wall Decals
Apr.21
It should come as no surprise that our removable wall decals and wall stickers are popular in many countries around the world. After all, most of our themes of wildlife, flowers, forest scenes, dinosaurs, automobiles and childhood fantasies are universally cherished.
We do a brisk business across the European continent and if you notice the wide variety of magazine genres above, our overseas press coverage reflects a diverse customer base and appeal across all ages. In this newsstand sampling, we have mags covering nature, parenting, celebrity gossip and women’s lifestyle/fashion.
WallCandy Arts is a natural magnet to parenting and childcare magazines, but it’s always a pleasant surprise to see where our instincts for interior decorating take us. For example, take a glance at the shopping spread below where our retired “SophistiKit” sticker collection shares the spotlight with new bikini fashions, kitchen appliances, designer furniture, luxury skin care products and chicken or veal recipes (I can’t tell what kind of meat that is, but it looks absolutely dee-lish!).
For some reason, the SophistiKit design never really caught on. Now, I’ve never been a teenage girl — or even come close to understanding their mindset, but I think these young sleek women walking their Paris Hilton-sized dogs look quite hip and fashionable. If you’d like them to make a comeback, please start a petition drive. We’d love to hear from you about this style or any other wall sticker design.
The thing that makes me the happiest about this magazine clip is seeing the words “Made in the USA” beam out of a paragraph in a foreign language. All too often, it is the other way around, and it is personally important to me to support a company which supports American workers.
As with the teenage girls, I do not profess to have any special insights into the psychology of Jessica Simpson. But from her facial expression above, it seems to me that she would much prefer to be holding some WallCandy stickers than yet another designer handbag.
We are flattered by the company in the above magazine layout, though. But the reality is that you don’t have to be wearing gold jewelry or talk on a Giorgio Armani smartphone to afford our reasonably priced collections of adorable glow-in-the-dark owls or whimsical chalkboard animal wall stickers.
And our pediatrician and opthalmologist approved “Smarts Bees & Trees” nursery decoration set improves vision and gives babies a head start regardless of which language they may be cooing gurgling in.
Are you loving this cross-cultural wall decal experience? Please visit the media coverage section of our European distributor, Da Da Kids, for an afternoon’s worth of fun reading material!
