Vanessa from Wombathöhle

Hello Vanessa!
I'd like to ask you 7 questions:

1. How did the idea of weaving your EG was born?
As I love wraps and have so many ideas, I started thinking to get those ideas woven into a real wrap.
2. When your first EG was made?
The first design “Omis Obstsalat” is already on the way and will be in my shop at the end of April/ early May.
3. How many EG's have been woven for you so far?
One is on the road, one pre-order is currently open at my FBpage and soon on my homepage too.
4. Do you weave your designs only once or repeatedly?
In case there are enough people interested, I would love to reweave!
5. Who creates the designs for you?
Just me ;-)
6. Do you create your EG's according to a certain key? Could you tell us your secret?
No secret at all, just a running-wild brain *lol*
7. Are you planning to weave new EG's? When? What kind?
Waldbeeren are up for pre-order at the moment. It will be a diamond-weave and you can choose 4 wefts. As “Omis Obstsalat” will look more boyish, the “Waldbeeren” will be more girlish.

Thank you very much!
~Ola

Antje from GeTragen

I am a mother of four children. My first two children are sweet angels and left me far too early before they were born. My younger two children are 4 and 2 years old and they really enrich my life.We live in Gera, a city in Germany, in the most eastern part of Thuringia. I am a single mother and I love being a mum with all my heart and soul. We don’t have any pets as we don’t think they would be too happy here in the city. We love animals and would really like to see them all enjoying their freedom, which is why we always feel sorry for them when we see them in the zoo.My interests are reading, digitally reworking pictures, and all that concerns us human beings. In August 2009, I completed a course for becoming a wrapping instructor with Trageschule Dresden and if possible I would also like to attend the advanced course, so that I can show parents / mothers all about wrapping and how to meet their children’s needs. I am also a breastfeeding counsellor and I am considering founding a group for anybody who is interested – unfortunately, breastfeeding is still not as well supported as it should be. Prompted by my own experiences with my first two children I have also completed a course as a hospice aid, so that I can help people with bereavement. I think there is still too little attention paid to this. Further, I would like to complete my diploma as a psychological counsellor with my dissertation, so that I can support people with their personal development. I like working with people as getting on with each other plays such an important part. For me all the different aspects of my work come together and make sense as a whole to me.I love colours, fabrics and patterns. This is how towards the end of 2009 the idea for a design for a Girasol. It all took its time, but in June 2010 my exclusive Girasol idea came to fruition with “Sommerwiese – Summer Meadow”. It was all very new to me, and I’m very proud of myself to have managed it. On 28 September 2010 I held my first own exclusive Girasol in my hands. I have tried many models and I love Girasols as the colours are so vibrant and there are so many possibilities for different designs. Even the wraps in their standard collection, like Nos. 26 or 05 are stunning. I like the old twill weave as the wraps are so soft and I adore the lovely smell of the Girasol wraps when they are new. These wraps have their very own brand of magic.I’ve had 25 wraps of Summer Meadow and other colours woven and I hope that everybody will like them just as much as I do. The idea for Summer Meadow came to me because I was hoping for a lovely green wrap when it came to all the design competitions that keep coming up. Unfortunately, the winners were always darker colours, but I really wanted a wrap that reminded me of summer and sun. For me that means a field of yellow flowers next to a green field of corn, or a yellow field of wheat next to a field of sunflowers.Then I added turquoise and red into the mix as after a holiday at the Baltic Sea, Strand und Meer (Beach and Sea) and Sonnenaufgang (Sunrise) seemed rather suitable.

At the moment I’m intending to leave it at 100m worth of wraps as everything must come to an end. Such is life.
I create all my designs myself, but nature supplies the ideas. My children are very critical, too.

I also submitted designs for the Natibaby competition and on 17 August 2010 got a surprise as a design by myself and my children was chosen and is now the colourway “Sea“. I’m very proud of this wrap as my children were really hoping for it to be chosen when I submitted it. Now everybody can carry their children in it.

I trust my intuition when I work. When I'm done I show my children the result and we decide together. We put a lot of ourselves into the designs and we love to share.

For the Winter, I’m working on another idea with Girasol. I trust that everything will work out and I’m looking forward to my second exclusive Girasol.

News will be available on http://www.ge-tragen.de and here: http://exclusivegirasol.blogspot.com

Many thanks to Ola for this wonderful BLOG.

All the best wishes of
~Antje

Olga from SlingoMama

I'm Olga, owner of SlingoMama.nl web store. I have a husband and 2 daughters – one is born in April 2006 and the second one in January 2010. We live in the Netherlands, in a small town not far from Amsterdam. My husband and I were born in Ukraine. He came to the Netherlands in 1998 to do his PhD in Computer Science and I came in 2003 for my Master program in Business Administration. We met in 2004, on the plane, when we both were heading to Ukraine to visit our families. Our first daughter was born in 2006.

We love the Netherlands, but of course, we miss our motherland and our families. We used to travel to Ukraine 1 or 2 times a year, but now we have 2 small children and it's not that easy anymore. Fortunately, our families visit us regularly.


My husband loves to play soccer and collect cooking books. Music has been my biggest passion since childhood when I started taking piano lessons. I think we both have a quite an international background. My husband has spend 1 year in Austria studying, and I have spent 1 year in the USA (Indianapolis, IN). I attended High School and lived with the American family, which became a second family to me. We used to travel a lot, and hopefully we can resume our hobby when the kids grow up a bit.

When we were expecting our first daughter, I started paying attention to mothers who carried their children in different carriers. At that time I didn't know much about different baby carriers, but I new that I wanted to have my child close to me.

Our girl was born and the first thing I heard from my mother on the telephone was that we should let her lay in the cradle as much as possible, otherwise she will get used to being carried. :) My mother has 6 children, and my brain told me that it's good to listen to somebody with lots of experience. But I held my baby in my arms, and my heart was screaming “This is right! This is how it should be! Do not listen to anyone, but your feeling...” Since then my heart and my feeling became my guides and they have never failed me.

That was also how attachment parenting came into my life. Babywearing, breastfeeding, co-sleeping felt right and natural. Later I learned that all these things are called the Attachment Parenting. I was greatly inspired by the books of Jean Liedloff, Ingrid Bauer, Michael Odent, Laurie Boucke, Dr. Robert Mendelsohn. My husband shares my views about the attachment parenting. He proudly tells his friends and colleagues that we measure breastfeeding in years and not in months, that our children are diaper free and that we all sleep in a “gypsy style” - in a big family bed.

After trial and error I discovered the “correct” babywearing and bought my first woven wrap. At that time the choice of good carriers and wraps was quite limited in the Netherlands and I had to order mine from Germany. That was how the idea of starting a web store came into my mind. SlingoMama.nl was born in January 2008. I was almost graduating and starting my own business was a wonderful chance to apply my knowledge. I could do what I really liked and apply what I have learned – a wonderful combination.

It's always exciting to create something new, even if it's only a combination of colors. In September of 2008 I organized a contest for the SlingoMama.nl exclusive Girasol. As a result, two first colorways have been selected – Mister X and Mojito. The first batches arrived in December, a couple of days before Christmas.

At this moment SlingoMama.nl has 7 exclusive Girasols – Mister X, Mojito, Symphuo, Drop, Lilia, Donau and Betula. Girasol Betula is our recent design and it should be arriving within 1 week. More designs are in the planning.

All the designs have been woven more than once. Symphuo and Donau are the most popular designs and they are being woven every 10-12 weeks.

We have a big data base with designs – the ones left from the contest and people keep sending new designs in. Usually I select a design which seems interesting to me and together with the person who created it we make changes and improvements if necessary.

We plan to issue new interesting designs in the nearest future. Keep checking for news! :)

~Olga

Giselle from Slings I Love

Hello Giselle!
I'd like to ask you 7 questions:

1. How did the idea of weaving your EG was born?
I like the idea of being able to put the colors you love together to create a beautiful design.

2. When your first EG was made?
Tropical Sea was made in the Spring of 2009.

3. How many EG's have been woven for you so far?
There's Tropical Sea, Magnolia, Sorbet, Felice, Candy Drop and Wrapper's Paradise for Slings I Love. Then for Piece of Cloth there's Blue Lagoon.

4. Do you weave your designs only once or repeatedly?
Most of the time it's only once.

5. Who creates the designs for you?
Most are created by me along with my family. Wrappers Paradise and Blue Lagoon were designed through a design competition.

6. Do you create your EG's according to a certain key? Could you tell us your secret?
The only secret is that I use colors I really love.

7. Are you planning to weave new EG's? When? What kind?
I do have ideas on colorways, but we are also working on developing our own woven wrap so am saving those ideas for our brand.

Kindly,
~Giselle

Amelie from Sonnenschnuckel

Hello Amelie! I'd like to ask you 7 questions

1. How did the idea of weaving your EG was born?
I planned it a long time, because it is so fascinating to me to have and see a wrap with my own ideas and colours!
2. When your first EG was made?
Spring 2010
3. How many EG's have been woven for you so far?
The first is going to weave soon!
4. Do you weave your designs only once or repeatedly?
I plan to do every design only one time.
5. Who creates the designs for you?
Myself and friends.
6. Do you create your EG's according to a certain key? Could you tell us your secret?
It's only important to have different edges so its easiert to wrap.
7. Are you planning to weave new EG's? When? What kind?
Fall/winter 2010 - green and red for christmas time!

Thank you very much!
~Ola

Niina from Liinalapsi

About me, my family and my business

I'm 37 years old, have 2 kids ('07 and 09) and a husband. We live in Southern Finland now but I was born in Northern Finland and spent my childhood there. I started babywearing with my first child when he was about a month old and continued wearing a baby with our little girl at the very first day of her life.

For me babywearing is a natural way of living: it just feels right. Of course wearing a baby makes my days easier: I can get some housework done and cook a meal for my family. I can go out with my older child, have an adventure in the near forest and play with him at the back yard and the little one is always safely with me – usually on my back. My husband carries our kids also willingly.

We try to carry out also other means of attachment parenting: co-sleeping and long breastfeeding are essential for us and we show our love to the kids unconditionally. I have found attachment parenting quite easy with a baby but now with the 3 year old it has become more challenging.

I started my business in year 2008. I had been daydreaming about my own business for a long time. At first my dream was to set up a pet shop because I love animals - especially reptiles and fish – but this dream never came true. Gradually along with my new passion, babywearing, I started to think of starting a babywearing business. Finally I got a change to buy the rights for a bunch of beautiful Finnish Girasol exclusives from Katin Puoti. And at the spring 2008 my webshop Liinalapsi – Wearababy was born.

Liinalapsi inherited 9 exclusive design from Katin Puoti and now 2010 we have 14 gorgeous wraps. Most of our designs are striped and weaved with the ”cross weave” technique. But a few designs are of the ”old weave” with two different sides. These wraps are always two-colored: one color on each side of the wrap. Some of Katin Puoti's wraps were designed by Kati – like the most beloved Earthy Rainbow – but some of them have been designed by other people. My own exclusives are products of my imagination and some are a mix of an old design with some new ideas like new weft color. In the future I will probably need some help with baby wrap designing since my imagination is not unlimited :) So you can expect a contest or baby wrap vote in the future.

At Liinalapsi we try to keep as many of our designs in stock as possible but not all the sizes are available at all times. We offer both diagonal (tapered) ends and fringed ends for our Girasols. The most popular of our design - Earthy Rainbow – is weaved every 2-3 months so the waiting time is not very long, if a certain size is out of stock when a customer claims for it. We keep waiting lists and send customers e-mail when the wrap they asked for is in stock again.

Niina

Presentation

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