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Our beautiful wallpaper collection will be presented by Coordonné this January in Frankfurt and Paris.

Many more lovely designs coming soon!!! Can´t wait!!!

Visit us at Heimtex, Frankfurt (3.1 B31) and Maison & Objet, Paris (Hall 7 Stand D 163)

After visiting the Rural NGO  Laboratorio del Espíritu (directed by amazing Gloria Bermúdez) a few months ago, I was totally in love with their project, it completely stole my heart.

Their aim is to promote local development with activities focused on the value and strength of  the rural areas with special dedication to Arts and Crafts. Their main base is a Rural Library and Community Center located at Vereda Pantanillo, Municipio de El Retiro – Antioquia, Colombia.

You can check out some of the courses they give at  a post on my blog that I published earlier.

Some of the kids attending the Library live in really difficult conditions and have very sad stories in many aspects, and when I read their notebooks I was blown away by the power and strength of their words, their ability to express their feelings in such a transparent way, their connection with nature was mesmerizing and I was absolutely inspired from what I read.

We decided it was time for them to have their own products so that they can collect funds in order to continue their cultural activities and all the different courses that they teach to the kids and people around the area.

So I have been working on a series of illustrations inspired on the poetry written by the kids who attend the “Creative Writing” courses given by super talented Javier Naranjo in the Library.

First step is that with this illustrations we are producing beautiful scarves.

YOU CAN BUY THE SCARVES NOW AT MY ONLINE SHOP www.catalinaestrada.bigcartel.com 

100% OF SALES WILL GO TO LABORATORIO DEL ESPÍRITU.

Here are some pictures of the scarves, the illustrations and the poetry written by the kids.

Poetry in this scarf written by 9 year old Francy Arledys González Castañeda:

Yo soy el fuego que arde en las tardes
Yo soy el sol del día que ilumina
Soy las nubes que corren
Yo soy la flor roja de amor
Soy el agua pura del río
Soy Dios que viene desde el cielo
Soy la lluvia que cae del cielo
Soy los pétalos que caen del viento
Soy el viento que sopla con amor
Soy la naturaleza que crece y crece

I’m the fire that burns in the afternoons
I’m the sun of the day that illuminates
I’m the pure water of the river
I’m God that comes from the sky
I’m the rain that falls from the sky
I’m the flower’s petals that fall from the wind
I’m the wind that blows with love
I’m the nature that grows and grows

——

Poetry in this scarf written by 12 year old Jhon Jairo Rojo Flórez:

-¿Si tuvieras 24 horas de vida, qué harías?
-Deshacerme de todo lo que tenga
Ver payasos
Recorrer la vereda
Ver los pájaros
Ver como los pájaros salen del huevo

-¿If you had 24hours of life what would you do?
-Get rid of everything I have
See clowns
Walk along the village
Watch the birds
Watch how the birds come out of the egg

——

Poetry in this scarf written by 9 year old Tania Flórez Lince

Soy el sol de mi cuerpo
Soy la nube negra cuando estoy triste y me siento fea
Soy la luz más bella de mi casa y cuando me enojo soy una pantera
Soy la estrella más bonita del universo y cuando lloro me apago todo Soy la luna que alumbra tu caminar y cuando me odias tanto me enojo y me pongo a llorar
Soy una nube negra, triste y fea
Soy la estrella más bella que te alegra
Soy el sol brillante que se alumbra con la alegría

I´m the sun of my body
I´m the black cloud when I´m sad and I feel ugly
I´m the most beautiful light of my house and when I get angry I´m a panther
I´m the most beautiful star in the universe and when I cry everything everything gets dark
I´m the moon that lightens your walk and when you hate me so much I start to cry
I´m a black cloud sad and ugly
I´m the most beautiful star that cheers you up
I´m the shinny sun that brightens up with happiness

——

Poetry in this scarf written by 12 year old Jonathan Camilo Arias Hincapié:

Agüelo yo te quiero mucho y un día de estos voy a ir a Bogotá
y le ayudo a trabajar y le llevo plata y comida, y se viene a vivir por aquí y nos ponemos a pescar pescados y truchas y capitanes y tilapia.
Y jugamos el cogido y cogemos guayabas y moras. Y ayudarle a mi papá, y le ayudo a venir y dormir y soñar y jugar mucho.
Y te quiero mucho y con cariño. Chao.

Grandpa, I love you very much and one of these days I will go to Bogotá and I will help you work and I bring you money and food and
you come to live here and we go fishing for fish and trouts and captains and tilapia.
And we play and we get guavas and blackberries. And we help my father and I help you come here, and sleep and dream and play a lot.
And I love you very much. Bye

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In the next few days there will also be notepads, notebooks and postcards available with these same images available at the Laboratorio del Espíritu. If you want to pre order your notebooks, notepads please contact Laboratorio del Espíritu directly:

Cel: (+57) 315 516 43 03 · EMAIL: lespiritu@une.net.co

www.laboratoriodelespiritu.org

Soon I will post more photos of the new products and photos of the kids writing the poetry.

—-

Special thanks to Alfredo Molina for his generous donation of these scarves produced in Spain.

Special thanks to super talented Lucrecia Perez for sewing the borders of the scarves in Spain.

Special thanks to Esteban Clavijo, Jaime Zuluaga, Andrea Gutierrezand Adriana Arias from  Línea Directa, for their generous donation of the scarves produced in Colombia as well as all the love and care they have put into this project.

Special thanks to Pancho Tolchinsky as always for his lovely pictures of the scarves.

Special thanks to those who would like to contribute with this beautiful project.

Collected funds will go to educational and cultural programs run by the Museum.

Interview at BTV by Marta Ballesta. September 29th, 2011.