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Stories from the global community
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Day 47: Making Lamps out of Leaves in The Philippines
Destination:
The Philippines
The Philippines is an island country of Southeast Asia in the western Pacific. It is an archipelago consisting of some 7,100 islands and islets lying about 500 miles (800 km) off the coast of Vietnam. Manilla is the capital.
Most of The Philippines has a tropical marine climate. It's typically hot and humid throughout most of the year. From June to September, the country experiences a rainy season when typhoons are common. May is the hottest month at 85°F and January the coolest at 78°F.
Fun Facts:
A Filipino named Roberto del Rosario patented the first working karaoke machine in 1975, calling it the "Sing Along System." The Japanese later translated its name to "karaoke," which means "singing without accompaniment."
Also: The Philippine national dish, adobo, is a dark stew of chicken and/or pork cooked in soy sauce, vinegar, crushed garlic, bay leaf and black peppercorns.
Art Form: Leaf Lamps
Beautiful, unique lamps handmade from real cocoa, banyan, jackfruit and alibangbang leaves, as well as other sustainable materials, are the foundation of Eangee Home Décor. The name Eangee is the phonetic spelling of the first letter of each of the owner's last names; Shay Enover and Christopher Godfrey (E-'n'-G).
As Shay recounts, "In early 2003 my college roommate, Chris Godfrey, was given a gift from his father, Clyde Godfrey. It was a curious lamp that looked like a gecko crawling up the wall."
"Clyde found this lamp while in the Philippines. It was made by a family group that did exceptional work and wanted to export to the US. After doing a little research we decided to turn this into a business. We found other family groups that were skilled in various crafts and bought our first round of product."
"We were incorporated on October 6, 2003 with a simple thought; we wanted to offer unique home decor that was eco-friendly and fair trade at reasonable prices. When our doors first opened it was as a 600 square feet store front in Lawrence, Kansas."
(Shay Enover and Christopher Godfrey)
"The business grew rapidly and two years later we tested the wholesale market. By the end of 2007 we sold our store to focus on wholesale full time. In early 2011 Eric Clark was brought in as a fourth partner to give us a stronger footing as we rolled forward."
Three of four Partners: Christopher and Stephen Godfrey
and Eric Clark (Shay Enover missing)
Many of the Eangee lamps use cocoa (chocolate) leaves. The leaves can be sustainably gathered which keeps the farms intact while providing income to farmers outside of their normal cocoa bean harvest times. Over the years they have developed a technique that offers brilliant colors and great durability.
Cocoa leaves are "fossilized" and stained using eco-friendly, colorfast dyes. They're hung to dry before being adhered to a lamp backing.
Once the leaves are dyed and dried, artisans than hand place and laminate each leaf one at a time in intricate patterns on a durable shade.
Watch as an artisan places alibangbang (butterfly) leaves on a lamp. (Both of our videos today are silent, so no need to adjust your sound. If you need reading glasses, get them now!)
Having watched a small segment on placing leaves in patterns, now watch the entire process of creating a leaf lamp from the metal frame construction to fossilizing the leaves before dyeing them to the placement of the leaves and then carefully stitching the lamp shade panels onto the frame.
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| Eangee Lamp Production Video (1:30 minutes) |
All Eangee lamps are eco-friendly, being composed of renewable and/or recycled materials with food based dyes and high quality low-impact finishes.
The Company: Eangee
The mission of Eangee is to provide eco-friendly, fair-trade home goods. Their focus is on unique designs that are a collaboration of their experience and the creative minds of the artisans with whom they work. Eangee is committed to providing products made from sustainable, natural materials while supporting the people that create them. Their artisans are paid living wages and have access to quality healthcare, continuing education, and a dignified and safe working environment.
Eangee Home Design is a proud founding member of the Sustainable Furnishings Council. This organization was established in 2007 with the mission "to help companies reduce their environmental footprints as they grow, and to help consumers find healthy furnishings."
On a hopeful, but somber note: The Philippines is currently
in one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. Ms. Nancy, who owns the artisan group that makes Eangee's beautiful lamps, has put together robust food packages to feed all the amazing artisans and their families during this very difficult time. It has helped keep them home, safe, fed, and healthy.
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Shopping . . .
Are you ready to explore
what we have in our store?
Click the picture above or the link below to explore
our current selection of Eangee lamps.
Each lamp adds a natural, elegant feel to its surroundings and brings a sense of calm and tranquility.
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Don't forget to stamp your Passport!
Click on the
"stamp" to add to your "passport."
We keep track of your stamps for you!
"Collect" at least 12 different "country" stamps during the third 20 days of our around-the-world trip to
be entered
into the drawing for a $25 gift card.
At the end of our 80-day
Around the World
excursion, all eligible travelers (minimum of 48 country stamps)
will be
entered into a drawing for . . .
a Grand Prize
$100 shopping spree gift card!
Thanks for traveling with us today.
Where to next? Stay tuned!
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These beautiful lamps caught our eye as we walked the California Gift Show years ago. Imagine our surprise when we learned the company is actually based in Lawrence, Kansas! I have enjoyed watching the Eangee company grow and change over the years and am thankful they are a fair trade and sustainable company based here in the Midwest.
Our Brookside store is open today and will be open through Sunday. Our current hours are posted below my signature and we look forward to seeing you!
For those of you who cannot or choose not to shop in our Brookside store right now, we thank you for your continued online shopping support. And, yes, we plan to continue our global "journeys" with daily additions to our online store.
And I can't say it enough times -
YOU are an important part of what makes World's Window so special! THANK YOU!
World's Window
"Nobody can define you like you."
P.S.
We are glad to be on this around-the-world virtual journey with you and delighted that you are traveling with us. We hope you are learning some new information as we travel along.
If you haven't already done so, invite some friends to come along! There's still room on this journey!
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P.P.S.
We're keeping our trip "log" up to date. If you think you've missed a day or are new to our journey, click
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OPEN Wed through Sat, 11 am to 5 pm
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As always we are "sharing the world" through clothing, jewelry, folk art, textiles and hand-selected gifts -
and
buying locally-owned is a gift to your community!
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One way to support us
right now
is to purchase
World's Window gift cards.
In-store gift cards can also be purchased by calling
us at 816-361-2500.
And, with all gift card purchases
we'll ADD 10% more
to the value of your gift card as a "Thank You" for shopping small and local.
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