Our Story

I am a British expat who moved to Turkey 18 years ago. Since then I have been working with women in my direct community to develop & sell their crafts and arts and with local producers of Turkish fiber. I make sure everything is local, handmade or natural and has some traditional value.

We were hit by a world record earthquake in 1999 which destroyed over half of this town of Golcuk and it's surrounding towns and villages. Thousands upon thousands of lives, homes and livliehood were lost forever. As the exact same disaster in Haiti has shown more people today the extent of such a tragedy thanks to the increase in social media, we know that a decade cannot be enough to rebuild such loss completely. I am happy to be doing my very tiny bit to help this community in which my family and I were lucky enough to suvive.  

The Impact

It's now time to create a better structure for a venture which includes women, men and young people (over 15) who need income and have basic crafting and artistic abilities/skills. With your help we will be setting up a little shop to develop their skills into unique, stylish products and selling these wares. Wares such as home furnishings, gift items, safe toys, craft supplies, etc.

The local, non-affluent part of the community, as well as the affluent who constantly look out for the unique, can benefit from products which have not been marked-up out of their budget and everyone will enjoy buying local. We must prevent the trend towards hazardous imports which also damage local growth and commerce.

With a small crafting/brainstorming workshop area as part of the shop, anyone in need of income can feel free to come and pitch their ideas and crafts, and then develop them for sales. 

The aim is not to give charity to any of these people, but to give them a sense of enterprise, profit and gain. However, there will be a different charity project each month (or bi-monthly), such as:

funding a young person's college books,

necessities for a needy pregnancy/baby, etc.

helping a family with clothing/books for their children; or a much-needed kitchen appliance; or winter coal; the list is endless.

Customers - both local and online - will also be encouraged to donate  to the charity of the month.

Without your help, I cannot finance this shop/workshop to set the ball rolling for everyone.

What We Need & What You Get

We need to rent and set up a small shop and an accompanying website. The website will additionally provide international online shopping and shipping.

As funders, you will automatically be on our mailing list to receive shop discounts and special offers as well as receiving news on shop updates and the monthly/bi-monthly charities.

Perks include wood framed miniatures with hand-marbled designs. Pure Turkish cotton towels hand-embroidered with Oya needle lace. Handknitted Turkish slippers in your specified size. Ebru (Turkish marbling) gift tags. Ebru greeting cards. Iznik tileware handpainted decorative plates and marbled ceramic plates. (Please look at this Flickr album to see examples of what you can receive: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theknitbox/sets/72...

If you don't want to make a donation but like the project, simply helping by spreading the word anywhere possible is equally appreciated!