To submit a recipe, please send an e-mail to emily@ewint.org. Please include a biography of yourself and why this recipe is meaningful to you . Be sure to include a picture!

We can’t wait to see your delicious submissions!

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The silk fabric used is extremely soft and comfortable, yet luxurious. It is lightweight, breezy, and drapes perfectly. The scarf is 10″ by 60″ and has hand-rolled hems with 100% silk thread and beautiful 100% silk fringes on both ends. Each scarf is hand painted, featuring floral designs on both sides and fading mauve to powder pink.

Scarves are baked in the oven for 15-20 minutes so the dyes set; this assures that the colors will neither fade nor bleed. All of Rabia’s scarves are machine washable and safe to dry clean

RABIA NAEEM PERVEZ:
Rabia is originally from Pakistan. She is a renowned Silk Artist, aspiring teacher, and budding entrepreneur. Rabia graduated with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, is currently pursuing her M.Ed. in Education with a focus on ESOL, and operates a small IT management company with her husband. She is a mother of two beautiful daughters who share her love for colors. Rabia has been an EWI artist member since 2004 and is a graduate of the Career and Entrepreneur Center’s Training for Success program.
Colors and fabrics have always fascinated Rabia and she is continuously amazed by the elegant yet striking effect dyes have on silk. Her designs celebrate the changing seasons, life events and experiences, and the wide range of human emotions. Rabia takes special requests; she can do commissioned work, as well as personalized scarves for those who want to buy a special and unique gift for someone.

Visit our online store and enter the code: THISWEEKEWI in the coupon box when checking out to receive 15% off your entire purchase.

Pintrest is an online community that allows its users to organize all of the interests and hobbies into online inspiration boards consisting of content found on the limitless Internet. Users create a “board” for a particular category of interest, and then “pin” content, either from other Pintrest users or found on an outside website, to that board. Content that a users “pins” then gets shared with their friends on their home page feed (you can connect with friends through Facebook or they can add them manually).

 Here is an example of a “board” (this is my “Party” board)

So, how can a business owner use Pintrest? Easy! Pin your products! By simply taking pictures of your products and pinning them to an appropriate board with appropriate keywords. For example, if you’re a fashion designer you could create a separate board for each category of clothing you create, and then pin your wares to the appropriate board with key words such as “yellow sundress” or “black riding boots”, so that your business will appear when other Pintrest users are searching.

Pintrest is an excellent way to gain new customers, but it can also be a fun way to have your current clients promoting your business. Link your Pintrest account to your website, Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr account so that your fans can easily find you. Your clients could pin their favorite pieces or a piece that they recently purchased, creating a visual word-of-mouth marketing tool for your business (and we all know that the best marketing is word-of-mouth)!

Pintrest allows you to post prices on your products, making purchasing that much easier.

Pintrest is a free resource, so go ahead, sign up and start experimenting! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to check my Pintrest feed wash my hair.

This post was written by Emily Robinson, EWI’s Social Media Intern.

Red key chain handcrafted from Peruvian seed beads with abstract silver elephant pendant. Statement making way to keep track of your keys!

Perfect for Delta Sigma Thetas!

EVELYN BROOKS:
Peruvian-born Evelyn Brooks is a graduate of EWI’s Training for Success program. She has received much press and recognition for her efforts in fighting poverty by giving proceeds of her jewelry sales to local and international causes. Evelyn has built a profitable arts business that provides work and learning opportunities for over 10 people each year. She also teaches at-risk youth and women ex-offenders jewelry-making and marketing to build confidence, self-esteem and re-enter in the society.

Visit our online store and enter the code: THISWEEKEWI in the coupon box when checking out to receive 15% off your entire purchase.

AN ART MARKET FUNDRAISER

DIANNE LORENZ AND MIMI HASSANEIN

Tumblr is an easy to use platform that uses the “micro-blogging” format to allow its users to quickly post information for their followers to see. Signing up is simple and free. Tumblr makes it easy to customize your blog by providing a ton of both free and paid themes (templates), which can be edited using HTML for the advanced user. From there, you can adjust the color scheme, font, background image, and widgets that are shown on your page. You can even add multiple pages for different topics (for example, if you have a jewelry business you could have a page for your necklaces, a page for your earrings…you get the idea). You can also add custom CSS for any other web-based widgets that you may want to add.

Tumblr gives its users the ability to purchase their own URL, which is a real bonus. You get the appearance of having your own website while maintaining the ease of posting via Tumblr.

Tumblr's posting options via tumblr.com

Tumblr also makes it easy for your customers to view your website on their mobile phone, which is becoming increasingly important. In fact, there is even a Tumblr  app for your phone so you can quickly update from your phone. So, say your design clothes and you are at a show. You could snap a picture on your phone, upload it to the Tumblr app, add a caption and post it directly to your website. Because of Tumblr’s visual focus, it really lends itself to creative entrepreneurs.

Tumblr is a great option for the small-business owners who want an online presence but are not ready for the commitment of running a full-scale website. Running a Tumblr website in conjunction with an online store, such as a shop through Etsy could be a hassle-free solution to the traditional website platform.

Here are just a few great examples of how Tumblr can be used:

• Saadia (one of our Entrepreneur Training for Success graduate) decided to use Tumblr instead of a more traditional blog or website.
• J.Crew uses Tumblr along with their website to give an inside look into the design and manufacturing of their line.
• To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) uses Tumblr to share the inside stories of people they have touched.
• Hollis Brown Thorton is an artist who uses Tumblr to display his works as well as answering questions about his work.
• BaubleBar is an outstanding example of a small business uses the full capacity of Tumblr’s website functionality.

You can still RSVP and attend!  Register here!

Visit Silpada’s website to start putting your shopping list together!

These beautiful artsy earrings sparkle and shine flashes of deep red, gold, silver and soft pearl as the dangle from the ear. Make a wonderful gift!

SHARMILA KARAMCHANDANI:
Sharmila Karamchandani is an Indian-born artist and graphic designer who works in a series of art media, including jewelry design, photography, calligraphy, and henna painting. She has a Master’s in Graphic Design from Savannah College of Art and Design and is a 2006 graduate of EWI’s Training for Success program. She currently works as part-time Client Services Manager for our organization and teaches graphic design and art history at a local college.

Visit our online store and enter the code: THISWEEKEWI in the coupon box when checking out to receive 15% off your entire purchase.

Visit Imagine Artwear in Old Town Alexandria from February 4-14th to find beautiful handmade EWI artist products perfect for Valentine’s Day gifts!

Find Handmade Aprons, Bath and Beauty Products, Silk Scarves, Valentine Notecards…

Peruvian Seed Bead Jewelry, Fused Glass Jewelry and Art, Rosette Hair Fascinators and much more all crafted by EWI graduates!

Interview conducted by EWI Volunteer, Tammy Barbee.

Tammy Barbee

Tammy Barbee’s  passion is working with and helping people with information technology. As an information technology professional, her focus has been in the areas of website design, website planning, web development, website maintenance, blogging, and teaching in a span of ten plus years. She enjoys the aspects of sharing my website knowledge, coaching small business owners the essentials of their business website, as well as social media tools, and recommending web solutions to suit their needs.

Video edited and compiled by Erin Liggan.