asiabarb
info@BarbaraGarwood.com
I've been an artist since 4 yrs old. My parents encouraged me and I took many art lessons and one instructor encouraged me to major in fine are at Pratt in NYC. ThI've been an artist since 4 yrs old. My parents encouraged me and I took many art lessons and one instructor encouraged me to major in fine are at Pratt in NYC. Then my Dad asked me if I wanted to eat. So he helped me find a college with textile design as a major and afterwards I entered into a career of textile designing. I started in NYC designing for the fashion industry and decided I didn't enjoy being screamed at by our customers! I escaped into the more civil and professional world of textile design for home furnishings at the large corporate level and worked internationally. Some of our customers were asking me to freelance for them and I ended up in my own consulting business. One customer owned a factory in Taiwan and that was my introduction to the world of Asian art of ALL kinds. 5 years later on a trip to Hong Kong I found a back alley handicraft store with 10 pieces of the jewelry I now design. I bought a piece and upon returning to the USA every time I wore it my hand was almost torn off as everyone wanted to see my bracelet. Friends and family gave me money and said when I went again to buy them some. And I did! I had an idea about designing the jewelry and needed to know where it was coming from. I had a chance to volunteer & teach fabric design in China for 5 weeks and as I was returning home I found display cases of it again in a department store in Shanghai. I found out it was a ancient Mongolian style. I then enrolled my interpreter to help me find the source of this beautiful jewelry. I returned home and waited and waited and waited. Four months had passed and I received photos and prices in the mail! I placed my first order of something I knew not how to design, but loved it's colors and beauty and was determined to learn, and never looked back! It's been a fabulous 20 years of supporting 18 women while preserving their ancient art in a village in the very northern part of China. (Read more)
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Asiabarb
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