Stamp designers!

I want to share some photos of Lulu Murakami (http://lulumoonart.wordpress.com/) and Janet Wilson - lovely stamp designers and carvers!  They are very dedicated to the CERESO women's project.  I'm sorry I don't have a photo of another stamp designer/carver contributor, Sally Wilson!

In San Miguel de Allende...starting cards project with Claudia

As a way to boost income to keep Claudia and her team of women at CERESO (prison in Queretaro) busy, we've started a greeting card line.  My lovely art friends in Portland - the "back of the bus girls" - designed and carved stamps.  Here in San Miguel, Claudia and I did some test runs before meeting with the 4 women in Queretaro.

Thank you cards

I had so much fun making these thank you cards for the Kickstarter supporters.  I made them while staying at my brother's house in San Miguel de Allende.  I loved adding old Mexican stamps.  If you'd like one I have a few extras.  Just let me know at jan@bluesageresearch.com

Claudia and I had a great time signing them while eating lunch at Hecho en Mexico in January.

Packaging the Kickstarter rewards

I packaged and mailed the Kickstarter rewards.....it was so fun to see what styles the Kickstarter supporters selected.  We have offered a selection of 3 styles from which the supporters could pick for their rewards.  I thought it would be great way to do some market research...if there were styles that were more popular than others.  But it didn't work that way!  The choices were all over the map, which shows that Claudia's designs are popular and diverse. 

Here is a photo of some earrings that a handful of supporters selected.

The ETSY shop is up and running!

Thanks to Kickstarter funds, we've got the ETSY shop up.  Now, our task is to fill the shop with Claudia's beautiful jewelry.  Thanks again to Kickstarter funds we are doing that.  Claudia and her team of women at CERESO have made earrings and bracelets.  Jan will get them in March when she is in San Miguel. Slow but sure steps!

Here are some of the photos of the jewelry.... or....check out the ETSY shop here!

Welcome! Bienvenidos!

Welcome to our blog, From Our Hands to your Heart.  It is dedicated to the efforts and Claudia Patricia Rivera Uribe and Jan Davis, and the women at CERESO in Queretaro Mexico.

Here's how Jan and Claudia met:

Jan met Claudia last year in San Miguel de Allende Mexico and was struck by Claudia's jewelry designs, her lovely persona, and how popular her jewelry was with the tourists and locals that stopped by her table at the Saturday Organic market. But when Claudia explained how she teaches 6 women at a correctional facility how make the jewelry, and that she pays them a wage much higher than the other work projects, Jan was impressed and touched.

After meeting over coffee, Jan and Claudia learned they were kindred spirits and shared many things in common. Jan decided to launch a Kickstarter project to help Claudia start this ETSY shop. With the generous support of people in the U.S., U.K, Mexico, Canada and Norway, their Kickstarter project was funded. Claudia is working with the women in the CERESO prison to create jewelry to sell on ETSY. Claudia's dream, however, is to sell in shops throughout the U.S.   View their Kickstarter video here.

Claudia is so dearly committed to teaching Mexican women of little resources to improve their lives, growing Claudia's business means helping other women. Every piece of jewelry sold on ETSY provides money to pay Claudia's small team of women in the CERESO prison to make another piece of jewelry and save money to send home to their families. 

Claudia and Jan decided to create a blog to document their journey together as they continue their projects with the women and CERESO in addition to their own creative endeavors.