Category Archives: News from Albuquerque

Etsy Closes Paper Turtle due to Terms violation (?)

Posted on 06/14/2012 | 14 Comments

Etsy: Your place to buy and sell all things handmade 

Dear Readers,

Last week, I received a form letter from the wise Integrity Team folks at Etsy informing me that our store, paperturtles.etsy.com, has been closed. It has been disabled because, according to them, our shop does not qualify under Etsy’s Terms of Use.  When researching the Terms prior to opening our store, this was the only guideline I could find, aside from the requirements that items be either handmade; vintage; or supplies:

Handmade items must be created by the seller (or a member of the collective) operating the Etsy shop. Production assistance for certain intermediary tasks in some crafts may be acceptable.

Paper Turtle is a collective and we operated openly as that on Etsy for two years. Until last week.

Needless to say, I am outraged, and very sad that Etsy has made this choice despite the abundant information I provided to them regarding our five Haitian artisans, their lives, families, and talents as papier-mache artists.  The way we collaborate in the design process, I finish many of the items in my studio, and we profit-share.   What angers me the most is that, as anyone who has spent any amount of time on Etsy knows, the site is full of mass-produced crap from Asia and elsewhere, re-sold by every day by shop owners knowingly disregarding the Terms of Use. Check out this post on Regretsy to get a sense of the issue.

Obviously, Etsy’s own policies about “handmade” and “re-selling” are not consistently enforced; yet we have been singled out for closure.  I opened our store in good faith and have spent hundreds of hours building a clientele who now have no way of knowing what happened or where they can find us, let alone make repeat purchases.

This is the retarded, thoroughly unhelpful form that pops up when you type in our URL

“Uh oh!” There’s something not quite right in the URL. Please check for any errors in the address bar and try again.”

I am also denied access to the store.

“Etsy: Your place to buy and sell all things handmade. Unless you’re a Haitian artist, working diligently at your traditional craft as part of a US partnership, everyone contributing to the design, creation, and finishing of the work so that it can be purchased and enjoyed by people everywhere. Bringing economic opportunity to all parties (including Etsy), beauty to the world, and a marketing advantage to Etsy: a company that encourages hand-made efforts in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, supporting in an economically sound partnership.  As opposed to the current reputation as a company that randomly enforces its own policies regarding non-handmade; re-selling; and selective back-turning when  reseller fees are significant enough.” Truly a missed opportunity.

Please be advised that until this matter is resolved, you are free to contact me directly regarding sales.

505-242-6005

laura@paperturtle.com

Thank you for your support.

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Happy Spring!

Posted on 03/27/2012 | 2 Comments


The beginnings of an unseasonably warm spring have sprung here in New Mexico and I thought I would share a few images of new pieces today. The first is a request for our Little Brown Bird in pink. Always happy to oblige! I love when people ask me to do things I wouldn’t normally do, because I often like the results and incorporate the idea into permanent inventory. I plan to offer the Bird in four or five colors after the next shipment arrives–hopefully soon, as we are sold out of many items. That’s the good news: we’ve had the best quarter yet for online sales as well as wholesale! Thanks to all who have been spreading the word–many of our recent sales have been referrals.

Our friends in Haiti are working on a large order that includes several new items and I can’t wait to see everything. Here is a sneak peek of one new creation, Barthold’s Gazelle.

He is large, 25″ from wall-to-horn, 18″ ear-to-ear. I have asked Barthold to reverse the horns so they are facing backwards because this will cut down significantly on shipping costs.  Other new items include a newsprint Rooster; Tiny Birds; newsprint Bird; and Deer.

I will be using a new shipping service for this order, likely AmeriJet air freight.  It will be more cost-effective than DHL, but not as much as ocean freight. Until we can share a container, I think it will be a good option.  We had to discontinue using DHL altogether because of some billing disputes. You can read about my trials and tribulations with DHL on my Live Clay blog.

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Local Love Bazaar Feb 12

Posted on 02/08/2012 | 2 Comments

Hello Paper Turtle fans and followers! We will be participating in a Valentine’s themed show this Sunday, Feb 12 from 1-4 p.m. If you’re local, please come check out our paper-mache turtles, birds, crabs, fish, mobiles and more. Hand-crafted, unique Valentine’s gifts for every taste from Paper Turtle as well as RPotter Studio, Live Clay, NikkiZabicki: Urban Fashion & Décor, Chocolate Cartel, Meltdown Studio, Maude Andrade Clothing, and Self Serve, to name just a few.  Thanks to the lovely Kei & Molly for organizing!

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New for 2012

Posted on 01/23/2012 | Leave a comment

Hello 2012! It’s been a busy few months here at Paper Turtle and I thought I would take a moment to catch you up on the excitement. First, in case you’re wondering about the picture above… this is one of my favorite images from my recent trip to Haiti (click to enlarge). It’s a photo I took of a painting that was hanging in the Oloffson Hotel (presumably The Last Supper, artist name indecipherable). I think it’s a perfect example of the blending of African & Vodou traditions, with Christianity. I love the spirits in the trees, the girl feeding a mango to the birds, and the cats under the table. Quite a bit more celebratory than traditional Last Supper imagery.

I’m happy to report that we enjoyed great sales in our Etsy store, as well as locally, throughout December. As a result, I was able to return a total of $1,000 for the year to Aly to share with the artisans. Woo hoo! This year, I plan to profit-share every three months, sales permitting. I have also added a Donation page to our web site for those who wish to make direct donations to the artisans. I am currently trying to identify specific needs, such as the fan that was paid for by a direct donation last year.

Speaking of sales, we have expanded our wholesale revenue stream (I’m feeling very professional these days) with two new retail outlets: Country Furnishings of Taos, and Mermaid Alley (The Bahamas). Thank you Mary and Pam for your partnership!

I am currently working on new sculpture designs as well as a more predictable freight shipping schedule (hopefully large shipments, twice per year). It’s really difficult to discuss designs via email, but slowly, Aly and I work out the details. I hope to return to Haiti at least once this year to oversee shipping and meet with Barthold and Aly about production.

In other exciting news, a fabulous designer-artist is creating a Paper Turtle logo and branding materials as we speak. I’ll keep her name a secret until I can share her beautiful creations (I’ve seen the drafts… they are SO BEAUTIFUL!).

Finally, I just finished Island Beneath the Sea, by Isabella Allende, a historical novel that takes place in Haiti just prior to the slave revolt and continues in Louisiana, where many people fled during and after the revolt. It was fantastic — an eloquent, moving, and eye-opening account of the fascinating and heartbreaking history of Haiti during those years (1790s-1830s). Its US publication coincided with the earthquake in 2010.

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Haiti – on the way

Posted on 10/30/2011 | 3 Comments

I’m in Miami staying overnight with some friends of my two traveling buddies, Gabe and Cam. Our flight to Haiti leaves Miami at 8:30 tomorrow morning.

I thought I ‘d take a minute before I go to bed to tell you a little about my traveling companions and the hotel where we’ll be staying in Port-au-Prince because it has a really interesting history.  First, Gabe and Cam:

Since it’s late, I’ll go with wellness.com’s description of Cam:  ”… a Critical Care Surgeon located in Albuquerque, NM. A Critical Care Surgeon, acute care, emergency medicine, surgery, surgeon, respiratory failure, shock, renal failure, sepsis, life-threatening illness, ICU, intensive care. 

I feel pretty confident that my various organs would be in good hands with Cameron in an emergency situation.  Plus, he’s been to Haiti before and speaks French so technically he could be a tour guide.

Gabe is an Engineer-Lawyer-MBA, who I suspect will be fairly useless in Haiti despite his considerable academic achievements. I base my assessment on the following criteria:

1. Is Gabe a hypochondriac?
Yes.

2. If Gabe walked into a room full of power tools, what would he do?
Ask me what they are.

3.  If someone tried to abduct me, what would Gabe do?
Run.

4.  If a mouse ran across the floor, what would Gabe do?
Jump on a chair and scream like a girl.*

5.  If Gabe caught a mouse in a live-trap, what would he do?
Call me to come and take it away.* 

But he is my friend and I love him despite his obvious shortcomings.  Plus he’s a guy, he’s tall, and he can probably carry heavy things for me advise me on how best to carry heavy things.
*actual events

Hotel Oloffson

The hotel was constructed in the late 19th century as a private home for the Sam family.  The head of a
prestigious and influential family in Port-au-Prince, Tirésias Simon-Sam was president of Haiti from
1896 to 1902. The mansion was built by Tirésias’s son, Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam. The Sams lived in the mansion until 1915, when Guillaume himself was selected from among a group of powerful politicians to assume the post of president, the fifth president in five years. Guillaume would be president for a scant five months, however, before being torn to pieces by an angry mob.

United States President Woodrow Wilson, concerned that the Haitian government might be seized by Rosalvo Bobo (who was thought to be sympathetic to the Germans) ordered the United States Marine Corps to seize Port-au-Prince. The occupation would eventually extend to the entire nation of Haiti. The Sam Mansion was used as a US military hospital for the duration of the 15-year occupation.

In 1935, when the Occupation ended, the mansion was leased to Walter Gustav Oloffson, a Swedish sea captain from Germany, who converted the property into a hotel with his wife Margot and two sons, Olaf and Egon. In the 1950s, Roger Coster, a French photographer, assumed the lease on the hotel and ran it with his Haitian wife, Laura. The hotel came to be known as the “Greenwich Village of the Tropics”, attracting actors, writers, and artists. Some of the suites in the hotel were named after the artists and writers who frequented the hotel, including Graham Greene, James Jones, Charles Addams, and Sir John Gielgud.

A Connecticut native, Al Seitz, acquired the hotel lease in 1960. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the hotel enjoyed a brief period of fame and good fortune. Celebrities such as Jackie Onassis and Mick Jagger were regular guests, and like Coster before him, Seitz named favorite rooms at the hotel after the celebrity guests. After Al Seitz died in 1982, his widow continued to operate it. As the grip of Duvalierism closed over the country, however, the foreign tourist trade dried up. The hotel survived by serving as the desired residence for foreign reporters and foreign aid workers who needed secure lodging in the center of town.

In 1987, with the help of his half-brother Jean Max Sam, Richard A. Morse signed a 15 year lease to manage the Hotel Oloffson, then in near ruins after the final years of Duvalierism. In restoring the hotel business, Morse hired a local folkloric dance troupe and slowly converted it into a band. Richard Morse would become the songwriter and lead male vocalist and the name of band, RAM, comes from his initials. Throughout the political upheaval of Haiti in the 1990s, RAM’s regular Thursday evening performance at the hotel became one of the few regular social events in Port-au-Prince in which individuals of various political positions and allegiances could congregate.

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Haiti, Here I Come!

Posted on 10/12/2011 | 1 Comment

I thought this image of turtles was a good one to accompany today’s announcement that I am, at long last, going to Haiti! Oct 31-Nov 3 (includes All Soul’s Day, a legal holiday), woo-hoo!  I’ll try to write a blog post or two from there, depending on time, WiFi, and my sanity.

I finally was able to coordinate my own (and my daughter’s) schedule, and talk not one, but TWO friends into going with me to Port-au-Prince. It took a while to find  someone(s) who had the time, money, and desire (I didn’t want to go by myself the first time). One friend who said she would go with me backed out on account of her husband, who used this warning by the US Department of State to effectively ground her.  Too bad.  The warning discourages “all non-essential travel”  due to the possibility of disease, violence, political uprisings, poor infrastructure, etc.  Too bad.

I consider my travel to Haiti essential, not only for business purposes, but to experience a sense of place: where traditional papier-mache evolved, where Columbus set foot even before the Americas, where the native Taino once numbered in the hundreds of thousands.  I can’t wait to spend time with Aly in his own country and see it through his eyes.  Hopefully, I can also hang out with our main sculptor, Barthold, and the other artisans, learning how to make papier-mache. 

Gabe and Cameron are my traveling companions and I couldn’t ask for more: Gabe is an engineer, lawyer, and MBA, and Cameron is an ER doctor.  Between the three of us, plus Aly as our host, I’d say we have enough survival and technical skills to see us through three days of adventure in a foreign land.  Not to mention the inflated sense of self I’ll feel when I can finally say, I’ll be traveling with my personal physician.

In an effort to off-set my impact on the limited resources in Haiti*, I will also be bringing donated kids’ clothing and tennis shoes for Aly to give to the artisans or anyone else he knows who needs them. When he visited here, his little daughters asked him to bring back 1) sweets and 2) shoes. Maybe I’ll bring some candy too.

The way I see it, the problem with making fear-based decisions about going or not going to Haiti based on Dept. of State warnings, is that then, guess what? No one goes to Haiti.  No one goes to be moved, inspired or transformed by the people, landscape or culture. No one spends their tourist dollars on traditional crafts, or bears witness to the daily lives and suffering of people who feel forgotten by the rest of the world.  I’m not saying the decision should be flippant and casual and spontaneous. But perhaps there is room in the middle–between outright avoidance, and travel in a potentially dangerous place for the sake of being counter-culture and daring–for choices resulting from true discernment and a sense of necessity, whatever the need may be.

*The only sentence in the travel advisory that stuck with me: U.S. citizens wishing to assist in Haiti relief efforts should be aware that – in addition to facing safety and health risks, and despite good intentions – their travel to Haiti will increase the burden on a system already struggling to support those in need.

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Aly’s Visit

Posted on 08/29/2011 | 3 Comments

For all our readers who are not part of our Kickstarter tribe, here a re-print of the update I just posted there.  Enjoy!

[August 19, 2011] Finally, Aly & I met in person after almost two years of working together long distance! We were both pleasantly surprised by the fact that there were no surprises: each was as he or she had seemed over the phone and email.  We fell in together just as if it had always been.  It was a fun and busy four days.  As promised, here is a short pictorial of Aly’s visit.
 
I picked Aly up at the airport after a lo-o-o-ng 12 hr day (3 stops between NY and NM, sorry Aly!).  I recognized him by his carry-on items: a backpack, a giraffe, and a lovely flowered mirror frame.

The next day, we started sorting everything Aly had brought in three huge duffels on the plane. We also talked about new designs and creative aspects that were too hard to discuss by email.

Aly brought me and my family these t-shirts that his artisans designed as a surprise. Love them!

Tuesday, Aly went to Santa Fe with my step-father, Jerry Ortiz y Pino. They visited the International Folk Art Museum and Aly recognized the names of many Haitian artists represented there.  I spent the day getting ready for the reception and dressing up the studio.

Velma was a big help.

Aly got back around 4:30 and everyone else began arriving at 5. Aly said a few words and we answered questions at 6.

Whew! It was a busy and fun evening. Many Rewards were distributed and people purchased additional items, which was unexpected and much appreciated.  These birds were a favorite.

So were the butterfly mobiles.

The next day, I gave Aly the choice of sight-seeing things he would like to do. He chose the zoo and the Museum of Natural History. I took pictures with his camera of him in front of every single animal and every single dinosaur bone we saw. Really. He was so intrigued. 

I asked Aly what one of his biggest impressions of the US was:  ”People are busy all the time.”  And one thing I learned about Haiti?  There are no liquor laws.  Anyone can drink anything, whenever and wherever and as much as they want. (Aly was continually surprised that he couldn’t order beer for breakfast at most restaurants.)  

Finally, here are a few things Aly saw or did for the first time on his first trip to the US:

1. Watch a gorilla eat corn.

2. Watch a gorilla stand on its head, regurgitate corn, and eat it again.

3. Swim with a polar bear.

4. Sit on a dragon.

5. Stay at a B & B for one night (thanks Tammy at the Mauger Estate for the wonderful hospitality!)

6.  Meet me.

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Aly’s Coming to New Mexico!

Posted on 08/12/2011 | 2 Comments

Yes, that’s right, Aly will be leaving Haiti for the first time and traveling to New Mexico, and we’re both very excited to meet each other.  He arrives late on Sunday evening and leaves Thursday.  We will use those few days to talk about our business, new designs, and meet our local Kickstarter supporters at a reception in my studio on Tuesday, August 16 from 5-7 p.m.  Are you in Albuquerque and interested in attending? Please email me at laura@paperturtle.com and I’ll give you the details.

I will post pictures of our adventures during his visit–hopefully, we can fit in a little sight-seeing and fun in with everything else.

Meanwhile, I just finished reading The Rainy Season: Haiti–Then And Now, by Amy Wilentz, a journalist who lived in Haiti in the late 80s.  It’s a fascinating look into what was happening in Haiti at that time (Duvalier’s 30-yr regime finally ended, Aristide gaining popular support, several coup détat, etc) as well as an overview of Haiti’s history since the slave revolt in 1791.  It’s only a beginning, but I’ve learned so much from just one book about why Haiti is the way it is and the radical political, environmental, and social challenges they face. Here are a few of the things that really struck me:

  • At the time of the first European contact, 75% of Haiti was covered in forests; by the time this book was written is was less than 7%
  • Unlike other revolutions, the Haiti Revolution (slave revolt) was not orchestrated by people with government experience from their home countries. So after the French were successfully kicked out, the Haitians had only tribal and plantation systems as governing models. The authoritarian system still in existence grew from that.
  • As in many other countries, there is a class system based on skin color, with lighter colored mulattos typically enjoying higher social standing
  • Both voodoo and the kreole language spoken in Haiti (considered a “living” language) are both amalgamations of African + other influences. In the case of voodoo, it’s Christian and African; and kreole is French and African.
  • In the author’s opinion, voodoo is used as an instrument of control of the peasant class by the government/army.  Local voodoo houngans, or leaders, receive favorable treatment from the government. As long as the people believe that famine, floods or sickness is the result of improper ceremony or tribute to the gods, they will not question social injustice that keeps them poor and powerless.
  • As late as 1924, Haiti was described as the “jewel of the Antilles” because of its intense beauty, even among neighboring tropical islands
  • The Haitian Revolution altered the course of world history. To paraphrase Wilentz (p. 76), after losing Haiti, Napoleon liquidated the entire remaining American Empire, which was sold by the Louisiana Purchase (1803), thus making the USA a continent-wide power.

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New Work

Posted on 07/22/2011 | 2 Comments

Aly surprised me a few weeks back with some new items and I think they’re fantastic.  First, this bird that I’ve listed in our Etsy store and in our new wholesale line sheet as The Little Brown Bird.  I’ve asked Aly for lots more of these, as well as Little White Birds because I suspect they will be a big seller around the holidays.  They are around 8″ x 8.5″.

And here is a very large bull, which I’ve cleverly titled Very Large Bull.  I think Texas would be a good market for him…. He’s an impressive 27″w x 21″h, currently hanging on my adobe studio wall.  He arrived with strings of colored beads (dyed native beans) around his horns, which made me laugh.

Aly is busy making new molds to complete the Kickstarter Rewards as well as get ready for future orders.  He spent some time in Jacmel, an area of Haiti known for traditional papier-mache, recruiting artisans.  We’re both very excited to move forward!

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Fundraising Project – Final Week

Posted on 06/07/2011 | Leave a comment

As many of you know, Aly and I launched a fundraising project on Kickstarter almost 60 days ago to raise seed money for inventory to expand our business.  With seven suspense-filled days to go (Kickstarter is “all or nothing”), we have almost met our goal of $9,000! A big thank-you to all who have pledged — see the whole glorious list here.

For anyone who is hearing about our project for the first time or is still contemplating a pledge:  this is a great opportunity to support our business and own a lovely papier-mache sculpture handmade in Haiti–for less than current retail prices.  Plus, shipping within the US is free.  Please check out our project, watch the video, and, hopefully, be inspired! 

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