Tag Archives: artism

Our first @UAEArte

I was nervous. This was the first time I’d be placing Artism in the limelight, the first time I’d be seeing whether Karan’s work would be received well by the general public. I’m happy to say it went well and I’m looking forward to the next Ramadan market by ARTE on August 26, 2011 at Dubai Festival City, from 6-11pm.

It started out well, I got there at 5pm to set up and landed a sweet spot near the parking entrance, which meant loads of people saw my table first. Properly set up by about 5:30pm, people slowly started stopping at the table and having a look.

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Many stopped by, commented on what was on offer, picked up the leaflet I’d printed out (which explained more about Artism) and almost all had something to tell me. To say I was overwhelmed by the encouragement would be accurate.

Karan stopped by too, with my parents. He sat at the table for a bit, then got excited (not sure why) and got a hold of one of his creations and energetically snapped it. Then began the rummage to find the beads that had exploded all over the place. He’s been told he’s going to have to make it again!

But the night went very well. We sold about 60% of the stock we had, with people asking if we took orders, which is great! Hope to see more people at the next one.

For the full set of photographs, check them out here.

Check out the snazzy slideshow of his work that was on display:

Tweets from the night:

View “Artism at ARTE” on Storify

 

Artism

If you’re reading this blog, you’ll know my now 15-year-old brother has autism. He is a smart, funny and cute boy, who just happens to not be able to do things other “normal” 15-year-old’s can do. He is currently non-verbal in that he cannot talk to communicate his needs. There are many things he will not be able to do that everyone else takes for granted throughout their lives.

However, we are now launching something for him and by him. What is it?

Karan’s school has this program to get its students to become self-sufficient in something they could potentially make their livelihood. While some students are capable of doing admin work, like filing, photocopying and entering data into forms and things like that which could get them jobs in offices/hotels/banks, Karan isn’t up to that level. His work will mostly be of the artisan kind, and right now he’s doing very well in two things: painting and jewellery-making.

Right now, we’ve started off with making jewellery. I’ve had the very experienced Debbie (@GeordieArmani) have a look at initial pieces and she’s been very helpful with suggestions on how to improve and moving forward.

I’ll be putting up some pics of stuff he’s done, and will create a Facebook page soon to get more people interested in the know, and will hopefully be present at future ARTE (Artisans of the Emirates) events.

Today, I present to you: Artism.

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