Geopolitics, politics and news items
When you start embroidery you don’t think that your life will be impacted by geopolitics. And yet… How geopolitics, politics and various social events impact a micro-activity nestled in its green forest setting.
Geopolitics: Currency
20 years ago we left the franc to adopt the euro. It was February 2002. It’s strange that no one talks about this anniversary when it has created a profound upheaval in the value we place on things.
I didn’t have to change my prices because I started a few months later. It is a chance. A facility.
But of course our mind still needed to make conversions. Technically it was a bit complicated as well as psychologically. Our bearings were jostled. There followed a few years of mathematical torture trying to measure everything by scholarly calculations:
- 1 euro = 6.56 francs.
- Or, what I used to buy 50 francs now I pay… €7.62. OK.
And then came the day when we stopped converting because it was no longer useful: we had to get used to the new price references in euros and then that’s it. There was the acceptance of these new figures which valued the goods that one bought.
At the same time, this common currency in Europe allowed us to travel without additional costs when crossing borders and that was a big step forward.
Miscellaneous Facts
I understood very quickly with Nimuë that France would be too small to absorb the shock of La Petite Mythologie on its own. Understand that I regularly saw people pass in front of my stand, during trade shows, shocked by the subjects: some embroiderers were afraid of it. Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings had not yet sailed into every corner of society and minds.
It must be said that the artists I work with are not Disney Compatible.
Until now, the Féerie was offered only for children. The style was simplified, watered down, which one can understand.
Adult Faerie had not yet installed its power.
Arrives Nimuë and her procession of Fairies which stings the eye a little. Some were at their most natural. Many moral affairs that occurred in society made this innocent representation of a being of nature impossible. So I asked the artists concerned to be able to modify the images and dress these charming creatures that we could no longer look at as pure elementals.
Geopolitics: attacks abroad
In 2005, I had the opportunity to travel with Christelle Petiot from Filanthrope and Dominique from DHL to the United States to take part in a trade show in Columbus, Ohio . My English is in its infancy, very scholarly, and as soon as I go through customs in Cincinnati, I miss being sent straight back to France. The zealous customs officer asks me what I’m doing in Kentucky. I tell him that I’m going to Ohio to attend a trade show. His response: « What are you doing in Kentucky? » « Nothing I’m going to Ohio ».
Be aware that Cincinnati Airport in Kentucky is on the Ohio border. In short, as soon as you leave the airport you leave Kentucky to enter Ohio. So there I was, speechless, with my 2 huge Samsonite suitcases filled with frames, each weighing 32 kg, and I didn’t understand what this guy wanted. So Dominique approached and said to the customs officer: “she is coming to see the horses”. « Al right, move.., next » the guy let me pass…
You should also know that this guy could have confiscated my suitcases, blocked me there, or sent me home, out of pure aggression towards a French woman, because at the time, following the September 11 and friction with the French government, there were incredible measures, just and unjust, like so many pretexts for everyone according to their power, to destroy all kinds of legitimate projects.
The previous three months, the chamber of commerce of my department, had informed me, that I risked being turned back at customs for a trifle, because that was what was happening at that moment in geopolitical history.
Geopolitics: world economy
Then comes the Subprime crisis, 2008, in the US. So there you have it, 3 years of effort to conquer a country and crash.
Embroidery in the USA is something anchored and even a driving force on a planetary level. This crisis, which will become global, will encourage Americans to withdraw into themselves and let go of what could be superfluous from elsewhere. The embroidery appearing in the superfluous…
A few years pass before the effects are felt crudely in France in the early 2010s. It always starts there before it gets to us.
But the fall is looming, the aura of cross-stitch embroidery is dying out from year to year. Small businesses are disappearing one after another. The bowl definitely arrives with the attacks. Fall and end.
Geopolitics: attacks in France
In November 2015, attacks in France, a few days before the great mass of Creations and Know-how, Porte de Versailles in Paris.
47% fewer visitors implies certain bankruptcy for small activities that have already been undermined. Very few will recover.
If you’re wondering why your favorite designers disappeared, and with them a wide choice, take a close look at these events, because all together they dug their graves, from the biggest to the smallest. Other points to note:
- as there are no corporations, let alone an embroidery lobby, we are not visible to the eyes of the institutions and therefore not supported.
- many suppliers having disappeared, it had become critical to source
- raw materials take 30%
For my part, I am doing well, even if my wings are weakened.
Geopolitics
Thanks to whom ? To the Russians!
Embroidery, shunned by the US, shunned by France, is experiencing its hours of glory in Russia.
Since 2007, and a subject named Victoria , who in France « causes fear », Russian embroiderers have adopted Nimuë.
I do not immediately realize the aura won in this huge country, and in general in the Eastern countries, and even less Why.
In 2012, I started to participate in a trade show in Germany H+H (Handarbeit & Hobby). It is an international trade fair where all the major players in the art of yarn in the world meet. The stands are huge in four halls. I invite myself there like Tom Thumb still convinced that I must expand my territory to continue to exist. From the first morning of participation I see a Ukrainian wholesaler and 6 Russian wholesalers. My hands are shaking. I hadn’t realized how much the name of Nimuë circulated in these countries.
Working with Eastern countries is not easy. It is necessary to investigate before signing contracts, to distinguish between those who will be good partners and those who are corrupt or even mafia. Naivety has no place. But I assure you that we learn all the useful information quite quickly.
In 2014, I was invited by Formula Rukodiela in Moscow, the equivalent of Creations and SF in France, as a headliner.
As I was educated in the Knights of the Round Table fashion, Adventure does not scare me, quite the contrary. I have a month and a half to learn Russian. I find that very exciting.
Meeting with the Russian embroiderers. Intense, very intense. I understood their relationship to Little Mythology and their enthusiasm for Nimuë. I have become very close to some people that I absolutely love.
I was invited again in February 2020, just before… The Covid-19 !
And Brexit ! or how to lose almost all trade with a neighboring country in one night, since any shipment now requires specific routing documents and shipping costs multiplied by two! It is above all psychological renunciation on both sides.
Geopolitics, politics and society
The Covid!
I’m coming back from Moscow where people in airports are already wearing masks.
How to say ? Everything stops?
All interactions with professionals slow down drastically.
Raw materials are transported slowly. Everything that still exists is in snail mode.
Fortunately for me, two months before leaving for Moscow, I made myself in my lair in the forest of Brocéliande, a new website (the previous one being obsolete) and this is what will save me. For I tell you: otherwise Nimuë would no longer exist.
Everything has changed. We got flipped like pancakes.
I thank my parents for giving me this talent to adapt no matter what. I thank the Universe for having given me this intuition which each time allowed me to put in place new actions before the achievements collapsed.
Geopolitics
Today, a new geopolitical movement…
Since February 24, the day before the launch of the Mystery Grid for 20 years, I have been in shock at what is happening in Ukraine . Over the years, the ties had become closer, the partnerships consolidated, as much with the Russians as with the Ukrainians.
Today everything is on hold, I’m not going to expand, you can imagine the rest…
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