Bunny Justice and the philosophy on Ethics

 

Well, Almost Halloween, and although it is not celebrated in Australia that much it is picking up some speed…I was a bit shocked this week though by already seeing Christmas stuff out in the shops everywhere and a facebook post of somebody stating it was only 8 Fridays to go til Christmas! EIGHT Fridays !!!! Shockingly fast this year is going that is for sure! It seemed like only a couple of months ago that I was having a great time at the Bendigo Show..oh wait ..it was! Lol..Maybe time seems to go so fast because we always seem to hurry up and cant wait to look at the next thing. Also time measurement seems to be a partner in crime…I mean 8 Fridays sounds a lot LOT worse than 61 days or 1464 hours or 87.840 minutes or EVEN BETTER: 5.270.400 seconds ! yeah!

Anyway , enough about time. I am going to tell you about something fundamentally wrong and annoying. A totally stupid small thing in the scheme of things but at the same time, very fundamental and something I feel, we should change our way of thinking about. Here’s my story:

Last year, after lots of saving up pennies , we worked hard to renovate our kitchen. With that renovation came new stuff: a new cooker (we installed a more sustainable gas unit to our very old electric one) and a new fridge/freezer. We did not want a fancy one making ice cubes or anything like that, just a unit that was big enough to keep our produce cool or freeze what we make, since we are not exactly in the middle of the city and don’t go shopping to stock up that much and we make things ourselves too that need to be refrigerated or frozen. To cut a long story short..not even a year old and the fridge/freezer decided to have a change of heart and instead of freezing it wanted to be a heater instead, defrosting EVERYthing we had in there.

I did what anyone would do, called the place where we got it from (Harvey Norman) who directed me to Samsung , the producer of the unit. It was excruciating ..over thirty calls made to call centres hundreds of miles away to people who were not listening or did not care or both and in the end when technicians were sent out to look at it , days later, they stayed for 5 minutes, said it was the compressor and left saying the part had to be ordered. Weeks went by..nothing…then a technician came and changed the motherboard and asked me to monitor it..they didn’t have a compressor…safe to say that plan didn’t work..it still doesn’t hold temperature or freezes reliably at all…food goes off…..

So, other calls and emails even facebook messages by that stage on their Samsung (yes people : SAMSUNG! fb page..hint,,hint…after numerous frustrating emails and phonecalls, and conflicting messages I demanded a refund and compensation. They agreed ..yeeeha! well, only if I were to sign a document that said I was responsible for the packing, the freight, I could be charged transport costs and I would only be refunded AFTER Samsung would assess the situation. It was totally different from what I was promised on the phone. I emailed, made it clear to them I would not sign that document, so I changed the wording on the document to reflect what was discussed, signed it and sent it back. Samsung agreed to pay….obviously not reading the document properly.   More than a  week passed, no sign of a refund at all. Yesterday I received a text message asking me when the unit could be picked up by a freightforwarding company. I sent an email to Samsung telling them I would only have the unit picked up AFTER payment which was very overdue and then all hell broke loose..Samsung called me saying that they will not refund me or pay me for the spoilt goods at all. I asked to put that in writing..I just received an email that they cannot put any documented? conversation into writing unless subpoened by a coourt of law……. What is this? ITS A FRIDGE PROBLEM ..it could have been resolved so easily !  Obviously , this is an opportunity for a brand to own up. And it shows how easy it is to make a small problem into a PR nightmare!!!

It also opens up a window of opportunity for other brands: I found out that WESTINGHOUSE still produces their fridges in Australia, is Australian owned and produced ! So, my next fridge, when I finally get some kind of refund back from Samsung will go to Westinghouse.

Not that I want to suggest anything, but remember the incident when a musicians bass was destroyed by American Airlines and they did not own up or refund the guy? They made a song of it and put it on YouTube, In no time a company who had nothing whatsoever to do with the problem stepped up hearing about the fiasco but seeing that the YouTube clip had a hundred throusand hits in no time, offered the musician a free bass hard case.

By doing that , it promoted their brand in a very good way and sending a good vibe. We need more good vibes in the world and less greed and bad illogical behaviour !

I am not a confrontational person. It takes a lot out of me. If I were a confronational person I would probably be somebody totally different by now.

I would have acted differently to all the school bullying I was put through, the hell that as a kid you can be put through by other kids. I was the one turning the other cheek and going into my cave and focussing on drawing and reading and studying and music and art. I was the geeky kid being bullied, Instead of doing that, I could have hit back, shouted back and be confrontational, maybe I should have, but I didn’t , because it is not in my make up.

I wanted to study art..my parents said Id never make any money at all, and again, I caved and went to law school…to find out I wanted to fight for justice and stand up for the underdog ..It was hard, very hard, because I was confronted with the fact that fighting for what you believe is right and just, is not always what the system approves of. Fighting and confrontation is hard. So, I changed, I studies medical anthropology instead, thinking Science would be better and less confrontational.. I was wrong, you have to deal with government agencies and again fighting for the underdog (the poor , the unempowered native population struggling to survive)..I worked for years in the system, trying to make a difference and I hope I did, but it was hard.

If I were a confrontational person, my life would have been different: I would not have been bullied to the extreme, I would not have been in a heart breaking abusive relationship in the past for an excruciatingly too long a time, I would have grown up to be different person and , now, maybe I would not have been so hurt and upset by big companies treating their customers in such a terrible way: it is unjust and illogical. And I rather spend my time spinning, having fun in life and getting better and healthy. Instead, I have to put loads of energy into dealing with unethical stupidity..the two things in the world I hate most: Stupidity and Injustice.

Yet, every experience we go through adds up and makes us the person we are now. I have learnt and fought and fell down and stood up again numerous times.

In this case, I feel sad because it is just “STUFF” but saying that, it is something more fundamental: it not only has to do with the fact that when you buy something , it needs to work properly. No, what all this has taught me, is a very important thing we all have consider: instead of looking at buying something because it looks good , we read the reviews and make a decision on what best suits us, we listen to the advertisements , we look at what we can afford and make our decision to buy stuff. , You have to add a whole new level to that thought process and decision making : ETHICS.

What do I mean by that? Ask yourself: Is the company who is making the products ethical in their production?; How is their customer service? Where is it made? What is their company philosophy and what do they stand for? In a way, on a smaller scale , we already make an educated ethical decision about foods: you probably rather buy free range eggs than caged ones, organicaly grown vegetables opposed to sprayed and GMO ones, fresh milk rather than over pasteurised milk.

As a consumer, I believe, we have to go further than just that. We have to choose wisely and ethically. Buy from small businesses who care about their customers, support companies who treat their customers well , do our due diligence before being sucked in by advertisements and flashy promises.

I have a very small business, very very VERY small, I care for what I make, how I make it and who I sell it to. My customers are everything to me and my customers are always right. If anybody has a problem with anything I make, I try to make it better, do it again and send them a gift on top of that. Why? Because I care. Why? Because I know how important it is to be happy with something you worked so hard to buy. That is my philosophy but apparently , it is not the philosophy of Samsung or who knows , what other companies. I would never in my wildest dreams ask my customers to sign a document telling them one thing and tell them the opposite by phone and let them wait for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks to get another product or their money back.. If that was my policy, I would be out of business in 5 seconds.

Is it hard work to be an ethical producer and business? Yes, ofcourse it is . Is it worth it? HELL YES! Because only by being an ethical maker and seller can you truly have pride in what you do and produce something that is not only STUFF but has something extra: good karma and a happy smile on anybody’s face who owns that ethically made product.

The sad thing is , Samsung has a 40% market share in fridges..go to any store and it is very hard to see another brand ! They even have a bigger market share for their phones, their TVS and other products. They are HUGE!

We own a Samsung tv, a dvd player and our mobile phones are SAMSUNG…saying that: after being treated like this by them, will I ever buy anything Samsung again? No!

This experience has tainted my perception of the brand…I have put a sticker over their brandname on my phone because I don’t want to have a grumpy attack everytime I make a call. Is it a bad phone? No. it could have better battery life time wise, but it s not a bad phone…

At this point if Samsung were to invent the first time travel machine on the planet for $10 , I would not have a bar of it.. Who knows where you will wind up going? It may say you go year 2358 but in reality it will just transport you back to the Ice Age, where your consumer rights will be swallowed up by a Mammoth and you cannot call Samsung customer service at all because there is no reception…come to think of it , it is not much different now…….

The time for confrontation and taking it further has come. In the end,no matter how unconfrontational a person is, in your life you have to stand up for your rights and those of others, however heart breaking, upsetting and time consuming it is…

Now for this weeks update special fibre blend: Lush Bunny tops. It is what I have called A Pearlescent blend ! With Super Fine merino, angora bunny, cashmere,and Tencel.

It is the tencel that gives the top and the yarn you spin from it , that pearlescent glow and that silky touch. It is truly LUSH!

Exclusive IxCHeL blend:

Lush Bunny Tops

100+grams     AU$24

a pearlescent blend of superfine merino, angora, cashmere and tencel.

super soft and special to spin and wear !

Absinthe on Ice-sold-

Blast from the past-1 left-

 Eucalypt Advneture-sold-

Forest Spring-sold-

Honey Bear-sold-

Honey Bee Sky-sold-

Ice Age River-sold-
 

Kaleidoscope Heart-3 left-

 

velvet-1 left-

IxCHeL GIFT VOUCHERS !

Want to give somebody something special and still let them pick out their fav colour or fibre blend? Well, search no more: I offer an IxCHeL gift voucher package that is so hard to resist you even want to buy one for yourself ..lol Here’s the deal:

AU$25 Personalised giftvoucher Pack

Comes with a personalised gift voucher and free post for the receivers first order in Australia !

 

AU$50 Personalised giftvoucher Pack

 

Comes with a personalised giftvoucher, free post for the receivers first order in Australia ! and a cute badge a bunny photo and last but not least some amazing fluffy stuff in a gift pack

 

AU$100 Personalised giftvoucher Pack

 

Comes with a personalised Christmas giftvoucher, free post for the receivers first order in Australia !, a badge, and last but not least some amazing fluffy stuff and yarn in a gift pack! Just let me know what giftvoucher pack you would like to gift to a friend or hey, you can even gift it to yourself ! And I will send you all the details.  

Badges!

Happy funny Badges to attach to just about anything: your craft bags, clothes, the perfect little gifts ! 

1 badge AU$2

Buy 10 for AU$18

20 badges for AU$35

30 badges for AU$49

every badge has a nr so when ordering just mention the nr of the badge and how many you would like..easy!

newest additions : badge nrs 84-90

Badges 1-20

Badges 21-40

Badges 41-59

Badges 60-83

How To Order:

1. You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or ixchelbunny at yahoo dot com dot au
2. message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny.

I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods.

Any questions? Any custom orders for yarn or dyeing fibre? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.
 

Thank you so much for your help and support !

 

 RABBIT ON !

((hugs))

Charly

Vampire Bunny tea party and Sugar Skulls

 

Another week closer to Halloween ! and then it is the celebration of the Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos /All Saints Day (1st and 2nd of November) and they celebrate it BIG in Mexico.

Day of the Dead is an interesting holiday celebrated in central and southern Mexico during the chilly days of November 1st and 2nd. Even though this coincides with the Catholic holiday called All Soul's and  All Saint’s Day, the indigenous people have combined this with their own ancient beliefs of honouring their deceased loved ones.

They believe that the gates of heaven are opened at midnight on October 31, and the spirits of all deceased children (angelitos) are allowed to reunite with their families for 24 hours.
On November 2, the spirits of the adults come down to enjoy the festivities that are prepared for them. In most Indian villages, beautiful altars (ofrendas) are made in each home. They are decorated with candles, buckets of flowers (wild marigolds called cempasuchil ) mounds of fruit, peanuts, plates of turkey mole (Mole is a fantastic rich sauce!yummmm!) , stacks of tortillas and big Day-of-the-Dead breads called pan de muerto.

The altar needs to have lots of food, bottles of soda, hot cocoa and water for the weary spirits. Toys and candies are left for the angelitos, and on Nov. 2, cigarettes and shots of mezcal are offered to the adult spirits. Little folk art skeletons and sugar skulls, purchased at open-air markets, provide the final touches.

Day of the Dead is a very expensive holiday for these self-sufficient, rural based, indigenous families. Many spend over two month's income to honor their dead relatives. They believe that happy spirits will provide protection, good luck and wisdom to their families. Ofrenda building keeps the family close.

On the afternoon of Nov. 2, the festivities are taken to the cemetery. People clean tombs, play cards, listen to the village band and reminisce about their loved ones.

 A pile of beautifully decorated Sugar Skulls
 

Gigantic sugar skulls are made from 50 year old molds for the competition at the Feria de Alfinique in Metepec, Mexico. These sugar skull makers have been making artisanal sugar for generations. And ofcourse they also make Chocolate day of the dead skulls..yummm! the chocolate in Oaxaca , Mexico is also used to make their famous “mole”sauce and is one of a kind !!!

 

Chocolate sugar skulls are hand molded and decorated and sold by the thousands!! at the Sugar Skull Fair. Candy makers work for 4-6 months to have enough merchandise for the sale. Sugar skulls are sometimes eaten, but their main function is to adorn the altars and tombs with a sugary delight for the visiting spirits! Miniature candy skulls are made for the baby angelitos and are displayed on the home ofrendas on November 1... then replaced with full size skulls on November 2 for the returning adult spirits!

Sugar Skull Tradition Sugar art was brought to the New World by Italian missionaries in the 17th century. The first Church mention of sugar art was from Palermo at Easter time when little sugar lambs and angels were made to adorn the side altars in the Catholic Church. Mexico, abundant in sugar production and too poor to buy fancy imported European church decorations, learned quickly from the friars how to make sugar art for their religious festivals. Clay molded sugar figures of angels, sheep and sugar skulls go back to the Colonial Period 18th century.

Sugar skulls represented a departed soul, had the name written on the forehead and was placed on the home ofrenda or gravestone to honor the return of a particular spirit. Sugar skull art reflects the folk art style of big happy smiles, colorful icing and sparkly tin and glittery adornments. Sugar skulls are labor intensive and made in very small batches in the homes of sugar skull makers. These wonderful artisans are disappearing as fabricated and imported candy skulls take their place. There is nothing as beautiful as a big, fancy, unusual sugar skull!

Although it is a holiday from far away in southern Mexico, it's a holiday you can personalize and integrate into your own religious and cultural beliefs. It is more of a cultural holiday than a religious one. It is a wonderful way to celebrate the memories of our loved ones who are now gone... through art, cooking, music, building ofrendas, we can recount family stories, fun times and lessons learned... not how the person died, but how they lived. What better way to celebrate life !? !

To know more about this Celebration and making your own sugar skulls !  visit http://www.mexicansugarskull.com

Now for this weeks update special fibre blend: Vampire tops. It is what I have called A Passionate blend ! With Super Fine merino, angora bunny, Black Bamboo, Cashmere and eh..fangs (Flax or Linen!).

It is wonderful to spin and the flax gives it just that little bit extra ! Its easy to spin it with that bit of art yarn flair and textured, but if you pre draft the fibres in narrow strips it is so easy to spin lace as well. Whatever you want to sink your teeth into: it is all possible with the IxCHeL passionate Vampire Top blend !

 

Day of the Dead Guitar Player Yarn Charms
10  charms for AU$10
+/- 15mmx21mm.
Tibetan Silver charms, easy to add to your day of the dead art yarn project or make them into a bracelet or stitchmarkers! Anything goes !

 

Happy Tigerbunny Pumpkin yarn with Bat sequins

+/- 50-59gram skeins +/- 130meters $20

Spun from pumpkin happy tigerbunny tops in a comparable 8ply , plied with silk and bat sequins. Four skeins available.

 

Also available : Witches brew colourway with pumpkin sequins.

 A batty Yarn

Exclusive IxCHeL blend:
Vampire Tops
100+grams     AU$24
a passionate blend of superfine merino, angora, cashmere, Fangs (Flax ;-) ) and black bamboo
super soft and special to spin and wear !

Teddy Bears’ Picnic

Scary Clown Party

Psycho

Nosferatu

Night of the Living Thread…

Mermaids and Zombies

halloween
 

Exorcist

 

Cabin in the Woods
 

Absinthe Fairy

 

Vampire Hunter
 

Monster from the Black Lagoon

Alien

Badges!
Happy funny Badges to attach to just about anything: your craft bags, clothes, the perfect little gifts ! 
1 badge AU$2
Buy 10 for AU$18
20 badges for AU$35
30 badges for AU$49

every badge has a nr so when ordering just mention the nr of the badge and how many you would like..easy!

newest additions : badge nrs 84-90

Badges 1-20

Badges 21-40

Badges 41-59

Badges 60-83

How To Order:

1. You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or ixchelbunny at yahoo dot com dot au
2. message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny.

I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods.

Any questions? Any custom orders for yarn or dyeing fibre? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.
 

Thank you so much for your help and support !

 

 RABBIT ON !

((hugs))

Charly

Bubbling Cauldrons

 

I know it is not Halloween yet, but Halloween or Samhain is actually my favourite time of the year.. from when I was a little girl I absolutely loved Halloween, not so much for its trick n treating , but more to do with the decorations, the pumkins, the dressing up and the horror movies..Don’t get me wrong..horror movies sscare the living daylights out of me..but I adored the old timers like Dracula, Frankenstein, , Creature from the black Lagoon, ghouls and zombies, Scooby Doo..lol…and come to think of it, when I was about 10 and lived in Texas I had a big poster over my bed with all those loveable monsters..it even lit up in the dark! Cool! Come to think of it I haven’t really grown up…lol…I still have glow in the dark t shirts with ghosts and 50s Hellbunny dresses with zombies and monsters on them…nothing has really changed….lol

Yesterday I started decorating the house with fake spiders and webs, dripping candles, nightmare before xmas decorations and even hanging up Igor, my glow in the dark skeleton out in the front yard….ssince we are in the middle of nowhere there are definitely no kids coming around trick a treating…but hey , a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. So to get you all in the mood for some serious Halloweenie fibery fun I have made up some pretty halloweenie colours and some more fun stuff, like pumpkin and batt sequins for you to add to your own Halloween yarn or you can buy mine .. there are even Halloween wooshy clouds for you to sink your teeth into.

Now for this weeks update special Halloween fibre blend: happy Halloween inspired Tigerbunny tops. It is an all Australian grown and processed and blended and ofcourse handdyed here on the IxCHeL fibre farm.

 

It is an exclusive to IxCHeL and I am extremely proud to give you the opportunity to experience how natural fibres plant and protein fibres of this calibre interact together to create pure bliss!

 

Hemp has and still is put in the light of “addictive drugs”well, surprise surprise..it is an amazingly strong, beautiful, healthy, lustrous, fabulous plant fibre and is gorgeous to work with.

 

I have spun it on its own and in a blend if pure angora and ofcourse did multiple tests on how this blend spins up: I am over the moon with it !

It creates a lustrous yarn that is anti bacterial, moisture absorbing, cool and light and is practically indestructible!

So, enjoy this weeks update and remember: your imagination is the only limit to what you can create AND buying the Happy Tigerbunny tops will mean you are supporting Australian farms, small Australian businesses and making it possible for a lot of people to enjoy a big diversity of fibres and yarns in the future! Have fun !!!

Halloween Sequins
50 for AU$5
+/- 6mmx8mm. Available in a mixed bag or 50 of each type

Bat Sequins

Happy Tigerbunny Pumpkin yarn with Bat sequins

+/- 50-59gram skeins +/- 130meters $20

Spun from pumpkin happy tigerbunny tops in a comparable 8ply , plied with silk and bat sequins. Four skeins available.

 

Also available : Witches brew colourway with pumpkin sequins.

 A batty Yarn

Exclusive IxCHeL blend:
Happy Tigerbunny Tops
100+grams     AU$24
a blend of Angorino Hemp, Suri Silk, Alpaca, Llama
super soft and special to spin and wear !

Absinthe and Broomsticks

Witches and Ghosts

Pumkin Patch

Monster Mash

Pumpkin Juice

Pumkin Juice Hangover

Bubbling Cauldron
 

Absinthe Zombie .. a happy tigerbunny top solid dye in the Halloween solid colour range

 

Alice meets a black cat ..a happy tigerbunny top solid dye in the Halloween solid colour range
 

Pumpkin …a happy tigerbunny top solid dye in the Halloween solid colour range

 

Witches Brew.. a happy tigerbunny top solid dye in the Halloween solid colour range
 

overview of the Happy Tigerbunny Halloween solids range with a batty yarn to show you how lovely it spins up

Wooshy Cloud Halloween Style !
a unique custom Halloween wooshy cloud made just for you !

100-130grams AU$28

Wooshy clouds are made of all kinds of fun hand dyed fibres, angelina, glitz and more. Great to make into faux lags for support spindling or spinning just from the wooshy cloud to create art yarns that are out of this world. And… ofcourse it is great to creat one of a kind Felt with as well ! You will have so much fun !!!

an example of a Halloween Wooshy !

Badges!
Happy funny Badges to attach to just about anything: your craft bags, clothes, the perfect little gifts ! 
1 badge AU$2
Buy 10 for AU$18
20 badges for AU$35
30 badges for AU$49

every badge has a nr so when ordering just mention the nr of the badge and how many you would like..easy!

newest additions : badge nrs 84-90

Badges 1-20

Badges 21-40

Badges 41-59

Badges 60-83

How To Order:

1. You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or ixchelbunny at yahoo dot com dot au
2. message me on facebook or ravelry where I am Ixchelbunny.

I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods.

Any questions? Any custom orders for yarn or dyeing fibre? Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.
 

Thank you so much for your help and support !

 

 RABBIT ON !

((hugs))

Charly