A Red Persimmon at Eastern Market: Katrina Ulrich and Fair Trade

Where are you from?

That can be a very complex question for many to answer. What influences shaped your life? What in your upbringing caused you to end up here-Eastern Market, the United States, Washington, D.C., on the east coast? What made you start making, selling, importing this or that object ? What motivates you to act? These are just a few of the questions that might open conversation, especially with the folks who exhibit at Eastern Market.

(Art piece in work space)

The Jesuits say, "give me the child from zero to six and I will give you the man." I was born in New York City in the Bronx, and yet my first memories are of Tennessee. The farm, the country side, rows of corn, my granddaddy's gravel road, climbing trees, picking fruit, mean pigs and even meaner cows, and church. My grandfather founded a church--Ole Groove Baptist--and was a Sunday school teacher for adults for sixty-five years. When I moved back to the city, my mother put my brother and me in Catholic school. I will never forget her response when I asked her why (we were not Catholic.) She said" Public schools went to hell when they took prayer out of them." My mother did not cuss and she was a public school teacher for thirty-two years.

There are many gifts I received from my upbringing among them; the most important to me are a deep sense of faith and a rock solid work ethic. And this background is not mine alone.

There are those at Eastern Market who have made helping others the foundation of their businesses. Katrina Ulrich (Red Persimmon Imports) is one of them.

Ms. Ulrich was born June 10, 1959, in Manumbaro, Madagascar. Her first language is English; her second is Malagasy. She grew up with the Indian Ocean as her playground. In conversation, Ms. Ulrich speaks of her fascination with coral reefs, white sand beaches and sheltered bays and how she loved walking on top of coral reefs as a child.

At an early age she was taught that it was important to not only give back but to serve others, and at all times to help those less fortunate than herself. Her father was a Lutheran minister and missionary. At sixteen her family moved from Madagascar to Johannesburg, South Africa. There she did volunteer work at a Waldorf School as a teenager. Her father worked with a Tawane Lutheran Church where he taught congregants the importance of supporting the ministry and giving back to their own communities.

At eighteen Ms. Ulrich left Africa; she would not return for twenty years. For college she went to her father's alma mater, St. Olaf College in North Field, Minnesota, where she created her own major in functional art. In her first job in the States, she worked in a toymaking workshop called Banbury Cross. As a child she was taught knitting by her mother; in school she was taught fine handsewing and embroidery by Spanish nuns; before that, as a child at home, she learned how to sew with a treadle sewing machine. At the toy workshop, therefore, she focused on working with Marimekko fabrics and fine hand work.

At twenty-two, she was married, and later had three daughters, so for the next twenty-two years Ms. Ulrich built a family and home. However, she never stop making or working for others. During this stage of her life she apprenticed for a year with a master weaver, moved to the east coast and to Maryland, and started three home-based businesses; the third was the charm: Red Persimmon Imports.

Her first venture into business was importing felted wool from Germany and making "art" dolls. These dolls were based on a philosophy she learned while volunteering at Camp Hill Village at a Waldorf School in South Africa and were influenced by American dollmaker Akira Blount. In her second business she made wall pieces based on her love of and fascination with mermaids. In 1998 she worked part time at G street Fabrics. There Katrina learned how to quilt and in her own words "became enamored of patterned cotton fabrics."

1998 was a pivotal year in Ms. Ulrich's life. She went to visit her sister in Kodai, India, and there taught quilting and weaving for six weeks at a women's income generation program run by her sister. Katrina indicated to me that going to India was a rite of passage. It changed her way in the world. She said "...that it was the beginning of me coming back into my real self." She again started selling mermaid-themed wall pieces and dolls at the Waldorf School Christmas bazaars.

(Baskets from Madgascar)

In 2000, she returned to Madagascar for the first time since she was sixteen years old. She fell in love with the basketry there, and bought some to sell. Her first contract for the baskets was with the National Geographic gift shops; she also received a purchase order from one of the Smithsonian gift shops. But then came the civil war in Madagascar in late 2000-2001, putting a stop to all exports. In 2001 she went back to India and helped her sister start a program for women in Bodinayakunur, Tamil Nadu, called Blue Mango.

Blue Mango employs and teaches women sewing, arts and crafts. These are women whom many would consider unemployable in their own society, such as widows, women living with HIV and women with handicaps. From 2001-2004 Katrina Ulrich went back and forth between her home in Maryland and India, giving her time and knowledge. Initially she was helping her sister establish Blue Mango, but now she also has a say in production, development and design of products.

(appliquee work and sewing done by Ms. Ulrich)

When a friend told her about Eastern Market, Katrina set up her Sunday stand at The Flea Market at Eastern Market in 2004. The name Red Persimmon is a salute to the name of her sister's work shop, Blue Mango, an Indian fruit which turns a light blue as it ripens. Red is Ms. Ulrich's favorite color and persimmons are a local Maryland fruit.

(Kimono's, apron's and other textile items at the Red Persimmon Imports stand)

On a fine weekend in May there are over two hundred stands at Eastern Market. Many of the stands are put together by nationally recognized artists. One of the best is the Red Persimmon stand. At first glance one is assailed by colors and patterns. Textiles, textiles, textiles--kimonos, dolls, quilts, table clothes, napkins, plus objets d'art and chocolate. Of the many wonderful things about visiting her present living space, one was seeing up close and personal Ms. Ulrich's design sense. She lives her merchandise and her life at Eastern Market. She, like many Eastern Market exhibitors, has clothes, food, art, furniture in her work and living space purchased from friends at the Market over the years. In Ms. Ulrich's case, her oak desk and armoire are from Jean and Mike Burzynski and her green, yellow and red cupboards are from Mohammed Elrafai (Far East Antiques). Whether in her bedroom or her work spaces, textiles and color surround her. She has many design influences, some of which come from the missionary style home she grew up in Madagascar: in conversation she spoke of a love for Norwegian design as well. Then, of course, there are the influences of India, Madagascar, Mexico ... Like her product lines, she is always growing and changing.

(Katrina style-living her imports)

(Red Persimmon -stand at Eastern Market)

(Katrina Ulrich)

(Katrina Style with items purchased at Eastern Market)

I asked Katrina, "what does "fair trade" mean to you?" She said, "...first of all, no children are used as slave labor. The working environment is clean, safe and healthy, one where the artisans are paid a good fair wage for what is made." She further stated "... many times a fair trade item might cost more than items made in a factory or sweat shop." But central to Ms. Ulrich is passion: "my passion for my business is women's empowerment."

(Katrina Ulrich at work)

We also spoke about her thoughts on Eastern Market. This is what she said: "There are real people here. There are people from all over the world. It is where I found my home, my family in the United States. I felt at home in the U.S. for the first time."

As for the future, Katrina's first line of clothing--made in India at Blue Mango--is in production now. She has apprenticed with Eastern Market's own John Nickerson (Gnarly Artly) in silk screening. On her next trip to India she plans to study block printing. She also started painting again in January of this year.

Witnessing,

Sonda T. Allen

Turtle's Webb