The first card on the stack is simple.
It’s stamped in gold with the profile of an African woman in
dreadlocks, serenely staring off of the edge of the cream colored
card.
The first card on the stack is simple.
It’s stamped in gold with the profile of an African woman in dreadlocks, serenely staring off of the edge of the cream colored card.
“I call her the goddess,” said Louise Shields, who created the card along with many others sold at Gilroy’s Garlic City Coffee and Tea on Monterey. Shields has been selling her hand-made cards through the coffee shop for nearly six months.
“The goddess” is a recurring image, but each time Shields finds a way to change or alter the design. She says all of her cards have grown increasingly complex as her skill level advanced. Layers of fabric were added. Other stamps and postcards from the 1920s and ’30s were used, along with pressed flowers, threads and beads.
“I like to create cards that are unique and individual … I really believe [customers] like the feel of something different,” she said. Shields, who moved to Gilroy three years ago, said that she isn’t interested in making a profit. In fact, she admits that she doesn’t even track how much she spends on making the cards, paying as much as a dollar for a single sheet of handmade paper.
She’s also created personalized cards based on requests from customers. One card, depicting stars and an angel stamped on a blue background, is a departure from her usual African-inspired style.
Shields originally started making cards several years ago, when her mother first gave her a series of stamps, which pictured various pieces of African culture.
“I give a lot of credit to my mom,” she said, who is a graphic designer, and has donated many of the materials that Shields uses.
Most of the stamps were of people, such as warriors and women at markets, and some were of animals.
Shields said that all of them sat around the house for quite awhile until a Martin Luther King Jr. festival in San Jose, where she lived and worked as a social worker at the time. She started making cards for the festival, and continued on and off until her daughter, Claire, was born nearly three and a half years ago.
“I had this vision of being a supermom, but it didn’t work like that,” she said.
Shields and her husband then moved to Gilroy, so that she could stay at home and raise her daughter.
In fact, it was shortly after she moved to Gilroy in 2001 that she first talked to the owner of the Garlic City Coffee and Tea about selling her cards there.
She noticed that the selection at the time wasn’t that great, and offered to make some.
“Three years later,” said Shields, laughing, “I finally got around to doing it.”
It was Christmas of 2003 when Shields first put her cards on the counter at the coffee shop, and since then, Shields says that they’ve been doing well.
While Shields periodically designs cards for specific occasions, such as one featuring an egg for Easter, the majority of them are for any occasion.
She purposely leaves them blank inside for the same reason.
Each card is for “whatever you want to do with it.”
For now, her cards are only available at the Gilroy City Coffee and Tea.
She also takes orders through her email at ma**********@ao*.com.
