My first thought when I stumbled upon the following website was: “PINK!!”  Just like that – all caps.

I had just found the homepage of Charm and Hammer, a website dedicated to “safety gear for the hard working woman™.  It has everything you could ever want or need in a work environment.

Safety goggles?  Check.

Welding gloves?  Check.

Hot pink toolbelt?  Definitely check!

I swear that if you counted, at least 75% percent of the products on that website are pink!  And they aren’t ashamed of it!

They also feature products from two different companies, of which I am also a fan:

Rosie’s Workwear for Women and

Tomboy Tools.

The former makes lovely overalls and coveralls AND the t-shirt to the left (which I was very tempted to order — after all, we here at Carmen Electrode can never get enough of Rosie!)  The latter — well, where else would you go to find pink power tools?!?

You guys (er, girls) have to check these sites out – your work wardrobe may never be the same again!

However, if pink is not your thing (like maybe you don’t want to stick out like a sore thumb on the work site),  check out the

AngelFire™ Gear at Arc-Zone.com –>

We carry this state of the art line of welding gear for women, inlcuding the Firefly™ TIG gloves, made especially for women, all in a nice chocolate brown.

This video about the history of Rosie the Riveter features video clips of real Rosies at their posts during WWII.

Enjoy!

Rosie’s Girls is an all-girls camp for 6th to 8th graders in Vermont (and California, South Carolina, and Ohio) that primarily teaches them skills in trades like carpentry, welding, electrical wiring, auto repair, and fire fighting!  The rest of their time is spent making their own artwork and testing their strength in activites like rock climbing and self defense.

To hear more about this experience in the girls’ own words, you can read The Riveter Blog, written by the girls participating at the California camp.

You may or may not know that I am slightly obsessed with Rosie the Riveter….    partly because like for many women, Rosie embodies the strength of the American Woman.  HOWEVER, did you know there was a “Wendy the Welder” too? I’ve seen references to her here and there, but not much information.  Which to me, makes Rosie all the more interesting. What was it about Rosie?  How did she become the icon? Was it all Norman Rockwell’s fault?

I recently found this in my cruising of the internet searching for Rosie:

Interestingly when I talk to people about this, I invariably hear a story. Even my creative writing teacher– his grandmother worked in the shipyards in Norfolk during World War II. Do you have any Rosie the Riveter (or Wendy the Welder) connections?