Artisan/Product Stories
Nicaraguan Women's Sewing Cooperative turns "Free" trade into "Fair" trade
Cinnamon Boxes - Vietnam
Made entirely from cinnamon bark, these tea boxes have a rough natural side and intricately carved images. Cinnamon trees have a life cycle of just 5 years, after which the bark is used for local crafts, the wood burned as cooking fuel or ground for cinnamon slippers.
Some of the boxes have the Vietnamese symbols for prosperity/good luck. Your purchase does provide prosperity to the craftspeople of Mai Handicrafts allowing them to sell these in the global market.
Kites - Indonesia
Bali has a tradition of flying kites. Following the harvest, when the farmers are planting their new crops, they fly kites in the fields. Initially, the kites were shaped like dragonflies, butterflies, fish and angels. Insect kites are thought to discourage real insects from attacking the crops. New shapes such as mermaids and ships were influenced by fishermen who live close to the beach.
Olive Wood - the West Bank
Olive wood is stacked and dried 6-9 months before beginning the carving process. Laminating small pieces together makes the larger pieces and ensures that more trees are not cut down just for one large piece. Tree owners prune the branches in anticipation for what the artisan needs to produce this craft. Additionally the dead wood of the olive tree tends to stain darker while the fresh wood stains lighter.
A clear finish is applied and need only a soft cloth and a mild wood preservative such as Scott’s Liquid Gold to enhance the finish.
Brushkins - Philippines
Brushkins are made in the Philippines from the fiber of the Buri palm tree. The fiber is twisted onto a wire, with the resulting round brush being hand cut into the final shape. Many hands work on dying, shaping and gluing parts to create these whimsical critters. The eyes, ears, nose & feet are made from seeds, pods and other carved wood pieces. No trees or plants are destroyed in the production process.
Bicycle and Dancing Girls Pins/Mobiles - Kenya
These whimsical bicycles and Dancing Girls are made primarily of recycled materials; wires from car engines, telephone line and scrap tin (often soda or vegetable cans). Crafted in Kisumu, Kenya the mobiles dangle in the “Jua Kali”, as the name implies, in “the Hot Sun”.
Young women from the Teenage Mothers Association of Kenya complete the production of the Dancing Girl cards. Additional packaging is accomplished by persons with disabilities in central Florida.
Juice Bags & Candy Wrapper Purses
Peoples Recovery Empowerment and Development Assistance Foundation (PREDA) produces these bags from foil juice bags in the Philippines. The juice bags are an environmental issue in the Philippines where they litter the streets. PREDA artisans collect, clean and transform the used bags into these fashionable tote bags.
MYO Accessories coordinates the crafting of these pieces with individual weavers in Mexico. The gum wrappers are are collected, cleaned and transformed into these purses. Weaving is a tradition in Mexico.
Animal Napkin Rings - Kenya
Carving is a tradition in Kenya with children learning the craft from their parents. Carved by hand, using only rudimentary hand tools, the animal napkin rings are carved from pieces of mahogany. An integral part of the cooperative’s function is to educate the craftspeople on the need of reforestation to enable the products to be available for years and offer a sustainable income for generations.
Zimbabwe Stone Sculpture
In the Shona Language, Zimbabwe translates to “House of Stone”. Zimbabwe Sculptors have been creating sculpture for more that 1000 years.
Collectively the sculpture expresses the belief in the cosmological link between the mortal world and the spiritual. 7.8 million of the country’s 13 million people are in need of food assistance. 1/3 of the country
is infected with HIV, and there is a 70% unemployment rate.
Etched Gourds - Peru
When a gourd is ripe, the farmer picks and peels the
gourd. They are dried for a week. The gourds are carved from hand made tools. After carving, the gourds are burned using pieces of wood with pointed ends. The pointed ends are placed in a flame until red hot, then pushed against the parts of the design the artisan wants to burn. The process takes about two hours per gourd. Then the gourd is painted withTIza, a natural paint made from ground chalk.
For generations the Incas used gourds for utilitarian purposes, plates and bowls. As time passed decorative carvings were developed, and are now passed down from generation to generation. Read more.
Coiled Bamboo Lacquerware - Vietnam
Bamboo is a favored handicraft material for its flexible, durable, and aesthetic quality. Bamboo can be processed into strips, spokes, or poles and may be used with its bark on or stripped.
Lacquered Bamboo products can be cleaned by simply wiping with a damp cloth. Over time excessive moisture may contribute to the separation of the coils.
Newspaper Hot Pads – Philippians
The Women's Multipurpose Cooperative was started to create jobs for people who moved into the area around Baguio City hoping to work in the copper and gold mines. The women are skilled weavers, using mostly backstrap and upright wooden looms. They also create crocheted and knitted items, recycled baskets from newspaper, as well as Christmas decorations made of pine needles and baskets indigenous to the communities. The Women's Multipurpose Cooperative helps women work together in groups, obtain government help in skills training, buy raw materials, provide an access to low interest loans to capitalize the industry and obtain titles to their land.
Onyx - Pakistan
Onyx is a semiprecious translucent stone ranging in color from white to deep green. Cool water is usually poured over onyx during cutting and lathing to prevent cracking and to minimize dust.
Product Care: Repair breakage with epoxy adhesive. To smooth scratches or if the product becomes dull, rub olive oil over the stone to restore its luster.
Vietnamese River Rocks
Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts is a program for street children in Ho Chi Minh City. Started by a small group of social workers, Mai Handicrafts first aimed at poor and neglected children who could not go to school due to the lack of legal papers and the inability to pay tuition. Mai gave them work and encouraged them to attend informal classes. Now that all children are admitted to formal school free, Mai provides work to their mothers and older sisters to improve family income and well-being. In a developing context, it also practices a model of social development in which social service cannot be separated from self reliance.
First the stones are selected from local rivers. Workers take them to a small workshop in Ho Chi Minh City where nearly 30 workers create this best-selling item. The workers then coat stones with a natural black lacquer making them darker and smother. After the lacquer dries, which can take up to four days, the artisans then begin putting four coats of a lacquer and iron oxide mixture over the first lacquer coating. Each layer may take up to a week to dry, making this a very long process. The stones are then rubbed down, making the surface very smooth and level. An additional four coats of lacquer are then applied and left to dry before applying the foil goldfish graphics. A special form of lacquer is then used to cover the design and finish the product. When this layer dries, the stone is rubbed for a second time before being polished to its familiar high shine. Each stone can take weeks to finish so stones are found at different stages of production at this busy workshop.
Recycled Silk - Nepal
Women in Nepal often have no control over their finances and most are encouraged not to work outside the home. Women started their own business using recycled sari yarn and cuttings. The business grew and now employees over 50 women who knit recycled silk items. These women are working toward creating financial stability for themselves and their families despite the cultural and economic barriers they face as women in Nepal. Hand wash.