When we unpacked our first shipment of Zimbabwe wood carvings in 2003, we found that the empty spaces in the box were filled with blocks of wood with rusty pieces of metal attached. Each one weighed just under a pound. We’d shipped the order by EMS, which is international priority mail, and paid dearly for[…]
The phone call from Rich Howard-Williams from Plowsharing Crafts this past year was a surprise. I had arranged for Carlo Brutus – a Haitian metal artisan who has acted as a coordinator for our orders since 2007 – to demonstrate the art of making the metal wall art for which Haiti is known at Plowsharing’s[…]
Marcela, of Calypso Glass Chile visited us again this year, this time with her son Oscar who started his own business Green Glass Chile, glassware made of recycled bottles, after college. Her first visit was in 2010 when she had an all-day layover in Miami on the way to the Frankfurt Germany gift show. She and[…]
Barkweave cloth — not to be confused with bark cloth made from tree bark — is cotton fabric with an amazing texture that is the basis for the high-quality traditional Sadza batiks from Zimbabwe. If you’ve handled any of the Zimbabwe batiks, you know the texture and thickness and can understand how important the fabric[…]
In 2010, we met Arturo Buenrostro when we were traveling through San Miguel de Allende, a colonial town in central Mexico known by many Americans as a great place to retire. Many Fair Trade craftspeople worldwide have artistic skills and choose to make products out of discarded material like paper, tires, tin cans, bottle tops, seat[…]
“Zooties®.” Is it just me or is the word almost as fun to say as these cute baby booties must be to wear? Artisans and craftspeople in Kyrgyzstan have a talent for producing felt from wool and turning it into much-coveted carpets – why not make something else that takes up the space between one’s[…]
The artisans of Tecalpulco, Mexico have long been known for their silver and stone jewelry. Art Camp, short for Artesanas Campesinas (or rural female artisans), is a women-owned cooperative that continues this tradition. The group constantly introduces new methods, materials, and machinery to compete in the highly competitive jewelry market, even surviving a collapse in[…]