Handmade Expressions – Another Fair Trade Partner

Of course, you know that all the products in our store are handmade and fairly traded, but did you also know that some of the products do not come to us through Ten Thousand Villages? One of our favorite non-Ten Thousand Villages fair trade vendors is based right here in Austin, Texas!  Handmade Expressions is a vendor for socially and environmentally responsible products from India. Like Ten Thousand Villages, they work with underprivileged and disadvantaged artisans to improve their economic and social standing by creating self-sustainable employment following fair trade practices.

One of our best sellers from Handmade Expressions is the cruelty-free, tree-free leather bound journals.

The really cool thing about these journals is how they are made.  All the leather is cruelty-free, which means it comes from naturally dead animals. The journals are made in Rajasthan, India. Livestock has a lot of agricultural and household value for the vegetarian population in India, which makes it economically unwise to kill animals for their skin. Inside the sturdy hand-tooled cover is a thick journal of cotton rag paper. Artisans collect cotton waste and turn it into a pulp, making paper that is 100% tree-free. The final result: a rich textured paper, great for writing, drawing and painting.

Handmade Expressions has a wonderful website with lots of information about fair trade and lots of great pictures of the artisans who produce their merchandise. Be sure to check out the Community Development Projects that they are working on and their fair trade blog.

(author: Polly, Ten Thousand Villages Austin Volunteer Coordinator)

Finding A New Path – Artisans in Peru

 

Felipe Enriquez (right) with his son, Luis (center), and brother, Julio (left), create beautiful ceramics for Ten Thousand Villages. Felipe comes from Ayacucho, a large town in the Andes mountains of Peru.

During the time of the “Sendero Luminoso” (Shining Path) uprising, many Peruvians including Felipe were asked to take sides: join the Shining Path revolutionaries or support the military. Felipe refused to take sides, and his life was threatened. Deciding it was too dangerous to remain in their home area, Felipe and his family moved to the capital city of Lima. With little money and no wealthy friends or relatives, they ended up in a “new town”-a community of displaced people on the outskirts of Lima. Felipe staked his claim to a vacant piece of land and started to rebuild his life. The family had no electricity, water, sewer or any other services.

Felipe did have his ceramic skills, and he started to make pots and figurines to sell, hoping to earn a decent living for his family. He learned about Manos Amigas, one of Ten Thousand Villages’ fair trade suppliers in Peru, and they helped him to find export customers. The first product Ten Thousand Villages purchased from Felipe was his Hands Nativity, which has gone on to become a best-selling product.

Felipe now employs four to seven artisans, depending on order quantity. All of the fine details and painting are done by hand, one piece at a time.

Felipe has high hopes for his children. His son, Luis, sees the success of his father and uncle’s business, and wants to follow in their footsteps. Ten Thousand Villages’ purchases from Felipe’s workshop, through Manos Amigas, are helping to provide hope and a bright future for this family and for others in their neighborhood.

 

 

Sharing Their Stories

One of the main missions of the Ten Thousand Villages stores is to connect our customers with the artisans who create our amazing products. There is always a face – and most likely more than one – behind each item carried in our stores and it’s important to us that we share their stories.

Ten Thousand Villages establishes relationships with artisans cooperatives from all over the world in order to ensure that all items sold in our stores are fair trade. Golden Palm Crafts is just such a cooperative in Sri Lanka.

Chandymas Silvas, artisan with Golden Palm Crafts,

works on pieces of the Crocodile Puzzle sold in

Ten Thousand Villages stores.

Golden Palm Crafts, located in rural villages

throughout Sri Lanka and headquarted in Colombo,

was founded in 1985 by Ravi and Chulani Jayawardena,

chairman and director, respectively.

Golden Palm is a member of the

International Fair Trade Association.

Golden Palm Crafts exports handmade wooden objects to fair trade organizations throughout the world. Golden Palm’s principal objective is to create job options for people in the rural areas of Sri Lanka, where employment opportunities are rare. With its main office in Colombo, Golden Palm’s woodworking and painting workshops are found in a number of rural villages. Most artisans are the sole income earners for their families.

In light of recent safety recalls of Chinese-made toys, fair trade artisan groups have an opportunity to tell their story, said Ravi Jayawardena . Golden Palm, a Ten Thousand Villages trading partner, primarily produces children’s toys, mostly from painted wood.

“This is a time for fair traders to explain to customers that our products not only conform to safety standards, but also to ISO 9001:2000,” he explained. Developed by the International Standards Organization in Switzerland, ISO 9001:2000 is a quality management system. “An organization following the ISO systems needs to maintain required minimum standards in order to qualify for that certification,” said Jayawardena. Golden Palm is also governed by the International Toy Safety Regulations, EN 17.

Golden Palm ensures that all paint used is non-toxic and lead-free according to safety requirements. The paint manufacturer is required to submit test reports of the product.  The company also ensures that toys pass safety tests such as drop tests, pull test and choking prevention.

“Furthermore,” he added, “our products are made according to fair trade principles, and the producers are receiving many benefits.” Golden Palm artisans receive payment above minimum wage; they also receive insurance, workers’ compensation, pension contributions and assistance with school fees. Fair wages enable families to improve their standard of living. Special training and encouragement is given to women to take leadership. Profits from the business are reinvested in new machinery, tools, and training, to improve working conditions and to create more jobs.

Ten Thousand Villages and Golden Palm have been partners in fair trade since 1985.

Purchase Crocodile Alphabet Puzzle

Mother-Approved, Kid-Friendly Jewelry!

We were thrilled to find out that one of favorite products, Zulugrass, was recently featured on the blog, The EcoChic. Zulugrass jewelry is not only beautiful, but as blog author, Calley Pate, raves, “As a mother of 2 children (one infant) I was sure it was going to be broken in the first day.  Well, to my surprise, it’s almost one month later and I’m SOLD!  I’ve worn them them almost everyday and I love them.  I love the versatility and the strength.”

Finding jewelry that can stand the constant pull and tug of an infant’s curious grasp is a treasure, to be sure!  With Zulugrass, moms can be both stylish and confident that their necklace or bracelet is not going to go flying in a million different directions with one tug!

 

It’s also a wonderful feeling to know that your purchase of Zulugrass helps support the Maasai women of Kenya.  The Zulugrass is harvested and cut by hand and this joint venture between the Maasai and the the founders of The Leakey Collection, Philip and Kate Leakey, has helped restore the livelihood of the Maasai.

The Eco Chic’s mission is to search for ways to reduce environmental impact on the Earth by sharing ideas, products, and services with the world. Our thanks go out to EcoChic for sharing the story of Zulugrass and the Maasai.  You can read her blog about Zulugrass as well as other ideas about being a “green mommy” at www.theecochic.com/

 

Stop by our store to try on our Zulugrass products and find the perfect match for you.

We’re Open For Business!

Our new flooring is in and it’s beautiful!  We had a great team of volunteers that helped pack up the store and then our fantastic floor team went to work, ripping out the old carpet and laying down the new laminate.  Then, in came our volunteers to unpack boxes and restore order!  The store looks amazing – airy, clean, and so much bigger!  We’re looking forward to our shipment of fall merchandise to help fill up the space.

We were really amazed to see how much floor space we had once all of the merchandise was packed up!

Everything fit into two U-Haul trucks!

Our new floor!

To celebrate both our new floor and the coming of fall (despite our temperatures still reaching into the 100s!), our store will be having a

Grand Reopening Party on August 26th, from 4 – 7 p.m.

We will have a preview of our incoming fall merchandise as well as music and refreshments.

A huge thank you to all of our volunteers and staff who worked so hard on this project!

Under construction for a couple of days…

…but we’ll be back better than ever! This Sunday, August 9th, we’ll be packing up the store and moving things out to make way for new, earth-friendly flooring. If you have a couple of hours to spare and want to give us a hand, come join us at the store! We’ll have snacks, beverages, music and of course, lots of fabulous volunteers. Come join us!

We Are Austin!!

This past Sunday, the local news station KEYE42 featured our store on their program, We Are Austin.  Our store manager, Kitty Bird, does a lovely job explaining the fair trade mission of Ten Thousand Villages and gives a tour of the store and shares information about a few of our many interesting products.

Our heartfelt thanks to KEYE42 and to all our wonderful friends who stopped in the store on Sunday because they saw the program!  We love knowing that the fair trade story is being shared with our Austin community!

See the video HERE!