Introducing VOZ
January 21, 2011
And after much debate and deliberation, we are thrilled to announce that we’ve named the company we are starting to produce these designs. The project has been named VOZ which means voice in Spanish, because our mission is to empower the voice of indigenous artisans we serve while helping women worldwide express their values through their style.
VOZ is committed to using design and marketing innovation to aid indigenous artisans out of poverty by connecting them to the fashion industry. “Project Chol Chol” has come a long ways since 2009, and today finally emerges as it’s own international fashion brand – with a team in the U.S. and Chile – that will work in collaboration with the Chol-Chol Foundation.
This month we are forming the company, setting up an office and design studio near Temuco, setting up production alliances with weaving cooperatives, and fundraising in Chile and California. Next month we’ll begin sourcing parts and making the 2011 products! To keep track of our progress you can check our website: www.madebyvoz.com, fan us on Facebook, or follow us on twitter (@madebyvoz).
Thank you for your continued support and feeback, we look forward to bringing these designs to market this year!
Designing with the Chol Chol Foundation;
January 15, 2010
A Contemporary Fair Trade Mapuche Product Line
double wrap belt in textile and leather
thick belt in textile and leather
textile purses
textile purse on form
black and white quartered cowl
large-buttoned cowl with fringe
wrapped scarf with button and fringe
looped shawl with fringe
crocheted sweater
dress with floral pattern
*Ruana designed in 2006 by Fundacíon Fundesarte (Fundacíon para la innovacíon de la artesanía)
These designs are in production and will be available to the public in 2011. (Except the ruana, which is available now.) For wholesale or retail inquiries, please contact the Chol Chol Foundation at info@cholchol.org.
Collaborative Design Innovation
January 15, 2010
An inclusive creative design method for poverty relief;
design collaboration at the Chol Chol Foundation
first design workshop with the Mapuche ladies
including the artisans we represent is fundamental to our process
we explored designs through both drawing and prototyping
Through iterative prototyping, final designs were created between the Mapuche ladies and the Chol Chol Foundation's designer.
Fundacíon Chol Chol;
January 9, 2010
Hand Crafted Mapuche Textiles
Fair trade indigenous art: preserving culture and relieving poverty.
The Foundation specializes in traditional, completely natural, Mapuche textiles and knits ranging from wall hangings, rugs, blankets, and table cloths to ponchos, shawls, scarves, hats, and gloves.
Chol Chol Foundation's exclusive fair trade store
All patterns and symbols are uniquely Mapuche, and represent cosmological stories of their religion as well as elements of the natural world.
Folded textiles woven by Mapuche artisans
The yarn used for each piece is hand-spun, and every color is dyed from natural brews of native plants and fruits.
Mural Trarikan: ceremonial Mapuche wall art
As with this Trarikan, some textiles are still made with ancient techniques involving dying with mud that is knotted with reeds. Mapuche textile art is still intimately connected with spirituality of the Mapuche people.
Artesanía Mapuche; Palacio de la Moneda
September 7, 2009
Palacio de la Moneda, Artasania de Chile Mapuche exhibit, Santiago
The Mapuche are best known for their craft traditions in textiles, silver jewelry, wood, and basket weaving. Many of the patterns, symbols, and techniques still used date back to pre-colonial times.
Here are some examples from Artasanía de Chile’s gallery at la Palacio de la Meneda in downtown Santiago.
Plata
(Silver)
silver and beaded traditional Mapuche jewelry
head pieces, worn in a circle around the top of the the head.
These are clothing pins, used to hold wrapping sweaters together as you wear them.
Research Begins, Bay Area, California
July 28, 2009
Bettina, SF, storefront
How does the fashion industry work?
Who buys clothes, and who sells them?
What do people like to buy and sell in stores?
What different types of boutiques, shops and fashion corporations are in California, and how do they differ?
How do you make clothes and fashion accessories?
What makes a product “Fair Trade” and how are those products traded and sold in the world?
“Hello, my name is Jasmine, I will be working for a fair trade organization of indigenous weavers in Southern Chile to help them design a line for contemporary boutique audiences. May I ask who buys for your store, how I may contact them, and how they choose the products here? And by the way, what do you look for in design?”
Ecoboutique Ladita, SF. Eco-friendly fashion.
These are some of the mind-bogglingly large questions I asked as I began walking down bustling sidewalks of the San Francisco Bay Area shopping nexus. My little sketch book had a map-like checklist of all of the shopping streets I had come to memorize growing up as a girl here. To the South there was the Peninsula: University Avenue Palo Alto, Castro Street Mountain View, Santa Cruz Ave in Menlo Park, Saratoga. The East, there was Berkeley: Fourth Street, Telegraph, College Avenue, and Oakland and Emeryville coming up now. To the North, Marin: Mill Valley, Sausalito, Larkspur, Tiburon, San Anselmo, Fairfax, downtown Novato. Even further North, the wine country: downtown Sonoma, Napa, St. Helena, Calistoga. And then of course San Francisco: Mission/Valencia, Castro, Noe Valley, Bernal Heights, Hayes Valley, Union Street, Filmore Street, Haight Street, and Union Square if I dared.
The goal was to traverse as much of this territory and meet as many people as possible in two weeks, figure out how to design products that would sell in this community, and learn how to get my future fair trade products distributed in the United States. Read the rest of this entry »
