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.
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; Hand Made Yarn
September 21, 2009
Textiles at the Chol Chol Foundation
The weaving from the 38 Mapuche communities we work with is beautiful, with earthy tones and graphic symbolic patterns representing different visual elements of Mapuche spirituality. All wool is carded from sheep in the Aracaunía region, and shipped locally.
raw wool drying before being spun
The women spin the wool by hand into variety of different textures of yarn: thin, thick, smooth, textured, with single or double fibers twisted.
Mapuche mother spinning wool in her kitchen
The yarn is then dyed naturally with plant or mud brews from materials harvested sustainably in their communities. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
Design in Santiago: the time is now.
August 30, 2009
Azul advertisement, Providencia bus stop, Santiago, Chile
a contemporary design, Galeria Del Mundo, Santiago, Chile
When exploring the streets of Santiago one sees throes of elegantly clad Latins rushing to their destinations and stores which explode with colors and shapes. You cannot help but feel you are witnessing an exciting new design era take root in Chile’s capital city. Neighborhoods such as Lastarria, Bellas Artes, and Bella Vista are springing up with interesting boutiques, experimental fashions, theaters, and fancy restaurants. Fledgling creative ventures ranging from stores that only support unique Chilean designs to art collectives, seem to be flourishing in uncharted territory.
According to an interview by LAMA, Latin America in the Modern Age blog, with designers Rina and Pamela of Santiago’s Studio Grafíkk:
“The design scene in Santiago is growing and growing every day. There’s a lot of talented designers and very good manufacturers. Also it helps that there’s emerging neighborhoods with young design studios and shops. In six years, everything changed a lot, with the emerging Chilean economy (despite of the latest world economy crisis), design has found its place.” Read the rest of this entry »
Investigación Santiago
August 24, 2009
Provedencia Sculpture Garden, Santiago, Chile
Things become even more interesting when I began interviewing boutique vendors and citizens of Santiago, the design and culture capital of Chile and the Chol Chol Foundation’s priority target market. I noticed a surprising lack of Mapuche textiles or goods across all the traditional artisan shops in touristy locations. There were explicit messages from citizens and implicit messages from shop inventories that the Mapuche culture was apart from Chilean culture, and that the Mapuche faced discrimination both in social perceptions and the marketplaces. People interviewed across Santiago did not perceive the Mapuche people as educated or artistic, and did understand why I had chosen to work with them. Many explained to me that anti-Mapuche racism is deeply rooted in the Chilean culture and was one of the major obstacles the Mapuche people faced in entering the design market here.
Opinionated Chilean at a BBQ in Southern Santiago, "Why the Mapuche?"
“But their cultural history is not interesting or artistic, why do you want to design with them?” – The man pictured above.
“People don’t want to hire [Mapuche] because they are not seen as good workers, because they are angry that they are forced to be menial workers in a country that was once theirs […] I don’t mean to be racist the facts are the facts, they are at the lowest levels of society, in terms of money and education” – Philipp K.
“Here in Santiago, the women have deep pockets but how do you say it? They will not spend on Mapuche.” – Anya K.
Though many talked about discrimination, most did not feel that way. People I spoke to – most importantly shop owners – were quite interested in hearing more about the project. Read the rest of this entry »
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 »
