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; Textile
October 27, 2009
Traditional Mapuche Loom
Weaving knowledge has been passed down in the Mapuche communities of Chile from mother to daughter for countless generations, and even today most women report having learned from their families. Tapestries, blankets, and clothes are woven from traditional rectangular looms built of wooden frames. This weaving technique allows for the weavers to blend symbols, patterns and textures.
Mapuche ladies weaving in their kitchen
Mapuche weaving is made completely sustainably using traditional techniques on home-built frame looms. Weaving is liberating to women of the Araucanía region because it can be done from home, meaning they can raise their families in their communities. Women can make an income without having to leave for cities to find employment, presenting an alternative to rural flight.
Diagram of a Mapuche Loom
Weaving is key to environmental and cultural preservation in the Aracaunía region. As opposed to deforestation seen often in struggling indigenous communities, when a craft uses only easily replenishable materials, no plants or animals are destroyed in the process. Furthermore, the Mapuche weaving technique relies solely on hand-spun yarn and natural dyes crafted from 100% sustainably harvested vegetation: no pollution results from machines or harmful chemicals. Mapuche weaving is a productive livelihood that results in a net-positive affect on the environment (as it encourages bio-diversity in the plants used and the dye pulp can be used as fertilizer).
More importantly, weaving helps preserve the culture of the Mapuche people. The more weaving is practiced, the more Mapuche craft techniques and styles are shared. The symbols in the textiles refer to images from Mapuche history and cosmological beliefs, and are often used to tell graphic stories. When women can make a living from weaving, they are able to practice and teach their culture as a part of their profession. In the process, much of this knowledge is imparted upon the younger generation. Furthermore, when those textiles are created and circulated, the Mapuche story is also celebrated beyond the rural communities of their creators.
Mapuche Lady Weaving
The Fair Trade Nexus
August 19, 2009
Q: What is a fair trade product, anyways?
A: A fair trade product is one that has been cultivated, grown, or manufactured to comply to a unified set of standards regarding just treatment and payment for producers and workers. The standards are mandated and regulated by a group of organizations called “FINE”: Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, World Fair Trade Organization, Network of European Worldshops and European Fair Trade Association.
As I delved deeper and deeper into the fair trade culture in America through talking to those ranging from figures in the movement to shop assistants, I began figuring out what exactly made something a fair trade product, how those products go from material to artisan/farmer to shelf, and the social entrepreneurship that accompanies these creative business models. Also fascinating is how webs of fair trade organizations, suppliers, vendors, and festivals all collaborate; these products are exchanged pretty differently from corporate products, and sold mostly in the “festival booth,” “Whole Foods,” “small new age,” “foreign import,” or “fair trade shop” venues. Stores don’t usually work with artisans directly, and most artisan groups are served by organizational intermediaries who “translate” their designs, marketing presentation, and/or literally language, to “contemporary markets” aka “capitalistic markets” aka “places that people have disposable income and spend it on pretty things.” Mostly these organizations are non-profit.
Fair Trade Social Action Group
But most people still equate Fair Trade with coffee and chocolate (thinking with their stomachs)(Alter Eco Fair Trade Study 2008). Even so, a new fair trade fashion and accessory design movement is well under way, growing to significant proportions. And “modern” product designers have been a secret ingredient to advancing fair trade products for at least a decade. (Aid to Artisans was the first organization to start bringing product designers to impoverished artisan communities to show them how to make more marketable products).
I assure you my research has been thorough – yet I have yet to see fair trade fashions or accessories that do much more than make me say: what a gorgeous Nepalese/Mexican/African/Colombian [thing], oh, and also a good cause. Granted, for me, and many other consumers, that is enough to convince me to buy it. But usually, if a consumer already has a traditional Indian scarf, they won’t buy another similar looking one. And if an Indian fair trade scarf looks the same as a non-fair-trade Indian scarf – neither will a shop owner: if it’s not unique they can’t afford the price difference.
All the leading fair trade fashion + accessory brands put their humanitarian message first and design second: see for yourselves: (Global Mamas, Aid to Artisans, Manos de Madres, Mama Shaman, Spiral Foundation, Maya Botanika.) Unfortunately, people don’t buy with their brains. Read the rest of this entry »
