Our business was formed to celebrate our love of Latin America and support the indigenous people and culture that make it so special.
First off the rank are our face masks, handmade by Guatemalan women, many using traditional fabric making techniques. Every purchase directly supports indigenous women.
¡Gracias!
Our face masks are handmade in Guatemala
In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, artisans and co-operatives in Guatemala have re-directed their crafts into making masks as a supplementary form of income.
Most use traditional Mayan fabrics, and some display the traditional form of backstrap loom weaving, a century old Mayan art form.
All masks meet the CDC’s recommendations for non-medical use masks.
All are suitable for machine wash and dry.
All sales support indigenous families directly, at a fair trade price for their work.
Adorable children’s dresses handmade in Guatemala
All sales support indigenous families directly.
COMING SOON
An artisan is a worker in a skilled trade, especially one that involves making things by hand.
All our suppliers use traditional techniques to make their product by hand. There is no mass production. When you purchase our products, you support people, families, and communities by paying a fair-trade price for a one-of-a-kind hand-crafted item. You also help preserve the skills, culture, and intellectual property that have been handed down through generations.
You may pay a little more, but we think it is worth it.
Introducing Trama Textiles
Trama Textiles is a main supplier of our fabric products from Guatemala. Here is their story, transcribed below.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to create work for fair wages for the women of Guatemala, to support our families and communities, and to preserve and develop our cultural traditions by maintaining our textile arts and their histories.
Story
Trama Textiles is an association of artisan women backstrap loom weavers in Guatemala. We work directly with 400 women from 17 weaving cooperations across 5 regions in the western highlands of Guatemala; Sololá, Huehuetenango, Sacatepéquez, Quetzaltenango and Quiché.
Our association was formed in 1988 after some of the most devastating years of the Guatemalan civil war.
The civil war was a time when most of the men from our communities disappeared: our grandfathers, fathers, brothers and sons. During this time, the women in our community united and decided to use our skills as weavers to support ourselves and our families.
This lead to the birth of Trama Textiles.
Weaving is a century-old Mayan art form still very much part of Mayan life across Guatemala. Every region can be identified by the unique patterns on their woven clothing. Some of the pieces worn by the women can take months to make because the designs consist of so many intricate details.
Despite their expertise, it’s often hard for weavers to make a living from their art, especially as many of them do not speak Spanish. The women usually speak their respective Mayan language. They are often forced to sell their products to middlemen for very low prices.
This is where Trama Textiles intervenes. Our weavers decide on the price we pay them for each product. Each woman is paid up front and in full for her work and is guaranteed a fair wage for what she has produced. This allows the women in our communities to earn an income to support themselves and their families in a region where paid work is hard to find.
¡Salud! means Cheers! in Spanish.
We love everything about Latin America. The people. The places. The food. The colours. The culture. The language. The booze! Everything. We know you will too.
Arriving home in 2019 from an extended travel break through Central America, we developed a personal mission to build a life doing something we are passionate about that also impacts the lives of others for the better.
For us the dream is to combine our love of travel, the Spanish language, and the Latin American culture.
Bringing the amazing artisan products of Latin America to the NZ market and supporting local families and traditional art forms seemed like our perfect path.
Then Covid-19 hit and starting an international business got a bit challenging.
So, we adapted and thought small. Following the emergence of masks as a tool to fight Covid-19 in NZ we saw an opportunity to mini-launch our vision.
