I acquired my first handicrafts while studying forest products in a Tembe village in the Brazilian Amazon. People came to my house to trade palm nut necklaces for fishing line and hooks. I sold these at my Quaker meeting to do things like repairing the community boat.
When I started Amazon Ecology I began buying crafts from artisans in the Peruvian Amazon to try to help people there make a living without damaging the forest. I tried lots of ways to develop products I could sell in the US, but I stumbled along because I had background as an ecologist and environmental activist - not an entrepreneur.
I finally found out about the Fair Trade Federation in 2015 and joined this trade association of wholesale importers and retail businesses based in North America who were all committed to giving people in developing countries a way to improve their livelihoods by following ethical practices.
When I started attending their annual meetings in different parts of the US, I knew I had found an important new tribe. Many of these enterprises were started by former Peace Corp volunteers, mission oriented people from churches and others like me who had had a life-changing experience meeting traditional artisans.
I recently attended the FTF annual meeting in Richmond, Virginia to attend workshops, display some of Peruvian crafts at a expo and hang out with fellow fair traders from morning to night. It was good to realize I have l learned a lot about product development, marketing and building relationships with artisan partners and clients that I can share with people beginning this journey. I can also easily join friends for a meal or late night heart to heart chat.
It was also really (and sometimes painfully) clear there is so much I still need to learn and put into practice to build Amazon Ecology up to a sustainable level. The key as always was embracing the idea that while some of us compete with each other to some extent, we are a tiny community in the world of commerce and we need to help us each other do the best we can.
Andrea spent months working with this designer and four artisans to make dozens of colorful balsa wood birds and giant chambira butterflies. The birds included an egret, tiger heron, toucan, macaws and a kingfisher. When we stopped at the mall after visiting the aquarium, I loved seeing these creatures twirl around in a mild breeze.
I was most happy to hear the Chino artisans wanted to resume attending our bird ornament workshops. Half of them have made some birds based on what they learned five years ago, but they were eager to improve the quality of these woven animals they could sell to their visitors and have secure sales to us.
I selected a few baskets laid out on benches and placed an order for elegant two-color models. Lindy reported good progress making lady bug ornaments and planned to attend our artisan facilitator training. We were happy the group looked forward to hosting a bird-making workshop in July with artisans from 3 Tahuayo communities.
