Amazon Ecology began selling bird ornaments made by our partner artisans in the Peruvian Amazon at festivals and fairs in 2016. As these ornaments improved, I wanted to start selling them to wholesale buyers.
Wild Birds Unlimited seemed like a perfect client. All 350 stores sell quality bird seed and feeding equipment and most also carry some bird and nature related gifts. Most of their franchise owners, staff and customers are passionate about birds and the environment.
Four years ago, the manager of a WBU store near my home admired the quality of our ornaments, but he didn't want to buy them because they were colorful Amazon species his customers did not know. He encouraged me to come back when we had some species people could see at their backyard feeders.
I took his recommendation seriously, and our artisan partners now make woven cardinals, goldfinches, hummingbirds and other popular North American birds from our forests, wetlands and coast.
Last year I began visiting WBU stores en route to music festivals from Connecticut to Kentucky and sold some bird ornaments to eight of them.
I heard more about WBU at this year's Fair Trade Federation from several companies that sold bird-related crafts to them. I probably won't get into this year's national gathering in Indianapolis, so I spent the last two days visiting nine WBU stores (and two botanical gardens) in eastern Virginia.
Their staff really liked our bird and butterfly ornaments and background. One customer followed me to the parking lot to buy one. A few people pointed out how we could improve a few birds and were interested to have me do a presentation about our work in their store. Four stores had resident cats as a way to encourage people to keep pet cats indoors since outdoor cats kill about 1.6 million birds per year. I became buddies with Felix the Maine coon cat and cuddly Harry who were curious but polite with our birds.
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.
