The Making of Our Nicaraguan Pottery

Global Village works with the Sanchez family in the marketing and distribution of their pottery. The family has been producing pottery for generations. First, the parents began the craft and now, the six brothers and two sisters carry on the tradition. I continue to marvel how a simple lump of earth can be molded in to a beautiful piece of art. While the tools of the trade are simple, as evidenced by the sequential pictures in the slide show, the skill required and the resulting work is quite complex.

The Sanchez family uses locally sourced clay in the making of their pots. In the images, you can see the lump of clay placed on a stick. This is used as a marker to indicate how high to throw the clay. It is quite amazing to see the consistency of height and width of like pieces of pottery given the basic measuring "stick". This is a tribute to the years of experience of the potter as much as the method.

Each member of the family has a particular specialty. For some, it is throwing the clay, while for others it could be painting the pots, carving a relief design in to a pot, polishing the pots or overseeing the firing of the mud and brick kiln located in the back yard.

Working with an organization such as Global Village, who provides partial funding in advance, allows the family to purchase the raw materials for the project in advance. The family receives a fair price for their products and their work is marketed with dignity. Take a moment a view their handiwork in the pottery section of Global Village Trading Company's site.

Fair Trade Provides Dignity and Opportunity

While there are a range of artisans who have been more proactive and aggressive in establishing relationships with contacts in foreign countries to distribute products, there are a limited number of third world artisans that are able and have the means to do this.

Without outside support, third world artisans, regardless of their talent, are stuck to generate income for their families from within the confines of their country. People who possess the level of income that would enable them to purchase a piece of furniture at the prices that really should be demanded are very slim – often this limits quality sales to government officials and, ironically, relief, development and foreign aid workers who are stationed in the country, as well as the occasional tourist.

Many times, without fair trade, these artisans must resort to sit along roadsides with a cloth laid out with their wares on it. Their only hope is that a tourist will pass by and see something that they might be interested in. Obviously, that's difficult to count on in many of these countries and certainly no way to plan for growth of a business.

Fair trade not only allows the artisans to have their product reach a broader audience, it’s a show of dignity for the quality of work they do, as well as a positive representation of the capabilities of their country.

I often have people comment that they wouldn’t have expected the quality of work, style or design to come out of a third-world country like they see in pieces such as our Nicaraguan coffee table .

One of the greatest ways to bring dignity into the life of a third world family is by recognizing their worth as an artisan. Not only are you creating new opportunities for them, but you are showing that their skills have value and worth far beyond those of a simple street hawker.

What message are you sending with your decorating habits?

Fair Trade and the Environment

NBC Universal just completed their first Green Week, a week of green-themed programming aimed at entertaining, informing and empowering Americans to lead greener lives. While the increase in "green" awareness grows, anti-green events have shared equal billing in the news. Back in mid-August, Mattel made big headlines for its massive recall of 9 million toys due to concerns over lead paint and magnets.

So, how does fair trade enter into the discussion about the environment? Well, if you’re dealing with larger cooperatives or factories, you’d address issues related to more environmental practices and policies. What kind of materials are being used in their dyes? Are there chemicals that are used in the finishing process of a chair? What becomes of those residual materials and how are they disposed of?

However, at Global Village Trading, we’re dealing with the smallest of the small and the weakest of the weak in terms of countries as well as artisans. These issues are more difficult to take on simply because there isn't a basis for education nor are there established systems of treatment and disposal. There simply isn't the infrastructure in place to fully address these issues.

Nonetheless, Global Village doesn't give up on the issue. Instead, we have to take a more simplistic approach. We try and work with artisans and encourage using natural dyes. In the case of our Henna Leather lamps, only natural mineral oxide dyes get applied, as opposed to a pure chemical dye.

Preserving our environment and the resources it provides for the livelihoods of our third world artisans may be aided by major corporate initiatives like NBC Universal's, but it is more likely to occur by encouraging artisans and laborers the world over to take small, fundamental steps like using natural dyes and materials.

Think about what you can do to improve the environment by the choices you are making with your home decor purchases. Often, it's the simple things that make the greatest difference.

Global Village and Our Commitment to Fair Trade

There has been a lot of coverage in the media over the past five years, maybe even more, surrounding issues of factory standards, substandard wages for manufacturing workers of nearly any product that's made in a third world country. You hear of kids who are employed in soccer ball factories. In Indonesia and other parts of Asia, you hear of footwear factories with really low wages and horrible working conditions. My particular exposure to this market after being in the athletic footwear industry for over a decade has elevated my concern about these issues. Fair treatment for third world workers has certainly been heightened in my mind.

As it applies to home decor, the area that I can most support fair trade is in making sure the artisans I work with are getting paid a fair wage. How do you do that? A key point is when you're contacting an artisan about a product your interested in and they provide you with a price quote, that you treat them with respect and try to honor the initial price quote and do not try to put the screws to them to get the highest margin for yourself out of it. You provide the artisan with what they think they need to make a living, keep their business going, and take care of their family too.

Another aspect of fair trade is advancing funds for product. Even as a small business, Global Village has been able to provide a payment of 50% in advance of production. This allows an artisan who doesn't have the means, without having to go out to the black market to get a loan, to procure the raw materials necessary to produce the products for us in an efficient manner. Obviously, the risk on our part is that we're just getting established, so we have to advance funds to ourselves to pass on these funds to the artisan.