Recycled Plastic Tray - only one in stock!

We have only one Recycled Plastic Tray left in stock! These trays migrated across the world from Nepal and each sale supports medical services and job training for rural women. After collecting plastic garbage (including chip bags, drink boxes, and cooke wrappers) women clean the plastic and slice it into strips. By winding these strips around native grasses called saru, artisans are able to bend these strips into a variety of products. The strips are then tied together with colored twine, making the trays highly durable. No two look exactly alike.

New Products June 2010: a smattering

Handmade Japanese Washi Art $86

These Washi Art posters hail from Kyoto, Japan. Artisans first make a large sheet of handmade paper (3 feet long and 2 feet high) and then create a design. They break the design into layers by color, and develop a separate silk screen for each color. By overlaying colors, textures, and patterns, the artwork looks almost embossed, and the gold paint literally shimmers in the light.

Handmade Paper Card from Nepal - Sea Design $3

Bhaktapur Paper, a favorite Nepali organization, employs a number of local artisans in their paper-making business. Each card is handmade (using pulp from a tree called lokta) and then block-printed with a traditional design.

Recycled Paper Journal from India $13

We bought these journals from an old man in a little hole-in-the-wall shop in Jaipur, India. He worked just outside the "Pink City" downtown area, and makes all the journals himself. They're filled with recycled paper, and the outside is stamped with a design, painted, and then embroidered. When we told the old man that we ran a shop, he packaged everything in a box for us, and threw in a few free postcards - what a guy.

Bowl with lid from Onta, Japan $35

Ah, Onta. In this little town in the Japanese mountains, potters use only kick wheels and wood-burning kilns, and the town has designed a see-saw lever using hydroelectric power from a local stream to pound the clay. Famous for the cream and chocolate design, Onta pottery is often referred to as "folk pottery" because it is both functional and beautiful.

A Trade For A Trade

A Trade For A Trade made the Billings, Montana news today. Check out the full article here. Now some strangers know about us, which is really all for the best.

A non-inclusive list of things currently for sale: slippers that look like sheep, Japanese bowls with lids, peacock journals, and one camel stamp. It's good stuff.