Izara Arts Handicrafts Project
(www.izaraarts.com)

Our handicrafts project creates employment for hilltribe villagers through the production and sale of upscale products made using local materials and techniques. The products have been adapted for a Western market and villagers are trained as artisans and taught to produce to the highest quality to ensure that they are not competing at the low end of the market. All products meet fair trade regulations.

Currently, we work with approximately 40 villagers, mostly women, from the Akha, Karen, Lahu and Hmong ethnic minority groups. We try to use environmentally sensitive products and dyes and we are moving towards using only locally-made, hand-produced materials, like homemade, hand-dyed cotton. The manager, Patricia Solar and her assistant Natchakarn Seneewong Na Ayudhya (Muay) are developing designs and prototypes that will complement the hilltribe techniques and hopefully hit the rise of a new trend. Our exercise/yoga mat bag has been particularly successful and we have great hopes for our permanent shopping bags.

From August 2005 through August 2006 Jessica Ferruzzi worked as our Handicraft project manager and with assistance from Margarett Jameson she developed the Isadora line of silk shawls produced by a local women's cooperative. The entire process is completed locally by hand, from the raising of the silk worms, to the dying and weaving. Now we have 5 models in our range to suit all budgets and tastes – the Jolie, the Skinny, the Isadora single, the Isadora double and the Harlequin.

Our thanks to Jeffrey Clair, who worked with the project in 2005 to perfect our range of cushions covers based on designs by Stephen Morgan, an established UK designer who has worked with Vietnamese and Ghanaian craftspeople. As well as generating income, we will be giving small-business training and developing suitable individuals to manage local cooperatives as the project develops. We have already run a workshop to re-introduce the Akha appliqué method into Ban Aja, where this signature technique had been forgotten. We are hoping to recruit apprentices to learn the art of Hmong batik before the current ladies stop producing. We gratefully acknowledge the start-up funding from INDEVOR, a group of Alumni of the INSEAD Business School. We are seeking further funding to help with the costs of design, production and marketing of present and future product ranges. Photos from the project can be seen at our photo gallery.

Our products can be viewed by visiting the website at www.izaraarts.com and purchased by contacting our offices by fax(+6653-751-120), e-mail or telephone(+6653-751-120). We have Paypal accounts for payment.

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