Craftworks Cambodia

Transforming Old Bomb Shells and Bullet Cases into beautiful pieces of Jewelry

Craftsworks of Cambodia is an organization working to provide training and marketing skills to home based producers through the sale of their contemporary products made from recycled and sustainable materials.

The jewelry artisans in particular live in an underprivileged community approximately 30 minutes from Phnom Penh. They have been trained and skillfully transform bomb casings and bullet shells into stunning jewelry pieces bearing the Tree of Life and other beautiful designs. Craftworks of Cambodia pays the artisans a fair wage that helps to provide for their families and support their communities.  

Meet the artisans by clicking right here. 

www.worldtravelart.com offers several of the jewelry pieces onsite. 

The Medina of Fez - A UNESCO World Heritage Center

Founded in the 9th century and home to the oldest university in the world, Fez  retained its status as Morocco's cultural and spiritual center. It became a World Heritage Site in 1981. The Medina of Fez is believed to be the world's largest contiguous car-free urban area and conserves the majority of its original functions and attributes. It truly transmits a life style, skills and heritage that persist despite the diverse effects of the evolving modern societies.

The City of Fez is built into a concave valley and the Medina was built as a walled area that can be accessed through one of its eight main gates, all fairly spread out around the city's circumference. What one finds inside the Median is a maze of zigzagging streets descending in the direction of the city center and ascending as they head out towards the walls. This knowledge can be helpful when you come to the Medina for the first time or you get disoriented in it - which is very easy by the way. 

At every corner of the streets, in every building lies the mark of traditional skills of the past. Traditional artisanal crafts are alive in the crafts and trading areas of the Medina and part of the Heritage Preservation of UNESCO.  

World Travel Art has a wonderful, long term relationship with a Fassi (people from Fes), small family run business and the Artisan groups they work with. Handicrafts from Fes and the Moroccan Mid-Atlas Mountain are an important part of our Fair Trade and Eco Friendly products offered on site.   

 

A Useful Definition of Fair Trade

Fair Trade is a Trading Partnership, based on dialogue, transparency, and respect, that seeks greater equity in International Trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, disadvantaged producers and workers.

Fair Trade in Practise Such Trading Partnerships are active within a net-work of producers, importers, wholesalers, certifiers, labelers, retailers, and consumers who are challenging the status quo, and trying to right the injustices of international trade. 

Farmers, artisans and workers in over 80 countries make scores of Fair Trade product types. The most common kinds of goods ex-changed include coffee, sugar, cocoa, chocolate, bananas, tea, jewelry, clothing, and housewares. Others include cut flowers, toys, furniture, art, sports balls, wine, olive oil, rice, spices, herbs & more.

For individuals and communities of producers, participating in Fair Trade has directly led to dignity, respect and improved lives. Participants often credit Fair Trade for helping them eat adequately, access health care, send kids to school, clean their water, care for orphans or disabled people, and manage sustainable businesses. Fair trade empowers low-income producers in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and promotes understanding between them and people of developed regions. The various models of Fair Trade use critical tools such as favorable financing, long-term relationships, minimum prices, community investment, capacity building, and sustainable environmental standard to enable marginalized people to help themselves.

Fair Trade Principles

• Creating Opportunities for economically and socially marginalized producers.

• Developing transparent and accountabel relationships.

• Building Capacity.

• Promoting Fair Trade.

• Paying promptly and fairly.

• Supporting safe and empowering working conditions.

• Ensuring the rights of children.

• Cultivating environmental stewardship.
• Respecting cultural identity.

Transforming Seagrass into beautiful Purses

When we founded World Travel Art we started right away to offer colorful, tatami style woven purses from Cambodia, made by Baskets of Cambodia. One of the Fair Trade Partners' Slogans says: "from humble beginnings come great things'" - we could not agree more to this! It is stunning how the weavers and purse makers transform the reed into these light, strong, fun and unique purses. Still today Seagrass Purses are one of our best-selling items on site and on outdoor markets. 

The process  starts with the selection and the precise cutting of each strand of seagrass that can grow as high as 8' tall. There is only one major harvest per year in the Mekong and surrounding deltas due to the monsoons in Asia.

The reed is then dried and dyed several times in certified, non-toxic dyes in order to reach the rich color of the finished product and hung to dry. Two weavers work then together on one loom to make the long, wide mats. One person threads each strand of grass while the other person operates the actual loom. The mats are cut into respective pieces to make purses, floor mats or place mats before being handed over to the sewing group that finishes the process.  

It is confirmed by our customers again and again that these fine reed purses are  great, durable and wearable year round plus make a great conversation piece when out with the girls.

  

Tips for Buying Green, Eco-Friendly Products

There are no universal certifications or standards to identify green, eco-friendly products and only a handful of ecolabeling organizations (listed at the end). So when you are out and about trying to buy green, just ask some of the following questions. 

Is the production process eco-friendly?
Think about pollution, the natural resources it takes to get the product on the shelf, are recycled materials used in the production, Human Rights and the treatment of animals.

How safe is the product?
Read the labels and keep your eyes open for chemicals or hazardous materials that are part of the product or have been used during production. Is the product safe for the environment, look for biodegradable ingredients or materials.

How much waste does the product create?
Consider the packing material and rapping the product comes in. What options do you have to despose the product after it wears out. Is the product recyclable ? 

Ecolabeling Organizations:
Green Seal, USDA organic certified, Rainforest Alliance, Energy Star

Tribal Textiles-Zambia

We are always on the search for additional unique, handmade, socially responsible produced products that we are proudly offer on World Travel Art .

Back when we were living in Tanzania, we came across fabulous fabric that was drawn and hand painted, then finished into stunning wall hangings, table cloth or linen, from Zambia. After some diligent research we finally found a wonderful source in Tribal Textiles and will soon be able to offer a variety of the beautiful products they produce.

Gillie Lightfoot, Director and Owner of Tribal Textiles, started the company more than 20 years ago as a hobby in a small Zambian Safari Camp she was living in. Having an artistic background, she experimented with different techniques and dyes. She was inspired by the wildlife around her and started to become engrossed in the textiles. Six years later she moved to Mfuwe, a more accessible area with more development and infrastructure. From that point on, the company was growing and has now a workforce of over 100 Zambians involved in the lengthy process of producing one of these stunning painted pieces of fabric. 

  

Traditional Zulu Beadwork

If you have travelled in South Africa and spent some time in the province of KwaZulu Natal, you might have seen some of the colorful beadwork, the artistic pride of the Zulu people.    

Traditional Zulu beadwork was at one time far more than just a decorative art of weaving small glass beads into beautiful patterns. Designs and colors were selected and combined in various ways to create messages that helped regulate the behaviour between individuals of opposite gender. Zulu beadwork was and is designed and made exclusively by women, but worn by both sexes.

The bead code was and still is deceptively simple. It utilizes one geometric figure, the triangle and seven colors. The three corners of the triangle represent the father, the mother and the child of a family. When the point of the triangle is facing down the symbol stands for an unmarried man or boy, while the opposite is the symbol for an unmarried women or girl. The seven colours used are black, blue, yellow, green, pink, red and white. Each colour has two meanings, one positive, one negative, except white which stands for purity and love. When another color is used next to white it takes its positive meaning. Blue, white and black bands are a standard combination to show marriage.