Designers aid global artisans

In Africa, Asia and Latin America, gifted craftspeople who can express age-old traditions in beautiful ways often lack access to raw materials and distribution venues. They may have no expertise in getting their goods to a wider marketplace.

In the spirit of an artistic global village, established designers are using their talent, contacts and financial clout to give Third World artisans an international platform.

Some have found these artisans through their travels, and became inspired to help the artisans’ community while also introducing U.S. buyers to new and intriguing products.

These aren’t the mass-produced knockdown tables, inexpensive knickknacks or dinnerware found in big box stores. These are pieces that are thoughtfully designed and handmade by craftspeople whose art is their livelihood.

“Our challenge is to develop a competitive product that will encourage the survival of indigenous craft,” the design firm Artecnica notes. “Fulfilling this mission requires a smart designer, a visionary project producer and an ambitious artisan.”

The company believes that today’s sophisticated collectors appreciate more than simply the charm of a craft; they’re interested in the maker’s life and community.

Designer Tucker Robbins, a soft-spoken former monk, is in the vanguard of the movement for sustainable furniture design. In many cultures, he notes, furniture plays an important role at gatherings, formal and informal. Chairs and stools may be valued personal objects and status symbols, for instance.

“We’ve forgotten about this, and instead we talk about furniture as conversation pieces,” Mr. Robbins says.

By studying a village’s history, available materials and the techniques of its craftspeople, he creates furniture designs that can be simple and beautiful.

An ebonized hardwood stool from Cameroon, for instance, is carved in a latticework motif, relating the story of a spider who wove a web to catch creation. An acacia wood Z-stool uses Filipino carvers’ skills to depict three coins falling.

On YouTube, short films show Mr. Robbins sitting on the ground observing a carver with traditional tools begin work on a rough log, which may well find its way into a W Hotel or the tony environments of style setters like Calvin Klein.

Mr. Robbins says developing a relationship of trust and respect with an artisan group takes time. Only after that can money matters be broached.

“The pricing comes with discussion, comparing the prices of other producers, the quality and what the market can bear,” he says.

He cites the group Aid to Artisans (ATA) as having done good work in Honduras, Guatemala and Peru. The nonprofit organization, which also has had projects in Iraq and elsewhere, tries to create economic opportunity for artisans in regions where craft traditions are at risk, often where civil strife has taken a toll, particularly on women.

Many of its products are sold online, including beautifully worked iron bowls and screens forged by artists in Haiti’s ironcraft center, Croix de Bouquet. ATA has worked with them on their techniques, and helped them devise better ways to purchase raw materials and market their wares.

Story Continues →