avad

(in progress draft)
art. craft. recycling. cooperatives. sustainable development. artisans. africa. connections. network weaving. diy movement.grassroots.

Crafters all over the world have been interested in creating something beautiful out of found objects, cast off goods...sometimes for the novelty, other times out of pure necessity and often times for varying degrees of both.



At craftyclubhouse this past Sunday we tried our hands at making paper beads out of recycled magazine papers.
I had printed out tutorials from here, here and here but mostly we learned from trial and error. Cutting up teen vogues, trying all different glues from modgepodge to glue sticks and then varnish or clear nailpolish to glaze.... It is a fun activity and one which I hope can bring more awareness to sustainable crafts and design ingenuity.




In Gulu, Uganda this technique is pulling people out of poverty at Life in Africa's WE Center.:
"When you wear Life in Africa's Jungle Beads, you're sharing in a community peace-building story to inspire hope in today's world. And whether you're buying these hand-crafted beauties as a treat for yourself or for others, you're creating a valuable social impact with every purchase you make.
The Jungle Beads story is about an African community climbing out of the jungle of poverty and war by creating something amazing from almost nothing at all. These uniquely beautiful beads are made from recycled paper by Life in Africa members in Kampala and Gulu - over 85% of us are displaced or otherwise directly affected by Northern Uganda's 20 year long war.

Our members in the displaced Acholi Quarter in the outskirts of Kampala have brought this beadmaking technique into our community, after years of making and trying to find markets for this craft that someone from the USA introduced to a small group of women there about 10 years ago. We now help each other learn to create the beads in member led production groups at Life in Africa's WE Centers each week."
Check out the inspiring flickr photo set: Recycling for Peace

I've been brainstorming and interested in a possible cross-over/exchange of more designers and crafters in the US/Europe working with artisan cooperatives in the developing world...through developing a series of CoopaCraft and/or Craftcorps fellowships for volunteer travel funds.......
aims: volunteer training, evolving and diversifying product lines, awareness building in US, fair trade, solidarity/bridges/thread of empathy.

Earlier this year I had purchased this set of beautiful paper beads made by jessprkle in the US off of Etsy.com.

She has worked with high school kids making these and said they loved the activity.
It gets me to thinking again about match-making training and workshop leaders..

How can we best improve the grassroots links between the current DIY craft movement and the green/recycling movement to help bring more awareness to and really push forward the fair trade movement?

related:
DESIGN for the Other 90%
“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%.”
—Dr. Paul Polak, International Development Enterprises

In Her Hands: Craftswomen Changing the World

Aid to Artisans

Can we help brainstorm and design more projects using paper beads or similar recycling techniques for our friends around the world? Should we have a contest? What are your thoughts?

Treehugger's Top5 Recycled Paper Products