Blogs

I just got off the phone with Omex, an impressive young man from Ndiwasa village where Dsenyo works with a group of HIV widows. Omex's mom is part of the Dsenyo producer group. I first met him while working in their village one summer about 4 years ago. He stood out as just a really impressive young man with drive and ambition. On top of that he's a proud Malawian which means he's friendly, gracious, helpful and incredibly welcoming. Dsenyo now supports Omex in-part as he pursues a business certificate program so he can find work outside the village.

I gave Omex a quick call this morning via Skype. He picked up his cell phone on the other end. He'd just gotten home from class. I was looking for a quick chichewa lesson on animal vocabulary. I'm working on new hang tags for the Dsenyo line of little friends, kids plushie stuffed animals. Each animal will have a name (a chichewa name) and a fun little story to go with.

So here we go, this is what I learned!

First, a quick reminder for the readers here. Chichewa breaks down as follows: "chi" meaning "language of" and "chewa" meaning "the chewa people". Therefore Chichewa is the language of the Chewa people. There are many other tribal languages spoken in Malawi (ex - Chitimbuka the language of the Timbuka people)

Animals: English to Chichewa Translation

• Bunny - Mbira (mmm-BEE-dah)
• Elephant - Njobvu (nnn-joe-BVOO)
• Lion - Mkango (mmm-KHA-nnn-GO)
• Hippo - Mvuu (mmm-BVOO)
• Zebra - Mbidzi (mmm-BEE-dzee)
• Monkey - Nyani (nnn-YAH-nee)

Jon Saints, fellow co-founder of Dsenyo and my husband, presented with me at the Fair Trade Federation Conference in Raleigh, NC last week. Our session was titled "Tech is on Your Side: Making Technology Work for Your Fair Trade Business". We are publishing the powerpoint here.

Please contact us if you have specific questions. We love chatting about this stuff and think we have some valuable suggestions and lessons learned to share!

We are so ready for spring here in Colorado! Lately, our weather has see-sawed between clear, sunny skies, and cold, swirling snow storms, with temperature swings from 75 degrees to single digits. All in the same week!

Today, with more snow in the forecast, I’m yearning for more color in my life, the brighter, the better. So I stopped by some shops on my way to the grocery store to check out the new spring clothes, and got a glimpse of exactly what I’ve been longing for: Exuberant yellows. Fiery oranges. Grab-me greens.

It’s amazing how color can conjure up a change of scene and give our spirits a boost. Palm frond, fuchsia, tangerine. Watermelon pink, sun-kissed yellow, Caribbean blue.
Who comes up with evocative names like these? And why did that exact shade of bright green, used in a jacket I spotted last week, show up in several of the clothing catalogs that recently arrived in my mail?

PANTONE, a company that specializes in color psychology, science, and trends, claims at least partial credit. It calls itself “the global authority on color,” and it wields tremendous influence in fields as diverse as cosmetics and fashion, interior and industrial design, and the medical and automotive industries.

Working with artists, designers and stylists in a number of fields, PANTONE uses its technical expertise to forecast the coming fashion season’s predominant colors. At least twice a year, it publishes a capsule description of what it identifies as the top ten colors, and relates these colors to the current mood of consumers.

According to PANTONE, the “in trend” colors for Spring/Summer 2013 are Emerald, Dusk Blue, Grayed Jade, African Violet, Linen, Lemon Zest, Tender Shoots, Monaco Blue, Nectarine and Poppy Red. If you’re interested in taking a look at these shades, you can see them on PANTONE's website.

I’m not convinced PANTONE can really determine the colors I’ll like best this year, or that they can predict when my tastes will shift from Coral Rose to Nectarine, or from Regatta to Monaco Blue. But it’s fascinating to find out what’s happening behind the fashion scenes and to get a preview of the next color tones the experts are promoting for the market.

And doesn’t a color palette splashed with tropical brights, or the cooler, linen shades, sound appealing? Check it out in our newest fashion wear and accessories. We’ve got breezy skirts from Malawi in bold, happy-go-lucky prints. And from Brazil, carefree purses and captivating hair clips in irresistible colors: Radiant pink. Bell pepper green. Daffodil yellow. They’re perfect for adding summer spark to your wardrobe RIGHT NOW!

-- by Diane Clymer

Photos: Daffodils in Colorado April snow storm (top), Dsenyo Founder wearing Brazil Flower Clip in Rose on this snowy Spring day (middle), Shot on location at The Kitchen [Upstairs] model wearing Dsenyo Brazil Flower Clip and The Basica Clutch in Lemon (bottom)

Have you seen the new line of purses and flower hair clips Dsenyo is launching this month? They come in a gorgeous array of colors, from linen and honey gold, to vibrant tropical brights, and they’re arriving just in time for summer! These beautiful products are made by artisans in Brazil using fibers from an amazing tree, the miriti palm.

Photo 1: New Dsenyo Made in Brazil, eco-friendly handbags and flowers.

Mauritia flexuos, as the botanists call it, is also known as the “Tree of Life” in South America.  And it’s no wonder when you consider its many uses. The fruit, highly nutritious, is squeezed for juice, used to flavor ice cream, or fermented to make wine. Oil, extracted from the fruit, filters and absorbs cancer-causing UV rays from the sun. The fronds can be used to thatch roofs, while the trunk is used to make building materials. And fibers from the leaves can be woven into cords, mats, baskets, or hats.

Photo 2: Miriti Palm: Reaching as high as 100 feet, the miriti palm grows abundantly throughout the southern Amazon Basin.

That’s where Dsenyo, and our new partner organization, Segue o Seco, come in. The miriti palm is abundant throughout Northeastern Brazil, where Segue o Seco’s artisans live and work.  Using fibers from this palm, which they call buriti (bu-REE-chee), the artisans produce the colorful purses and clutches, as well as delicate hats and pretty hair ornaments, that Dsenyo is proud to include in its line of fair trade products.

What is buriti? If you’ve ever tied a present with raffia instead of ribbon, you’d recognize it. Like raffia, buriti is a strong, pliable fiber harvested from the leaves of the miriti palm, a native of South America. And like its cousin raffia, buriti looks a bit like strands of dried grass or straw, only much longer.

Photo 3: Miriti palm fronds used as thatch for roofing in Northeastern, Brazil

Perhaps best of all, the miriti palm is a renewable resource. These trees flourish in the  waterlogged soil that characterizes the Amazon Basin.  What’s more, they are responsibly harvested in the proper season, so the plants aren’t damaged or destroyed. This ensures that the trees continue to yield biruti fiber over the course of years.

We thought you might be interested in seeing some photos of our Brazilian craftsmen--and women--harvesting buriti and preparing it for production.

Cutting Buriti: Men carrying machetes climb the tall trunks of the miriti palm to harvest the crowns.  The work isn’t easy:  There’s always the danger of falling.  Also, the men may encounter venomous snakes and spiders in the leaves on top.

Extracting the Fiber: Artisans extract buriti fiber from the palm fronds.  Wielding small, sharp knives, they carefully pull a thin membrane from each leaflet.  This step takes place as soon as possible after the crowns are harvested, to preserve the quality of the fiber.

Treating the Fiber: Next, the fiber is strengthened by boiling it in water.  In its natural state, buriti is neutral in color, a sort of warm beige or soft ecru shade.  At this stage of production, buriti can also be dyed a wide variety of colors.  Using the leaves, fruit, bark, stem or root of various plants as coloring agents produces buriti with more natural or subdued tones, while analine dyes yield more vivid hues.

Preparing the Fiber for Production: After the fiber is sun-dried, it’s divided into thin or thicker strands and separated according to length. Some fibers are twisted together and wound into skeins for products that are to be crocheted or made by macrame.  If the fibers are to be woven and used to make handbags or place mats, they’re treated differently.

Special thanks to Segue e Seco for providing us with photographs and a description of how buriti is produced.

Written by Diane Clymer

Sources: 

Goulding, M., Smith, N. J. H., & Mahar, D. J.  (2000)  Floods of Fortune:  Ecology and Economy Along the Amazon.  New York:  Columbia University Press.  

Kahn, F.  (1988)  Ecology of economically important palms in Peruvian Amazonia.   Advances in Economic Botany 6: 42-49, 1988.  The New York Botanical Garden.

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm a sucker for biographies, documentaries and touring people's homes. All are like getting let in on a secret. We each walk around this world with our complex stories and histories that hide below the surface. I always feel special and fortunate to be in on the secret, to have the opportunity to dig deeper and hear those stories. Alexandra Fuller gives us that with her book here. There are parts that will make you cringe, laugh, cry and wonder why. Sound familiar? Even those of us that haven't lived the wild adventure life in sub-saharan Africa, we know the feelings the roller coaster of life evokes.

If you are interested in knowing a different world of time and place, pick up a copy of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. I think you will enjoy the ride.

On a personal level, I thought this was an excellent read because it transported me to a region of the world I know well today. I know many folks who lived and grew up in Rodesia much like Alexandra, so on a personal level it was fascinating to get a glimpse into what one of their counterparts experienced and helped bring to life some of the stories these friends have told me.

View all my reviews

Thanks to Doug Pike at the Hometown Weekly paper in Lafayette, CO for this article...

Lafayette artist creating jobs in Africa through textiles trade

By Doug PikeColorado Hometown Weekly

In recent years, Lafayette's Old Town district has undergone an economic Renaissance of sorts, thanks largely to an emphasis on the arts and aesthetics. Since the city established its arts-friendly atmosphere, empty storefronts filled, new restaurants cropped up and jobs have been created.

As a founding member of pARTiculars Art Gallery and Teaching Studio, Old Town Lafayette artist Marissa Perry Saints is one of several local artists at the heart of Lafayette's newly official "creative, diverse, eclectic" identity.

But Perry Saints -- who also serves as a lead artist in Lafayette's Alley Art Amazin' program -- has seen the dramatic affect art can not only have on a local economy, but individual lives.

Perry Saints is the founder of Dsenyo -- a business she considers more of a "social enterprise" with a core mission of using art and textiles to help women and artisians work their way out of poverty. For the past seven years, she has been traveling twice a year to the east African nation of Malawi, working with producers of wax-print fabrics and local tailors to generate several lines of textile products to be sold at more than 80 locations throughout the U.S., Canada and Australia.

Read the full article

Hunger Season...sounds familiar right?  Well, what I'm talking about isn't fiction and it isn't a series of best-selling books. I'm talking about a real 21st century place, a place where hunger is as familiar as winter; it's just another season. 

At this time of year in Malawi, Africa (a small, beautiful country at the southern tip of the Great Rift Valley) people run out of maize their staple food.  It's a country where 80% of the population are subsistence farmers growing their own food. Their single annual crop harvested in April/May is supposed to last the whole year. Problem is…it never does. Couple this fact with the global economic crisis and an abysmal crop last year and you start to understand the feeling of desperation that many Malawians feel at the moment. (photo: empty silo Nkhotakota, Malawi)

Here are 5 reasons YOU & women in Malawi can be thankful for Dsenyo

-- #1 -- One Apron = Two days rent for Agness' small, tin-roofed home

-- #2 -- Little Friends = Fertilizer for the ladies in Ndiwasa village helping them grow a year's supply of food for their families

-- #3 -- One pair of Coil Earrings = One new, outfit for Claudine who buys from the trader selling second-hand clothing

-- #4 -- One Hobo = Enough food for Limbikani to feed her family of 4 for a whole week

-- #5 -- One Pot Holder = One bus fare for Jennifer to reach the hospital where she can ge free medication for a young, HIV+ orphan in her care

On a larger scale, your order of $150 allows one of our producers to pay 1/2 a year of school fees for her daughter to attend high school. That's awesome!

Meet Nyozeni, Dsenyo Artisan

At only 22 years of age, Nyozeni Malumo was widowed while pregnant with her first child. Her husband died of AIDS leaving her also infected with the virus; fortunately her daughter is not. Nyozeni works with other AIDS widows in the Mwayiwathu producer group making stuffed animals for Dsenyo. Now that she is making a fair, living wage, Nyozeni is able to buy bus fares to the hospital to get her HIV medication and send her daughter to school. She can now hope for a brighter future for her daughter.

Megy Karydes mentions Dsenyo in her article "Fair Trade is Fashionable & Selling" published in this month's edition of Retail Minded.  This is a nice write-up about fair trade retailers' and wholesalers' opinions on the marketability of fair trade fashion.