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Caption: _______ T H E R E • Oaxaca • London • New Dehli
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Caption: A QUARTERLY www.MINZUU.com
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Caption: Vol. 1
Winter 2014
Caption: T H E R E
& N O W
When strangers become friends, success joins along.
Hoping to create a socially conscious lifestyle brand, we started MINZUU in the summer of 2014. We envisioned to gather a small crowd sharing the same passion for global culture, traditional craft, and community empowerment, but discovered – with great joy – a surprisingly large number of groups spread out in almost every corner of the world doing amazing work to revive cultural heritage and to improve livelihoods for local makers.
So we wanted to share with you the best of what we see. This quarterly e-journal titled “There” features original designs, authentic craftsmanship, successful business stories, and all other emerging phenomena where the traditional and the modern meet intertwined: right there, right now.
It is our belief that a globalized world doesn’t have to be homogeneous, but rather, it presents plenty of opportunities to deepen our understandings of one another. It cultivates an appreciation of things as they are – and true friendship starts from there.
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Caption: O A X A C A
MEXICO
Oaxaca
Caption: Situated along the Pacific Ocean, 280 miles away from Mexico City, Oaxaca is home to the famous Monte Albán pyramids and
16 indigenous communities.
Artists and designers work with local artisan groups there, using locally available materials to
create designs that are inspired by both tradition and innovation.
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Caption: A potter places dried vessels in open fire.
/ Photos: Paris Barrera, Eric Mindling.
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Caption: Firing vessels in a kiln.
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Caption: A rich culture of pot making has existed in Oaxaca for hundreds of years.
In more than seventy pottery villages, the techniques of shaping (hand spinning without a potter’s wheel), firing, and glazing have been passed down and refined through generations.
Oaxaca
Caption: Barro Negro (black clay) and red clay are two of the most famous pottery styles from this region.
From extracting and purifying the clay, to firing dried pieces in underground pits, a piece of Barro Negro typically takes two months to complete. Once finished, the product shows an irregular, metallic black sheen.
Red clay is traditionally used for cooking or food storage in Mexican villages. Depending on the usage and structure of each vessel, the thickness of the clay varies.
Since the end of last century, mass-produced plastic, tin, and aluminum products gradually occupied the markets in Mexican towns and cities, causing the handmade pottery tradition to wane. The potters are still making pots, but there is certainly an urge to evolve and bring this traditional craft into the future.
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Oaxaca
Caption: Colectivo 1050° is a group of artists, designers and ceramists based in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Their work of black and red clay takes on a fresh, fun, and almost minimalist appearance, all without losing a unique Mexican style. Each piece is a living testimony of how contemporary design weds beautifully and seamlessly with history and tradition.
Video of Oaxaca
Caption: SHOP
www.minzuu.com/collections/1050
Oaxaca
Caption: Liliana Ovalle
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Colectivo 1050° _______ SINKHOLE VESSELS
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Caption: Photos, captions and articles related to the Sinkhole project are courtesy of Liliana Ovalle and Colectivo 1050°.
Oaxaca
Caption: The Sinkhole project is the result of a collaboration between London-based artist Liliana Ovalle and Colectivo 1050°.
The black vessels stand as a representation of sinkholes, a portrayal of those voids that emerge abruptly from the ground, dissolving their surroundings into an irretrievable space. Each vessel is suspended in a wooden frame, alluding to a cross section of the ground that reveals the hidden topographies.
The clay shapes, based in local archetypes for utilitarian pottery, are crafted by local ceramists from Tlapazola, Oaxaca using ancestral techniques and skills that are struggling to find a place in the contemporary global landscape.
By making reference to different process of extinction, the Sinkhole project aims to reflect and extend the permanence of what seems to be inevitably falling into a void.
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Caption: "This phenomenon...
reveals an underlying space
of unknown dimensions."
- Liliana Ovalle
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Caption: THE MAKING
Oaxaca
Caption: The Sinkhole Vessels were crafted by the Mateo Family: Dorotea, Alberta, Macrina, Angelina, Elia and Amalia, a group of highly skilled ceramists who inherited ancestral techniques that are deeply embedded in the local culture.
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Caption: Foam models were documented and sent to the ceramists in Tlapazola, Oaxaca.
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Caption: Bi-dimensional drawings were translated with the aid of measured wooden sticks.
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Caption: Alberta and Dorotea mold the vessels using the 'cone' technique.
The clay is molded on plates balanced on rocks and then spun by hand.
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Caption: Basic tools, such as leather and corn cobs, are used for shaping and spinning the clay.
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Caption: The shape of the vessels is refined
while the clay is drying.
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Caption: Once the pieces were dried and fired for a first time, a second open fire was made to blacken out the vessels.
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Caption: The tones and gradients of each vessel were controlled by exposing them directly to the flame or the burning ashes. The 'blackening' process lasts approximately one hour.
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Caption: Each wooden frame was custom made to embrace and support each vessel.
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Caption: Final fitting of the ceramic pieces
into the oak frames.
Oaxaca
Caption: The Sinkhole Vessels,
together with other contemporary
Latin American design collections,
are on view at the
Museum of Arts and Design,
now through April 6, 2015. _______ 2 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
Tuesday - Sunday
10am - 6pm
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Caption: from India AN IMPACT STORY
India
Caption: 'Mela' means festival in Hindi.
Co-founded in 2010 by Navroze S Mehta and his daughter Sonali Mehta-Rao, Mela Artisans has since become one of the fastest growing artisan organizations
in the world.
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Caption: Since 2012, Mela Artisans has ordered from over 50 artisan groups across 10 states in India, creating employment for 4,500 full-time artisans, of which 77% are women, and another 6,000 part-time artisans.
(Photos: courtesy of Mela Artisans)
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Caption: an interview with Sonali Mehta-Rao
India
Caption: Sonali Mehta-Rao,
Co-Founder and President of Mela Artisans,
holds years of experience in social entrepreneurship, microfinance, and business development.
We recently sat down with Sonali (by our laptop computers on two opposite sides of the planet) to get more stories behind the success of the company and the way it touches the lives of artisans.
India
Caption: There are many organizations trying to sell products handcrafted by artisans in the international market. Mela Artisans is one of the most successful ones. Could you tell us the top 3 factors for this success? I agree with you that there are many organizations in this sector, and I think a large number of them are doing very meaningful and good work globally. We are happy to see a platform like MINZUU emerging to bring us all together.
As far as our initial success, I would say that the number one factor is leading sales by uniquely designed, high-quality products. While the story behind every product is very important to us and to many of our customers, in order to create commercially viable demand and truly empower our artisans with sustainable orders, the product itself needs to be unique, on-trend, and saleable.
Going along with this, another important factor is never to treat our business like a charity, and never to encourage our customers to make ‘charity-purchases’. We feel that these purchases actually do more harm than good.
A third key factor is that we have a very strong and experienced team, with decades of deep experience in the retail sector – from sourcing to sales and marketing. Bringing on a professional, experienced team was a big turning point for our company.
India
Caption: In one of our earlier conversations, you mentioned what artisans really need are consistent orders in large volumes. But doesn't it sound a little like what Walmart has been doing - big orders but low wages? We feel strongly that fair wages are important, but we also feel that consistent and large-volume orders are equally important. Without regular orders, high prices are meaningless to the artisans.
And there is hardly any comparison between Walmart and Mela. Whereas Walmart works with factories in China, Mela actively seeks out underserved communities that are producing generation-old traditional crafts. We seek to work directly with those communities, providing them valuable market and design insights, capacity building support, and consistent orders, all of which they have had no access to in the past.
India
Caption: Have you taken any measures to protect the health of the bone craftsmen working with Mela? We know the dust from bone carving significantly increases the risk of tuberculosis. Yes. We work with NGO partners and implement programs such as distributing free, disposable masks to our artisans. Furthermore, we are now working on a more sustainable solution of supporting our groups in re-designing their workshops – for example, installing ducts that remove the dust from the air in the workshop to provide better ventilation. We will be piloting and expanding this program in 2015.
India
Caption: While all of your products are handcrafted using traditional skills, some of them have very modern styles that appeal to the Western market. How do you manage to balance these two aspects? This is an important point. We have experimented early on with introducing very traditional products to the US market and they simply do not sell. It is a very niche type of market for that kind of product. We realized that we needed to be able to incorporate market trends in order to remain relevant and to establish ourselves as a brand.
When it comes to design and showcasing traditional arts, the number one rule is that we always work with the artisans to create designs that use traditional materials such as mango wood, raw silk, horn and bone, and at the same time incorporate traditional techniques – for example, embroidery, hand-loom weaving, and carving.
Other things, like color, shape, pattern and size, can be altered in order to create designs that are both on trend and unique.
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Caption: Next Issue:
Spring 2015
India
Caption: a destination where
tradition meets modern _______ Read more stories & shop at
www.minzuu.com.
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