MayaMam Weavers & NYNOW

Wow, in August we participated in NYNOW, the new name for the NY International Gift Show. This is a big deal for us, you know. Our booth is in the Global Handmade section (which is juried). Our visitors were interested in a little bit of everything. We were especially pleased with the interest in our fabrics which we have decided to sell by the yard. The Home Trends exhibit in the first floor entryway included one of our Celebration Table Runners in the "Well-Cultured" trend, one of our aprons was included in Gourmet Business, and our fabrics were included in LDB Textiles. We saw lots of interest due to our new membership in the Fair Trade Federation, too! Now we are busy responding to our orders and leads and planning for the next show in February. Whew!

MayaMam Weavers and The Straight Road

One of the weaves we learned in our training we call "the straight road". Now we are seeing how we can use this weave in our next handbag collection. We are experimenting with various combinations of colors. The weave takes its dominant color from the weft, which in this case is black. Here you can see the difference between the white warp and the champagne warp. We are experimenting with some other colors, too, but you will have to wait a few months to see what the new bag collection looks like!

MayaMam Weavers Make it to Cajola Town Hall

We are very pleased to report that the mayor requested 200 meters of our design "Cajola huipil" to use as curtains in all of the town hall. Not only is that a great order, but everyone in Cajola will be able to see our work. We originally designed this fabric to go on our ergonomic benches, but it was so popular that we have made it into towels and aprons, men's vests, women purchase the fabric to make into huipils, and now, curtains for Town Hall.

The picture shows Delfina cutting the fabric from the loom. And we were able to weave the entire 200 meters with only two warpings, using our new large warper. Now we are ready for anything!

MayaMam Weavers & Pulsera Project

Wow, we just participated in Bonnaroo 2013! Well, at least our pulseras and skinny headbands were in Tennessee with our great friends from the Pulsera Project. They do fantastic work "coloring the world" giving US youth a chance to learn about and make friends with Nicaraguan youth. We have been working with them for the past few years, and they have certainly broadened our world. So, here we are in Tennessee, and here we are providing a rodeo cowboy some luck. You can learn more about the Pulsera Project at www.pulseraproject.org.

MayaMam Weavers & Our Second Industrial Sewing Machine

Our seamstresses continue growing in their skills. Even though we still experience regular outages of electricity, and our pedal sewing machines certainly are reliable, we are pleased to have a new industrial machine. These machines really are constructed to do excellent work, and we can continue to be proud of the quality of our work. Wait til you see our new collection of handbags.

MayaMam Weavers & More Emerald Green

Did you know that emerald green is Pantone's color of the year? We have been weaving with emerald green since we wove our first fabric after our initial training! This year we have an subtle emerald that has a white yarn woven in the warp, and our seamstresses have sewn it into full length aprons that go with our emerald and emerald and white diamond kitchen towels. (They also look great with our original emerald striped towels.) You can see that emerald is a favorite in Cajola, too.

MayaMam Weavers Proud Members of the Fair Trade Association

We are so pleased to have been accepted by the Fair Trade Association! Although we firmly believe in their principles and believe we have been practicing them since the very beginning, it is very satisfying to have passed their somewhat rigorous review process. So we can say confidently to all of your that yes, we are practicing the Principles of Fair Trade. As the Fair Trade Federation website explains: "Fair trade is an approach to business and to development based on dialogue, transparency, and respect that seeks to create greater equity in the international trading system. Fair trade supports farmers and craftspeople in developing countries who are socially and economically marginalized. These producers lack economic opportunity and often face steep hurdles in finding markets and customers for their goods. Fair trade is much more than just trade. At the core of the fair trade model is a direct, cooperative, and in-depth relationship between buyers and sellers that keeps all of the principles of fair trade at the forefront." And if you want to delve further, visit their website, particularly the page on fair trade principles: http://www.fairtradefederation.org/fair-trade-federation-principles We are honored to be recognized for our commitment, too.