Ten Thousand Villages: Beautiful for you, beautiful for the artisans

This past week I had the privilege of meeting two men from Kenya who are making a tour of the Ten Thousand Villages shops on the East Coast to talk about their handcrafts -- how they produce them and how this work affects the lives of the people who work with them in Nairobi and Kisumu. Even more fun was meeting all of the staff and volunteers at the Ten Thousand Villages store in Rockville Town Square -- a wonderfully friendly bunch of people who felt like instant family. Thanks to Virginia for a great introduction to the store, to manager David Saltz for the invitation to come in and meet Mike and Samuel from Kenya, to Mary Frey of Ten Thousand Villages' main office for the gift of a galimoto and handcrafted card, and to Malvina, Bea, Marti, Zijie and Sam for your warm reception. Here are some photos from the afternoon:

The store, in case you haven't been in, is beautifully arranged by color, with swaths of blue (cobalt glasses, colorful handcrafted vases, cotton table linens), red (necklaces of recycled glass, uniquely crafted earrings, gorgeous handbags), brown (woven baskets, gourd vases, one-of-a-kind chessboards) throughout the store. But the beauty is not just visual here; every item sold in this store contributes to the pride and well-being of a person in a less fortunate country than ours. As their mission statement says, "Ten Thousand Villages provides vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America."



Employees and volunteers gather to hear Samuel Macharia describe how he and others who work at Chuma Wires create galimotos from nothing but pieces of wire and heat-shrink fabric. The galimoto is a bright little push-toy which you can see in the foreground, with its bright-green head and stripey body. Each one is made with different colored fabric. You can see a picture of one posted by a happy recipient here, and read an excerpt from a kids book about galimotos here

Here he shows how the wires are shaped and bent to form the frame. According to Samuel, he can make 20 galimotos a day, because he has been doing this for 16 years and is a pro. He worked very quickly and this one took shape in about 20 minutes. You can see some of the other products made by Chuma Wires here.

Here he is wrapping the frame with heat-shrinkable fabric.

During his demo, a customer came in to the store with two galimotos she had purchased previously, asking if he would sign them, which he obligingly did (mine too).

Each piece of the galimoto is sealed by heating with a candle as it is completed. Here the body gets a final sealing.

After Samuel finished his demo, Mike Muchilwa of KICK Trading spoke very eloquently about how workers in these two organizations benefit from their work. For an initial investment of about $1.50 (for wire, needle nose pliers and nail clippers -- the tools needed to create the gift cards and earrings made by KICK Trading), a craftsman can earn an average of $300 per month and live in dignity. You can read more about KICK Trading and see their products here. As Mike pointed out, 70% of the material in these lovely items has been recycled: wire, sheet metal, soda cans.

Not only do these products provide a fair wage to the people who create them, they are wonderful, fun to wear and not expensive. Store volunteer Sam shows off a pair of KICK's Dancing Girl earrings, which can be bought in the shop for $12. As of this writing, the galimoto is only $6, and the "couple in the rain" cards (perfect for anniversaries) are $8.
Finally, here are a few more photos from the store: