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Kantara Crafts



Kantara Crafts is a fair trade business specializing in Moroccan rugs and textiles imported directly from women's weaving cooperatives. I began the business in 2008 after working in Morocco for a year and a half on a project that fought against child labor. While living in Morocco, I met several artisans and immediately fell in love with the carpets, which is the only craft performed solely by women. At the same time, I was shocked at how the artisan's lack of mobility and access to the business world kept them subjugated to urban middlemen's pricing whims. I noticed that at the prices offered by these intermediaries the women barely had enough money to pay for their materials, let alone for their time and creativity. At that point, I decided to start Kantara Crafts as a means to directly support the artisans while reinvesting  a portion of the proceeds into education and business development initiatives within these very cooperatives. And the rest is history.

While there is no Kantara storefront, I do private consultations, trunk shows, presentations, and rug parties for those interested in seeing the rugs in person.

-Alia Kate

Mission:  Kantara Crafts is the premiere source for fair trade, handwoven Moroccan carpets in the United States. Kantara Crafts hand selects each carpet from women's weaving cooperatives in Morocco. As a result of its relationship with the artisans, Kantara ensure that its products are of the highest quality and with the most captivating designs.

Meaning “bridge” in Arabic, Kantara seeks to establish local and long-lasting relationships by bridging the gap between women artisans in Morocco and socially-conscious communities in the United States.

Location: New York City, New York, USA
Online store: Kantara Crafts
Memberships:
   Fair Trade Federation, 
   Moroccan Rug Society,
   Weave a Real Peace,
   New York Guild of Handweavers,
   Textile Art Alliance
Social Media: Facebook Group  (Moroccan Rug Society),
   Youtube, Picasa 
Languages spoken: English, Spanish, French, Arabic

 Moroccan Weaver, Kantara Crafts



















Tags: morocco, rugs, fair trade, high end carpets, handwoven, kilims, social responsibility

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“Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction,- a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the Muse”
-Henry David Thoreau

In our case, it would be the needle or other fiber tool. Drive it home! And, we all thank you for your words, left here to these good folks. Invoke your Muse!

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