handwoven beauty ~ fairly traded
TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles is a fair trade social enterprise based in Nova Scotia, Canada. The co-founders, Ellen Agger (photo) and Alleson Kase, are passionate about handwoven, naturally dyed textiles and about supporting the women in rural Thailand and Laos who create them. These skills - passed down from mother to daughter for generations - are now at risk of being lost, especially the skills of creating hand-reeled silk yarns. We support this small-scale, village-based sericulture and the organic production of these silk yarns by accessing markets for this work in North America and beyond. Each year, we travel extensively in Thailand and Laos, meeting with women's weaving groups and development projects that work with village groups, collaborating on new designs, learning from each other. The work is rewarding, the women sericulturists, dyers and weavers are highly skilled artisans and the textiles -- truly "slow fashion" -- are beautiful.
We organize fair trade eco-textile events.
We wholesale to select shops that value fair trade and art quality, handcrafted textiles.
Mission: TAMMACHAT’s naturally dyed silks and cottons combine contemporary styling with traditional skills to bring you timeless fashion accessories and home décor. Each piece is exquisitely handwoven in limited editions. Each purchase helps a woman artisan in rural Thailand or Laos celebrate and sustain her culture, family and community.
What's most important to us is:
- to support women artisans through fair trade (including building long-term relationships and ongoing commitments)
- to support their efforts to use sustainable practices that protect their environments and their health, and
- to help preserve these cultural traditions.
Location: Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada
Online stores:
TAMMACHAT
Etsy
BLURB photo books
Ethical Ocean
Source 4 Style
Online stores:
TAMMACHAT
Etsy
BLURB photo books
Ethical Ocean
Source 4 Style
Memberships:
SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates)
Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council
BALLE-Nova Scotia (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies)
Ethical Fashion Forum
Languages spoken: English, a little Thai, Italiano, Français
Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council
BALLE-Nova Scotia (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies)
Ethical Fashion Forum
Languages spoken: English, a little Thai, Italiano, Français
Eri silk scarf from central Thailand. Handspun silk, natural dyes.
From TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles.
Tags: weaving, handwoven, naturally dyed, social enterprise, fair trade, organic, silk, cotton, Thailand, Laos
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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!