KANTHA throw COLLECTION

Sacred Mark is a World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) certified organization with a mission to develop the social and economic capacity of former sex workers by creating productive employment opportunities.

In Bangladesh, women have fewer opportunities for education and decent employment, resulting in many turning to the sex trade to support themselves and their families. Sacred Mark was formed to change the lives of these women by offering funded training programs and employment, with the goal of cultivating respect, pride, and legitimacy within society for them.

All of the children of Sacred Mark’s producers are in schools and some have attended college. Sacred Mark also has 15 home-based producers who help out when larger orders are received. Sacred Mark gives these artisan producers the opportunity to participate in their community and maintain a savings fund on their own.

VIETNAM COLLECTION

We are partnered with a fair trade women's cooperative in a community east of Hanoi, Vietnam. With 20 families operating 25 looms, this cooperative and can weave nearly 5,000 scarves per month! Silk weaving has existed through many generations, and scarves are woven with respect to tradition. 

Weaving is an important way for villagers to make a living and bring money into their communities to provide education and medicine. 

This cooperative employs sustainable practices like:

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• Using silk that is cultivated locally in their hand spun yarns

• Using safe dye ingredients to protect the health of the artisans, the environment, and you! 

• Dye-waste-filter system, helping to protect the local environment

MANALI COLLECTION

This collection is created by a fair trade women’s cooperative located in the North Western Himalaya Valley region of Manali, India. It was formed by a group of tribal women in 2001 with the aim of creating sustainable employment for women and in these remote areas. Now, with a production team of over 800 artisans, they provide free hand-loom weaving training to community members, generating income for over 150 families.

This cooperative produces high-quality, hand-woven, and eco-friendly products using natural fibres like wool and sustainable vegetable dyes.  Using traditional weaving equipment, similar to those used in that area hundreds of years ago, our scarves are woven respecting the regions tradition. 

jute TOTE COLLECTION

Crafted by a fair trade women's cooperative in Bangladesh, the Jute Tote is extremly durable with leather handles, fastened on rivets. They cary over 90 pounds! The Jute tote is 100% biodegradable 

The Jute Tote is also very sustainable. Not only is Jute 100% biodegradable, it also has a low CO2 footprint, relesasing (literally) tons of Oxygen into the air!

The mission of this cooperative is to create Eco-friendly products and by doing so, support woman and their families in Bangladesh.  The lives of rural women belonging to this cooperative are improved by providing employment, literary classes and training on nutrition, women's legal rights and finance.  When women are empowered, the community as a whole is transformed and improved livelihoods make life more enjoyable and sustainable.  More income means better education, better food and peace in the households.

Cambodian bombsheell Jewelry collection

Decades of war have left Cambodia’s fields littered with brass from bullet and bomb casings. Our Cambodian producer group partnership purchases salvaged brass bomb and bullet shells and melts down the brass, which is then forged into beautiful and unique pieces of jewelry. The hooks are also made from brass and all the jewelry is coated with a galvanic bath of water-based paint imported from Italy.

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This group is a member of the AAC (Artisan Association of Cambodia), which is a certified Fair-Trade Association. By purchasing from our Brass Bombshell Jewelry Collection, you are helping create fair trade jobs for disadvantaged Cambodians. Young women and men learn, create, and practice the skill of jewelry design while earning a sustainable income for themselves and their families.

The Italian couple leading this project was on a volunteer trip to Cambodia in 1996 and they saw,’ ‘great poverty and many homeless kids wandering the streets looking for something to eat in the garbage.” They adopted a son and when back in Italy, “we began to think about how it would be possible to help those street kids and so the desire arose to open a school to give them the opportunity to learn a trade and therefore, to have the opportunity to change their lives by learning this work.” As a trained goldsmith, Ignio had a tangible skill to share.

In 2004, with the help of missionaries, they opened and welcomed the first boys and girls in this new vocational training school in Cambodia. There are both boys and girls in equal numbers and is only for children 14 years old and over who do not go to school. This is their opportunity to learn a skill and have a job. Their learning takes several years until they can use many machines and the equipment with skill. Some students come from the slum area in Phnom Penh and others from the village outside of the city where the school is located and others from various parts of Cambodia. This project has been very successful and has trained many young people in the skill of jewelry making. This group mostly sells in Italy but also in other European countries. Marigold Collective has the exclusive in Canada currently. We are so pleased to work with a group like this!