A year ago today, I decided to explore the northwestern provinces of Argentina. I was on a quest to find skilled artisans and eager to immerse myself in their world. My trip lasted a little more than four weeks and took me all around Jujuy, Salta and Tucuman where I met a handful of artisans either working independently or in cooperatives. Today our knit accessories are all made in Jujuy by the artisans I met during this trip. For artisans in Jujuy, knitting is a treasured expression of their culture and an important tradition, passed from generation to generation.
Here are some landscape photos of Jujuy and shots of artisan Asunción on a foot loom making some llama fiber scarves for Via Nativa.

A year later I find myself again in Argentina but this time in Bs As. In my first few days here I had to meet Luján Cambariere who wrote a fabulous article about Via Nativa in the Argentine newspaper Pagina12. In Argentina Luján Cambariere is a renowned journalist specializing in design and half of the design duo Satori Lab.

I highly recommend reading up on the Satori duo but to give you a brief introduction, Satori Lab conducts collective design workshops with students of every design branch and experiments with recycled materials, to create funky design objects. Each workshop has a topic about essential values of life and challenges students to think collectively and through their hands.

For more information please visit Satori Lab and Pagina12

-vanesa

After a career combating extreme poverty, Don Lam helped to quilt the lives of artisan communities in six countries together with North American customers. With a mission to provide a consistent income and preserve traditional handicrafts, Fair Trade Quilts expands the market for indigenous designs that are ready for North American tastes.