Dining Alfresco in Fair Trade Style

Hot summer days call for cool cocktails, and we are loving this super simple Gin Cup. Refreshing and not overly sweet, the light pink hue looks sweet in our handmade glasses from India.

Gin Cup Ingredients:
Gin, sugar syrup, Campari, sweet vermouth, mint, lemon juice, pink grapefruit juice

Method:
Place the mint sprigs and sugar syrup in the bottom of a glass. Stir about to bruise the mint slightly.

Fill the glass with ice.

Add the lemon juice and gin and stir a frost should begin to form.

Finally add a measure of Campari and sweet vermouth, followed by a glug of grapefruit juice and serve!

Want a warm weather non-alcoholic option? Hand squeezed lemonade is always a hit!

Homemade Lemonade Ingredients:
6 lemons, 2/3 cup fair trade sugar, water

Method:
First scrub the lemons in warm water, then take the zest from 3 of the lemons using a potato peeler or zester.

Remove any white pith with a sharp knife – this is important to prevent the lemonade tasting bitter.

Now put the zest in a large bowl and add the squeezed juice of all the lemons and the sugar.

Pour in in 2½ pints (1.4 litres) of boiling water, stir well, cover and leave overnight in a cool place.

Stir again the following day, and taste to check the sweetness, add more sugar if needed.

Strain with a coarse sieve and pour into bottles using sterilized corks, then chill thoroughly and serve.

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Stop in the store to see even more gorgeous recycled glassware – we have tons of different styles, shapes, and designs, all Handmade and Fair Trade by our talented artisans in India!

Cuckoo for Nkuku!

Here at One World Market, we have gone cuckoo for Nkuku!  Make your kitchen one of a kind with these beautiful and unique pieces of stainless steel enamelware. We have something for you whether you like light, neutral colors or bright, bold colors.We have an array of colorful cups, mugs, intricately designed trays, bowls, and more.

Do you want to keep your kitchen looking calm and cool? No problem. Come and take a look at our bird themed cups and mugs. Each piece of enamelware is hand painted by an artisan in India. Even though they have tranquil colors, they will make your kitchen shine!

More of a bright and punchy color person? We have that too! Each cup has little baby birds who will certainly make you smile. These light cups are very easy to handle and will look great in your cabinets.

Not much of a bird person? Then we have flower enamelware just for you. Each cup, mug, pitcher, tray, and tiffin have nice red and blue flowers that will certainly brighten your day. These pieces are great for meals at home, picnics, or other fun activities.

Need a new lunch box before the school year? Want a new lunch box for your job? Then come on over! A tiffin is a small but appetizing meal somewhere between breakfast and lunch. Tiffin carriers are small meal holders which are very popular in India. People strap their carriers to their bikes or carry it around since it is small and easy to hold and handle. You can easily place it in a messenger bag or purse if you are having a picnic or going to work. Kids can easily strap it to their backpack so it is ready for lunch. The carriers have a clip that keeps the three containers sealed. When your child goes to school with this creative lunch box, all the kids will be talking about it and want to get their own! Come get these fair trade and hand-painted tiffin carriers before they are gone.

Yep, we have the whole set. The bowls are just the perfect size! Not only are they useful but they are attractive too!

These nice jugs are great for some tasty lemonade on a hot day, plus they are appropriately sized jugs and sure to hold your favorite drink.

Complete the set with our matching trays! Compliment the cups and bowls with our hand painted trays with small detailed birds or decorative red flowers. Serve your meals with style with our new Nkuku enamelware.

Nkuku is a fair trade company that helps struggling artisans in Kashmir, India. Working at Nkuku helps these artisans gain money to help them continue their lives and get new jobs. Every piece of stainless steel enamelware is hand painted.

Since we only get these Nkuku products once a year, come on over to One World Market in Durham, NC to get your enamelware before they are gone!

 

Your Fair Trade Friend, Joseph

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Joseph is a volunteer with One World Market and we are so excited to have him join our Blogging Team! Look for many more posts from Joseph in the future.

One World Market is a Fair Trade, Non-Profit Retail Store located in Durham, NC. Shop with us at 811 Ninth Street or online at www.shoponeworldmarket.com

Spring Preview: NEW Outdoor Rugs

With cold temperatures on the way, we here at One World Market stay warm by wearing Fair Trade wool ( of course! ) and by looking forward to Spring!

We recently received a wonderful preview of some indoor/outdoor woven rugs that are produced in Senegal. Perfect for an outdoor deck or patio, we squealed when we saw the punch of color and pattern.

Two things Durhamites love: outdoor living and color! And we have to agree. A morning at the Farmer’s Market followed by a hike at the Eno – what could be better?

Following it up with a homemade meal (or glass of wine!) on your deck or patio of course! Which would be all the more fun with one of the gorgeous rugs:

Other color choices available in the zig-zag pattern:

We love the idea of bringing a bit of Africa to your home with these rugs. In Senegal where these are produced, the locals call them “Mingle Mats”.

Find a group of women weaving together in Senegal, or a family dining together, and chances are you will also find a Mingle Mat. These gorgeous African outdoor rugs are produced in a lively weaving facility in Dakar, Senegal's capital city, from long strands of extruded plastic.

We are so excited to bring these rugs to Durham this Spring!

Making a Real Difference: Traveling to the US

This post is the fifth in our series Making a Real Difference. To catch up on what this series is about – check out the first post here: Upcoming Event to Support 850 Families, the second post: From Sheep to Wool., and the third post: From One Knot to an Entire Rug, and the fourth post: Burning the Rug.

In our last post, we saw how artisans take the completed rug and “finish” it. Each of those finishing steps makes the handmade, Fair Trade rug even more durable, and after a final inspection is done, the rug is ready to be shipped to North America. By the time it is prepared for shipping, more than 15 people have helped in the creation of the rug.

All rugs are then shipped by air for JFK Airport. Anxious rug volunteers and Ten Thousand Villages staff members trek to the airport with a cargo van, pick up the shipment and bring it back to the Main Rug Room at the Ephrata, Pennsylvania, Ten Thousand Villages store. There, a team of rug volunteers and TTV staff unbale the shipment and get them ready for customers to enjoy.

When we’re ready at One World Market to host our rug event, we start by clearing floor space in our store. When the rugs arrive by cargo van, OWM staff and volunteers help unload the rugs.

During a rug event, we host the rugs for five days. During the event, everyone is welcome to come and take a look at these beautiful works of art! We have over 300 handmade rugs in the store, of all sizes, so you’re bound to find one to suit your taste and décor.

If you have interest in any particular rugs, you are welcome to take those rugs home on loan and try them in your own space, without the obligation to buy. The OWM staff and team of volunteers make the entire selection process a breeze.

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One World Market will be hosting a rug event this year from: Thursday, September 5th until Sunday, September 8th.

Please let us know if you have any questions!

Making a Real Difference: Burning the Rug

 

This post is the fourth in our series Making a Real Difference. To catch up on what this series is about – check out the first post here: Upcoming Event to Support 850 Families, the second post: From Sheep to Wool., and the third post: From One Knot to an Entire Rug.

In our last post of this series, we left off with the rugs being hand knotted by our adult artisans living in rural Pakistan. Our rug has come a long way in it’s life cycle,

and the next steps are all part of finishing the rug. It’s quite a process!

First, transporting the rugs from the knotter’s home to a warehouse facility in Lahore for finishing.

By way of car, ox cart, train, or even on the back of motorbike or bicycle, the newly knotted rugs are cut from the loom and taken to the warehouse in Lahore for finishing.

When the rug comes from the village, it is first numbered, measured and recorded in a daily logbook.

This allows the artisan group to note the design and size of the rug, the artisan who produced it, the village in which they live and the name of the village supervisor.

Burning

First the rug is burned on the back with a natural gas flame in order to effectively clean the back of wool fuzz.

Washing

The rug then goes for washing. The rug is drenched with water, washed with a bleach and water mixture, rinsed clean and then washed again. This time the rug is scrubbed by hand with regular bar soap until it is full of a thick lather of soap. Buckets of water are dumped on the rug as the rug is scrubbed with a very tough scrub brush.

The rug is rinsed clean and then with a squeegie-like tool called the poorah the water is shuffled from the rug. The artisan needs to be careful as the poorah is quite sharp and could easily cut the nearly completed rug. Such vigorous washing is necessary for the rug to achieve its final shine.

Drying

The rug is then hung from the side of a building and left to dry in the sunlight for up to a week. Sunlight helps the rug become more brilliant.

Shearing

Next, the rug is sheared by an artisan who drapes the rug over a steel pipe, its diameter determined by the desired height of the final pile. With a heavy shears (similar to shears once used to hand-trim the border of a lawn), the artisan trims the pile to the desired length. It takes three years of training to become a master trimmer.

Stretching

Next, the rug goes for stretching. Using wooden platforms to frame the rug, artisans nail each inch of the rug to the platforms and leave it in the sunlight all day. Usually done on rooftops, this process corrects the shape of the rug which may have been altered during knotting or washing.

Rugs made with a woolen warp are more difficult to stretch because a woolen warp is not as "pliable" as a cotton warp. A cotton warp allows the rug to stretch and maintain its correct form after stretching.

Neeming

While the rug is on the stretching frame, an artisan applies an organic mixture to the back of the rug that provides a lifetime mothproof protection for the rug. This organic mixture contains a substance found in neem trees, which acts as a natural moth repellent.

Clipping and Fringes

The rug is brought back to the warehouse for the final steps of the finishing process. The fringes are tied using the leftover warp threads. These knots can be tied in several ways, from simple knots to exquisite needlework. The fringe knots protect the rug from unraveling by securing the warp and weft threads. A rug can become threadbare over time, but if the warp and weft are held together, the rug remains strong.

Another finishing process includes clipping any unwanted warp knots and weft threads. During the knotting of the rug, a knotter ties over 40 knots per minute and it is inevitable that some warp threads are cut. At the time, these warp threads are tied and knotting continues. At finishing time, these knots are cut out, leaving the structure of the rug untouched. Also, the ends of the shuttled weft threads are trimmed during this period.

NEXT TIME…

In our next post we’ll learn about how rugs make their way from Pakistan to One World Market!

One World Market will be hosting a rug event this year from: Thursday, September 5th until Sunday, September 8th.

Please let us know if you have any questions!

Easy Gifts that Keep Giving

This summer, we here at One World Market seem to be getting lots of folks looking for housewarming and hostess gifts.

We love putting together impromptu gift baskets, and thought it would be fun to feature a few of our favorites here on the blog!

Baker’s Delight: Whether it’s a gift for a home cook or a professional chef, anyone who enjoys baking would love this gift! Fair Trade Madagascar Vanilla from Madécasse, paired with cool blue napkins handmade in Bali, a utensil set hand-carved from sustainable acacia wood, all nestled inside an all purpose white-washed bamboo bowl.

Every item tells a story at One World Market, but we love the story behind our new vanilla! Not only does Madécasse support Fair Trade farmers who grow and harvest the vanilla bean, but they also produce and package their product in Madagascar! This provides 4 times the impact of traditional Fair Trade practices.

Tea Lover: The perfect gift for the tea lover in your life! Choose an Organic, Fair Trade tea and pair it with a beautiful handmade, Fair Trade mug! We love this blue and white stunner from Vietnam, handmade and hand painted! To round off the gift, add in a hand-carved mango wood owl trivet from India, perfect for a tea kettle.

Borrowed from an idea we saw on Pinterest, you can take a great gift like a cookbook and make it truly memorable:

By wrapping it in a tea towel! You can even spice up the package by adding salad servers!

We love gift wrapping in tea towels not only because it’s super cute, but it’s also sustainable and simple! Seriously, no cutting, taping, or trash! And it only takes 30 seconds! See below:

Also cute in a tea towel:

a nice bottle of wine! The tea towel above is handmade in Ethiopia out of Organic, Ethiopian Cotton. So soft!

This tea towel comes from an artisan group, Creative Women, that supports 65 artisans living in Ethiopia. Starting with only 5 weavers, One World Market is proud to be a part of a growing success story for the women in Ethiopia!

So whether it’s a hostess gift, a housewarming present, or just a small token of gratitude, giving a Fair Trade gift is always the way to go!