Trade Winds: Nobody’s Fault
Monday, September 10th, 2007
It seems so difficult these days to take time out of our busy schedules to research and focus our efforts toward a more sustainable world for everyone. With corporate businesses and the media providing us more convenient ways to accumulate everything we need to live comfortably, and with lower priced goods and uncountable options, many people find it difficult to make every purchase support the good for all involved in making and selling that product. If asked why, many probably feel it’s just easier not to worry about it. Maybe they feel that small purchases, compared to the millions spent by everyone around them, is just not that substantial.
Bai Mai Group is a group of artists living in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand. The artisans use natural materials traditionally, such as plant dyes and natural fibers to create natural, yet vibrant and colorful products.
In a small village in northern Thailand, just outside of Chiang Mai, lives a cooperative of artists and their families who make beautiful vases and other wood carvings from the mango tree. Each piece is unique and handmade by a skilled craftsman, who shapes the wood with hand held cutting blades as the wood spins on a turning wheel. The shaped piece is dried in a kiln before adding the designs or colors. The mango wood used is harvested from the older trees, which after 20 to 30 years, no longer bear marketable fruit. Using the older trees for the crafts, and replacing them with younger ones, provides responsible management for this valuable resource.
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