Viva Guatemala!

It's hard to imagine a more inspiring place... We are back and filled with new ideas. Thanks to everyone who helped make our amazing trip back possible!

Guatemala Bound!

A couple weeks ago we found out that we received a grant from the Guatemalan Exporters Association to travel back to Guatemala to work on some new product development. Today we made it official by booking our flights for September.

The goal of the trip is to visit with some new artisan communities as well as attend the largest craft fair in Central America. Above and below are a few pictures from our 2006 trip where we visited Antigua, Chichicastenango and several villages surrounding Lake Atitlan.

Needless to say, we are beyond excited and can hardly wait for September!

Spotted at Anthropologie!

Big thanks to Ben Blood for spotting our custom cosmetic bags for Anthropologie in their New York store!

Grain at Anthropologie!

Our custom Sololá cosmetics bags for Anthropologie are finally available!

Several months ago we started a collaboration with Anthropologie when one of their buyers spotted our Sololá purse. We worked with them to create this custom cosmetic bag using the same vintage huipils that we source in Guatemala. Each bag is totally different. You can find them online and in selected stores here in the US and UK.

Sololá in Lucky!

Big thanks to Editor At Large, Elise Loehnen for featuring Sololá in the upcoming July issue of Lucky!

New Chi-Chi in the shop!

We just added new 3 strand Chi-Chi necklaces to the Grain shop this afternoon. They are available in green (pictured above), blue, orange and pink/red for $36.00.

Chi-Chi is made from 100% cotton by Guatemalan artisans, and like all our products, their sales support our commitment to 1% For The Planet.

Chi-Chi and Sololá in the blogosphere

We are super excited by all the great posts on Chi-Chi and Sololá that keep popping up. Above is a post by Jennifer from yesterday on Ecouterre (Jasmin wrote about Sololá in January). Check out more on Design Milk, Notcouture, and Frizzi Frizzi.

Thanks to everyone who has placed orders through our shop. We just received new shipments from Guatemala so look forward to more images soon.

UPDATE 04/02/10: Check out Laura Cassidy's post on her Wear What When blog at Seattle Metropolitan.

Chi-Chi joins Sololá in our shop!

Our Chi-Chi necklaces, made in collaboration with artisans in Guatemala, are finally up in our shop!! They join our Sololá purses also made in Guatemala from upcycled vintage textiles.

To read/see more about Chi-Chi and Sololá, check out our long overdue press release and/or download some high-res images here.

Above is Chi-Chi short multi cluster. Below is Chi-Chi long green cluster, Sololá small multi, and Sololá large multi.

Sololá is here!!

In 2006, while still students at RISD, James, Brit and I were part of an amazing wintersession course taught by Mimi Robinson called Bridging Cultures Through Design. Working with artisan communities in Guatemala, we developed a series of textiles goods celebrating Guatemalan textile traditions. The products went to market and continue to support sustainable incomes for those artisan groups that we collaborated with.

We are excited to now be offering one of the designs from that collaboration, called Sololá, in the Grain Shop! Here is the official description:

Sololá celebrates the artistry of Guatemalan women weavers. Each purse upcycles a vintage huipil (traditional women's blouse woven on the backstrap loom) to create an individual statement. Turned inside-out, the huipils are an explosion of color and handwork. Each purse is assembled by Guatemalan artisans in Antigua from textiles sourced at the famous Chichicastenango Market.

Sololá will be available in two sizes at $38 and $60. Each purse is made in Antigua, Guatemala and is totally unique.