Thursday, August 24, 2017

Collaboration with The Batik Boutique in Malaysia

The Batik Boutique was created to disrupt the cycle of poverty in Malaysia, and recently we collaborated with this award-winning social enterprise to bring some of their fabulous products to our subscription box customers. Here is a post from www.thebatikboutique.com that explains the art of batik:

Batik is an ancient art that has been practiced for 2,000 years in southeast Asia. This complex dyeing process creates beautiful, intricate designs that are unique to the region they come from or tell a story. The process uses dye-resistant wax to create elaborate patterns and designs, and the wax is then washed to reveal the batik pattern or the process is repeated to create multiple colors. 
The first step in batik making is to stretch a piece of cotton or silk onto a frame and paint (“cat”) or stamp (“cop”) a design on the fabric using a mixture of beeswax and resin.
Each stamp is hand-made, and batik artisans create repeating patterns with a single stamp. 
Painting designs are done using a canting, a pen-like instrument that draws the hot wax onto the fabric. The tip of the canting is usually made of copper in order for the wax to flow smoothly onto the cloth and be placed exactly where the artisan draws, and the holder is wood so that the heat is only conducted into the wax instead of the artisan's hand.   
Next, the dye is painted onto the fabric between the intricate wax pattern. After the dye dries, these first two steps can be repeated to produce multiple layers of design and color.
The dye is set by soaking the fabric in a fixative.  Finally, the fabric is boiled to remove the wax and reveal the original fabric color along with the new layers of design. You can tell a piece is truly batik when the colors and the design are on both sides of the fabric, whereas screen printing would be one-sided. 
The Batik Boutique works with family businesses and batik artisans in Malaysia to supply our fabrics, and all of our batik fashion products use these hand-dyed textiles. 

Saturday, May 13, 2017

World Fair Trade Day

When addressing global poverty, we at Elevita are dedicated to creating sustainable solutions rather than temporary humanitarian relief. This is why we have created an online platform to bridge the gap between hardworking artisans and worldwide customers. Purchasing products from Elevita allows these artisans to maintain their businesses, which will in turn provoke self-sufficiency in their communities. Why give a handout when you can give a handshake?


Friday, March 3, 2017

Best Bags Ever

We recently received these photos from our artisans in Battambang, Cambodia. The women make amazingly beautiful and high-quality bags! The process is impressive, and the product even more so. Shop our website, www.Elevita.com, for the Perfect Pouch and Best Bag Ever.

We insist that our artisans set their own fair prices. Then, in an effort to sell as many items for them as possible, we price the goods as low as we can, instead of marking them up. The result is that those who purchase these awesome products quickly realize that they could be sold for much more than the price they paid for them! This model gives our artisans more orders and our customers a great deal. We think it's a win-win!

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Saturday, January 7, 2017

Wise Men Bring Mango, Rice, and Bananas

One of our best-selling items in 2016 was our nine-piece hand-carved nativity from Paete Laguna, the carving capital of the Philippines. Here's a little history we received from the woodcarver on how it came to be. We are grateful to all our customers for helping us support gifted artisans like Arman!