Part of my job at Aid to Artisans Ghana was to safeguard sacred, ritualistic concepts from appropriation for western markets. My experience from working with craft people, businesses, and designers nurtured my interest in the craft industry, and it opened up possibilities for me to explore design and making in America.
Working with craft people in Ghana taught me about using scarce resources and sustaining what’s available. This design and production method was a symbiotic process where they learned their skill set and developed appropriate technologies to spend up their production methods. Western markets for handmade are time-sensitive and sometimes require some aspect of mass-producing. Attempt to navigate between mass and custom products
Working with craft people in Ghana, and West Africa, taught me much about using scarce resources and sustaining what’s available.
This design and production method was a symbiotic process where a learned their skill set and developed appropriate technologies to spend up their production methods.
In western markets handmade products are time-sensitive and sometimes require some aspect of mass-producing. My task was to translate that process seamlessly from design to market.
See and purchase samples from the link below.