We are excited to announce that DEED was once again selected to work with Pangea Advisors, the pro-bono consulting group of Columbia Business School’s International Development Club. DEED had the pleasure of receiving support from a Pangea team of students in spring 2014, which resulted in a series of business … Continued

On Tuesday night alumna and research fellow Daphna Lewinshtein (DEED ’12) and faculty member/director Cynthia Lawson will be pitching scarves made by Ajkem’a Loy’a in San Lucas Tolimán at Story in New York City. They’re calling for “Good people, good products…” Sounds like us, right? Keep your fingers crossed at … Continued

We created a new class in the Design & Management program in the School of Design Strategies to run in Fall 2011; Small Business Enterprise: DEED. The goal of this class is to sell the products of the artisan groups DEED works with. The first challenge to be addressed is … Continued

I stayed in Antigua for 6 weeks, studying Spanish intensively. I wanted to be able to communicate better with the women we are working with. I joined the summer team of students visiting the women of Ixokiin Santiago Zamora and I visited the women of Ajkem’a Loy’a and Barco in … Continued

Additional view of Mayda’s sizable beach tote Mayda showcasing her accomplished beach bag. Catharina modeling Ruths bag

The women of Ajkem’a Loy’a finishing the bags they designed. Mayda takes charge concerning the patterns and the sewing Rebecca sewing Romelia’s bag Hilda and Gloria finishing their bags, the women made three sizes of the same kind of bag, Hilda and Gloria are both finishing the smallest version Sandra assembling the … Continued

Barco La evolución de los productos esta llendo muy bien en el segundo grupo, Barco. Ahora que tenemos terminadas las muestras de los cubrecojines pasamos a formalizar los tamaños. Hemos escogido dos tamaños de los más vendidos en el mercado americano 18”x18” y 12”x18”. Es una fortaleza que este grupo … Continued

Mayan girls and young women in Guatemala are triply disenfranchised by their youth, their gender and their ethnicity. At the age of 12 they are taken out of school to work because their families cannot afford their education. Given the opportunity of an education, girls hold the key to breaking … Continued

Time has proven to be a highly treasured element on this trip. In the past two weeks, we have experienced incredible progress with both Ajkem’a Loy’a and BARCO. It has been both a privilege and learning experience working with each group; and equally exciting to see what they have been … Continued

Sandra’s experiment weaving the logo of Ajkem’a Loy’a

Last year in June, in San Lucas Toliman, we worked with a much larger group of women then the group of women that is currently assembled under the name of Ajkem’a Loy’a. Students and faculty from The New School conducted workshops in business, marketing and design. The women of San … Continued

The TV show LatiNation will be broadcasting a segment on our project in Guatemala this coming Sunday. They interviewed me last Fall, and have edited that with footage from last summer. The show is being described as “Making the Grade, learn how a New York school lends a helping hand … Continued

Since arriving in San Lucas Toliman, all seven of us (Sandra, Rebecca, Larissa, Alex, Justine, Pascale, and Moira) have been very excited and eager to work with the women. The first day, we had introductions on both sides and sharing of ourselves and our work. we then began with having … Continued

Last year we conducted a participatory photography project with the women of Ajkem’a Loy’a. Seven compañeras were given disposable cameras in order to capture images representing their hopes and fears. After taking the photographs, the women used the pictures to reflect on their desires and concerns within the context of … Continued

Pascale and 5 Parsons students who will be focusing on the development of new products with Ajkem’a Loy’a have arrived to San Lucas and they will continue blogging from there keeping us updated! Some of the things they will work on – critiquing current designs, building on what has been … Continued

Per Ajkem’a Loy’a’s request, on Sunday afternoon students led a workshop which focused on exporting. The workshop was divided into three parts. The first, focused on what needs to be in place before exporting begins (high quality products, a clear print and online catalogue with styles and prices, communications, and … Continued

Lesson learned from the project: only what is truly designed collaboratively remained in the artisan women’s group a year after the project began. In summer 2008 a team of students redesigned Ajkem’a Loy’a’s store in San Lucas Toliman. Although they worked carefully with the artisan women, it was not a … Continued

Every time I travel with a team of students for an international project, I truly believe that group could never be surpassed in their energy, skills, support for one another, and eagerness to learn. I have, again, been proven wrong. This year’s team is yet another superb group of students … Continued

Last night we arrived in San Lucas Toliman. It was my first visit to Ajkem’a Loy’a after last year’s collaboration. As soon as we drove into the town, I felt at home. I recognized every corner, every smell, every smile that welcomed me back. After spending two weeks working with … Continued

modeled by one of our students! We were excited to see how much Ajkem’a Loy’a has been experimenting with new color palettes, and even new scarf designs (with a variety of color combinations and weaving techniques.) Click on the image to see the next one.

This year we returned to Guatemala with two goals: to continue the work we had started last year with Ajkem’a Loy’a in San Lucas Tolimán, and to expand our work in Guatemala with other communities in other towns/villages. We are excited to report back that we are on track in … Continued

This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit Earth Lodge – a wonderful lodge just 20 minutes outside of Antigua with absolutely stunning views, delicious home cooked meals, and an extremely friendly and international staff. I was particularly moved by the work that co-owner Briana is doing in the … Continued

I traveled to Guatemala in April 2008 to meet with Ajkem’a Loy’a and plan the summer collaboration. I was given the task to document my visit through photography so that I could report back to the students in NY. I felt reluctant about taking on this responsibility since I considered … Continued

This slideshow documents the current inventory in Ajkem’a Loy’a’s store in San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala. Roll over “Notes” for details on materials, size, and prices.

Aronson Gallery – 66 5th Ave, NY, NY 09/19 – 10/03, 10AM – 8PM Opening Reception 09/24, 6PM

As I mentioned before, after learning how to bead I became fascinated with this idea of each bead as a pixel. Here is a short animation that took me 3 weeks to bead (and 1 hour to put together :)).

Before and After shots from the inside coming soon…

Our month-long stay in San Lucas ended with the inauguration of Ajkem’a Loy’a’s newly redesigned store. Here it is – the new logo handpainted on the facade, courtesy of Elias Jacinto (master painter & typographer in San Lucas) with side texts by our own Jeremy “Jeremias Ganabien” Goodwin.

Estella with a fish bag. Tomorrow, Monday the 23rd, Candice and Trey (Carlos) will do a workshop with the children of Ajkem’a Loy’a to make little bags. The children are very inspiring, they make us beautiful drawings and brighten up our days with  their love, affection and openess. While one of the groups … Continued

A 30-minute boat ride to Panajachel and an hour car ride (or 4-hour multiple transfer bus ride on public transportation as some from our group experienced) got us to Chichicastenango known for its enormous outdoor market on Thursdays and Sundays (as well as the church in which the Popol Vuh … Continued

Last year some of the women from Ajkem’a Loy’a were trained in naturally dyeing cotton threads for their weaving. With a stove setup in the outside patio of the students’ house, Sandra very patiently walked us through the lengthy process through which we dyed two bunches of thread with “Pericon” … Continued

This was the first workshop run by the women from Ajkem’a Loy’a for the group from The New School. They taught us their techniques to make “fajas de mostacilla” (beaded belts that they commonly use to tie their skirts around their waist.) We worked in pairs starting off with a … Continued

On our way from Panajachel back to San Lucas Toliman we made a stop from the curvy road to soothe the motion sick. What we ran into was this most beautiful landscape from the “Mirador de Godines.” It was dusk and we were above the clouds that have been covering … Continued

Yesterday was a particularly exciting day because we were having our first weaving workshop. I packed my backstrap loom that has traveled with me from Guatemala to NY and back to Guatemala without being touched. The women from Ajkem’s Loy’a and the students spread around the house, setting up their … Continued

Building on the June 5th workshop on pricing, our student team started off by asking the women of Ajkem’a Loy’a what items could be eliminated from the pricing worksheet in order to reduce the price point of one of their products. This conversation led the group to prioritize what they … Continued

Candice, Eileen, Jeremy, Stacy, Trey started off their first workshop with everyone sharing the clothing and accessories they had been asked to bring along and explain why the brought them. This exercise was meant to show that the things one likes can be made in different ways and turned into … Continued

Anna, David, Jane, and Nika led this workshop on valuing time and pricing. They started with a laughing ice breaker in which all participants had to laugh for a whole minute. Then, each person had to write or draw everything they do in one day. This setup the conversation about … Continued

We learned that some of the children make garments for their barbie dolls. This particular one is an interesting outfit designed from local textiles. It reminds us of one of our students’ prototype designs from the Spring semester, and something to return to with the women (and children!)

Dancing is central to latin culture and is already playing a big role in our time in Guatemala. On the first day the women of Ajkem’a Loy’a performed their typical dance, the “són.”Later in the day we had a chance to also try the moves.It has now become tradition to … Continued

It’s been raining every single day since we arrived in San Lucas. First, the two tropical storms, and now it seems to just be the normal climate. Everything is damp, the things we wash don’t really dry, and we look forward to every bit of sun we can get!

As I was editing some of our videos I started to attract several of the children from Ajkem’a Loy’a to the desk in which I was sitting. They were content to just sit next to me and watch and listen as I edited in iMovie, but it was when I … Continued

We have been extremely moved by all the children who surround us on a daily basis. We have become accustomed to running workshops with interruptions of baby sounds and children playing. We took some time out of our routine to handmake sock puppets (without socks!) for the kids.

Our three teams of students: Marketing, Business & Product Development have designed a series of workshops for the women of Ajkem’a Loy’a. Our brave Marketing Team members – Aashrita, Aparna, Nick & N’deye – kicked off our workshop series with their first on branding. They walked the women through exercises … Continued

Antigua was the perfect place to spend our first night in Guatemala. Despite the never ending rain from two tropical storms, we couldn’t wait to wander around town and discover the beauty of this country and region.I wonder who decided this cutout was reflective of the artisan market inside?