Our first project —an ongoing collaboration with Ajkem’a Loy’a – a women’s weaving cooperative in San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala. It began in 2007 in partnership with the international humanitarian organization CARE and with funding from Sheila C. Johnson. In June 2008 our students led workshops in marketing, business, and product design on site in Guatemala during a month. They walked the women through exercises in valuing time, pricing, self-branding, identity, colors, shapes, and symbols, and a redesign of their logo. The women from Ajkem’a Loy’a taught us their techniques to make “fajas de mostacilla” (beaded belts that they commonly use to tie their skirts around their waist). We initiated a participatory photography project where seven artisans were given cameras in order to capture images representing their hopes and fears. Our visit ended with the inauguration of Ajkem’a Loy’a’s newly redesigned store in town.
When we returned to Ajkem’a Loy’a, in 2009, we helped organize an exhibition of their photo project. In their studios, we critiqued current designs, built on what had been done to adapt new products, created tags for products, setup their new computers, a website and an online and print catalogue. At Ajkem’a Loy’a’s request we presented an export-focused workshop in addition to those centered on the design process, developing new products or experimenting with different colors, shapes, and patterns. We gave a brief workshop on filming techniques and handed over our video cameras for the women to produce a video about their community, culture and traditions.
In 2011, we provided the women of Ajkem’a Loy’a with a small stipend to develop a new product line for the students to work with. We put together a collection of 10 pieces consisting of bags and scarves and began selling them at the Original Women store in New York City. We are currently awaiting the grand opening of the Ajkem’a Loy’a’s Etsy shop thanks to a new partnership with a fantastic group of students from Pangea Advisors – a pro-bono consulting group of the International Development Club at Columbia Business School.
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
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
Our last few days in Guatemala were so hectic we did not get around to blog and report back on all of the work we were able to accomplish. Now,
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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,
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
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
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
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
In March 2009 I returned to San Lucas Toliman to continue working with the women of Ajkem’a Loy’a on the tracksuit we are developing for W139 , one of the main
close-up of one of the experiments of Catherina the experiments of Catherina with the W for the top part of the pants Sandra experimenting with a dark color and more
a design that Romelia and Cindy collaborated on all women are weaving real size now, no more small experiments Gloria and I collaborate on a design for the sleeves of
In the afternoon, from 2pm to 6pm, I work with the other women of Ajkem’a Loy’a, Sandra, Romelia, Catherina, Ruth, Gloria, Hilda y Cindy experimenting with weaving. At 4 pm
Every morning from 9am to 12 pm, I work with Mayda in the shop of Ajkem’a Loy’a, designing the shape, making the patterns and sewing the prototypes for the track
Romelia’s design of the W Catherina’s first experiment Telma and Catherina discussing the design of the figure W
In the coming two weeks the women of Ajkem’a Loy’a and I will develop the first proto type of a track suit for W139. W139, one of the main art spaces
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
Today was my last day working with Ajkem’a Loy’a this week. I traveled with a grant from W139 to teach them how to use the internet. A paper-based workshop to
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
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
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
Next week will be our last week here in San Lucas. We have done a lot and yet feel there is so much left to do! We will be focusing
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
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’
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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,
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
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
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,
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