Gift of Infinite Colors: Designer belts from Santiago Atitlan

This montage of photos tells the visual story of elevating a traditional village art to high-quality production for export to the world.

I developed village weavings to high-quality, high-value products for export to shops and buyers throughout the world

Quality work for export required years of study, many experiments with designs, and unending attention to detail.

Working with the designs and innovations I produced, the village weavers exported direct to the United States. From the design center there, I shipped the products to shops and catalogs throughout North America. The catalogs then sold products to customers throughout the world.

Sales of the products made the weavers the highest-paid workers in the village. Money from the business paid for the education of their children, medicines for their families, purchases of land, and start-ups of other businesses.

Go to giftofinfinitecolors.com to see other stories told through Flash videos.

I am seeking work in Arabic-speaking countries to repeat this success with artists in remote villages.

( I took the photos from 1981 to 1994 in the village of Santiago Atitlan, Solola, Guatemala.

Photographed with Nikon and Canon cameras, scanned via Canon, assembled in Final Cut Pro, narrated in Pro Tools.)

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Guatemala
• Mayans
• Santiago
• Atitlan
• design
• products
• for
• export
• to
• USA
• indigenous
• art
• boutiques
• money
• education
• traditional
• Arabic

[shuffle232]

great story,

thanks for sharing,

keep up the good work.

Have you thought of adding some music in the background?

Loved how the money is going back into the community.