Artisan Crafts – Fairly traded, ethically sourced.
I grew up in South Africa – a beautiful country with so much to offer. Except to me (at that time) it didn’t offer what I really wanted – the ability to travel freely and easily around the world.
So at the tender age of 20, I upped sticks and moved to the UK -- intending to work for a year or two, save money, and then backpack around the world. Life, as it turned out, had other ideas.
Eventually, I did get to travel though. Somewhat differently and later than I expected but indeed did I travel! In 2013 I set out on a bicycle with my partner with the vague plan of heading East and seeing how far we got.
Almost two years and over 20,000 km later we arrived at our final destination – Thailand. It had been a life-changing experience and one that I would never change for the world! Now that we were back, however, I began to wonder ‘What next?’.
It seemed obvious that I should combine my true loves.
1) Beautiful crafts – Growing up in South Africa, I have always been surrounded by amazing handmade goods from wire and beadwork to woodcarving and painting. It helped that my mother was an artist too!
2) Travel – I would always gravitate to the markets on our travels, and much to my partner's disgust I would normally walk away with some small (mostly!) memento from our travels. Although he drew the line at getting a Shyrdak from Kyrgyzstan – I’m not sure how we would have travelled with a large felt rug on our bicycles!
But the more I travelled, the more I noticed something else.
Sure, I want to make a living, but more importantly, I want to make a living that isn’t at the expense of others or the environment. We live in a world of fast and cheap fashion with people thinking very little about how or where things are made or what happens to them when they are done with them. And trying to change people's outlook on this is another one of my passions.
So that is how I decided what I wanted to do next. Use my experiences from the markets of carpet sellers in Iran, the scarf weavers in Laos and the bustling hawkers on the street corners of South Africa and bring all the fantastic crafts from around the world together in one space. A space defined by its ethics as much as its beauty. And so Karakorum was born.
I hope you'll join me along the ancient, still-mysterious trade routes of the world.
