Read Dick’s letter from his family’s recent stay in Laos.
Santa Ana del Valle is a small town east of Oaxaca city in southern Mexico. For generations the people of Santa Ana have been weaving intricate wool textiles and we have brought back many of their rugs to Traditions. They make the rugs by hand from spinning the wool to a finished textile, often using natural dyes that they collect from the land surrounding Santa Ana. The weavers we worked with are trying to maintain their weaving tradition but are struggling within the current economy, Many leave this community and this weaving tradition as they travel north in search of work across the border.
Traditions’ owner, Dick Meyer, traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico several years ago with his family and met the weavers of Santa Ana. This October his daughters, Xela and Zannah Herridge-Meyer, returned to Oaxaca. They were welcomed into the home of Rodolfo and Mariana. Along with other weavers from Santa Ana, they learned about the rug making process while taking breaks for freshly picked corn, hot chocolate, and homemade salsa.
See photos, sizes and prices of the rugs.
(Video by Zannah and Xela Herridge-Meyer).
Traditions is a place to discover folk art products from cultures around the world, made available through fair and equitable trade relationships with low-income artisans and farmers from more than fifty countries.
Traditions is also a cafe and center for concerts, workshops and public forums; a gathering place for a community of interesting and involved people.
This site is about community - from our friends here in Olympia to the wider community of the world. Here you'll find useful information, stories and connections to others. We welcome your comments, suggestions, ideas and your presence. We encourage you to come gather with us for conversation, music and good food.
Find out where some of our clothes and accessories came from in our interactive “Where in the world did it come from?” pages. Click on the images below to learn interesting facts about a number of fair traded items.
Traditions, as Traditions Fair Trade, started at the Antique Sandwich Company. in Tacoma, Washington. in October of 1993. The Antique Sandwich Company has been operating since 1974 as a place for tasty and healthy breakfasts, sandwiches, salads, entrees, and desserts as well as a spot for the South Puget Sound community for folk and classical concerts, open mikes, plays, and social benefits. Tamie and Shirley Herridge started small and grew over the years and they continue to serve the first and next generation of “Antique regulars”. I had been a working part of that partnership for two decades until devoting my time to the Olympia store and cafe. However, you can still find a section of ‘Traditions’ crafts at the Antique Sandwich Co., so visit there as well - if not for the crafts then for the best milkshakes you might ever have. (Antique Sandwich Company, 5102 No. Pearl, Tacoma, Wa. 98407 (253) 752-4069, near the entrance to Pt. Defiance Park and the Vashon Ferry landing) -Dick Meyer
Contact Dick by email at Dick@TraditionsFairTrade.com.
