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Giving Back

Giving Back

Giving Back

April/May 2014 issue of American Craft magazine
Author Staff
Found My Animal, Leash

Found My Animal, leash. Photo: Found My Animal

 

Indego Africa
This nonprofit partners with women’s artist collectives in Rwanda to help sell their goods online and in stores across the developed world. Indego then reinvests their profits in business development for the artisans. These colorful 12-inch Plateau baskets, made one at a time from fine plant threads, feature Rwandan motifs.


Stephanie Odegard
In the late 1980s, this designer began working with Tibetan refugee weavers. She recast traditional designs and found not only a ready market  stateside, but also a way to raise the weavers’ standard of living. Today she continues her activism with Good Weave, which works to stop child labor in the carpet industry.


Glassybaby
While recovering from cancer, founder Lee Rhodes filled some small glass vessels her husband had made with tealights and took comfort in their soothing glow. Turns out, others felt the same way, so Rhodes hired a group of Seattle glassblowers to produce them. The impact has been impressive: Glassybaby donates 10 percent of its sales to charity – more than $1.8 million since 1998.


Found My Animal
This Brooklyn-based dog accessories company sells collars, leashes, and beds, expertly constructed from waxed canvas and marine-grade rope and metal. The founders met while walking their rescue dogs (both named Walter), and the company supports a wide range of pet-rescue groups.


Louise Harris
Twin Cities-based metal artist Louise Harris turns worn-out furnace filters into one-of-a-kind geometric wall pieces. She works full time as a consultant and professor; her artwork is very much a passion project, and she feels lucky to be able to donate 100 percent of her profits to charity.
 

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