fair trade frames

Emmanuel Atiemoh Yeboah celebrates the spirit of cooperation that prevails in West African families where even the children help out. He depicts a young woman who leans lovingly toward her three youngsters. All carry bowls or baskets on their heads as they walk home from the market. Yeboah works in oils on calico, adding cutouts of batik cloth for the gowns and turbans. Other details, such as grass, are created with pen and ink. The composition arrives in a frame of tweneboa wood.

Cradled in his mother's shawl, a baby basks in her love. Yeboah works in oils on cotton calico to depict the pair, adding cutouts of batik cloth and framing his composition with ceiba wood.

Exploring themes of identity, African artist Randy Abeka Abbam creates this intriguing piece of wall art from Ghana. A figure with two heads is depicted, carrying a bay on her back. For the artist, this piece depicts the love that a mother has for her child. Abbam works with silk threads, carefully arranging them in intricate patterns to create this art. It arrives within a cardboard mat and tweneboah wood frame.

Shimmering shades of blue and cream cover this elegant scarf. Yuni Kristina recreates the parang raja. One of many traditional batik motifs, it symbolizes the ancient Javanese kingdom in general. She stamps the blue patterns in pure silk and adds the red blossoms with the batik motif.

Diverse scenes representative of the Ayacucho region of Peru comprise this handcrafted retablo, a unique style of Andean folk art. The altar-like composition is divided into several shelves, populated by colorful figures and expressions of native customs. In the upper space, Alejandro Chavez recreates the birth of Jesus, as men and women dressed in traditional Peruvian attire look on proudly. The frame is made from wood, while the artist uses ceramic figures and vibrant paints to evoke the vast tapestry of human emotions.

Accompanied by an elephant, a young Lanna (northern Thai) woman is pensive. Baskets of flowers adorn her tranquil country environment, and a spiraling plant motif swirls upward like her thoughts. Alaya Cholprasertsuk's design depicts this beautiful scene using batik on 100% cotton. Charming and original, these cushion covers are ideal for an informal contemporary decor.

Batik is a fabric art in which the cloth is stretched on a wooden frame and the design sketched with a pencil. Then a mixture of melted wax and resin (70%/30%) is painted onto areas where color is not desired and the fabric is dipped in a solution of reactive dye, water, salt, and sodium bicarbonate. When the fabric is crumpled into the dying solution, the wax cracks, creating an attractive network of fine lines. The wax is removed and process is repeated for each color utilized. Finally, the cloth is washed and rinsed to remove any excess dye.

This pair will feature the same design, but the colors may vary slightly to those pictured, making each a unique work of art.