Social Impact
Island Girl has touched the lives of various towns and communities all over Visayas. Each town has a small community with highly skilled artisans who specialize in working with natural and local materials. They familiarize themselves with the abundant local resources and learn how to weave and process them into one-of-a-kind pieces to support their families and their communities as a whole.
- Antequerra (raffia, rattan)
- Asturias (wood)
- Barili (pandan)
- Bulacao (wicker)
- Carcar (raffia weaving, embroidery)
- Consolacion (crochet)
- Danao (weaving)
- Dumanjug (pandan)
- Inayawan (wood)
- Medellin (shells)
- Minglanilla (shell craft)
- Sagbayan (raffia)
- San Remigio (rattan)
- Tabogon (shell inlay)
- Talamban (wood cluthes, fiberglass, capiz shells)
- Tuburan (pandan)
Each town has a small community with highly skilled artisans, who specialize in working with natural local materials. They familiarize themselves with the abundant local resources, and learn how to weave and process them into one-of-a-kind pieces, to support their families and their communities as a whole.
Community: BARILI
We have been working with this community for 7 years now.
Skills known for: harvesting and weaving of pandan leaves into mats and hats
Collaboration: We have taught them to dye the pandan into beautiful colors. Pandan is now one of our signature materials and because the material itself is so abundant, we use it to create bags and wallets. It is like a blank canvas that we can embroider or paint on and create fresh new designs.
Social Impact: Because these women are very far from the town proper, we provide them with a means to earn, with which they can use to financially support their families.
Community: CARCAR
We have been working with this community for 8 years.
Skills known for: beadwork and embroidery
Collaboration: We are working to create a new line of beaded bags (possibly with upcycled fabric material as the base as well as raffia)
Social Impact: We provide a livelihood for these women and empower them by allowing them to contribute to the household income despite their lack of
education.
Community: DANAO
We have been working with this community for 6 months (since June 2019) for the collections launched at ArteFino 2019.
Skills known for: basket weaving
Collaboration: Because this is a highly skilled weaving community, they are capable of working with several different materials and weaving techniques. We intend to highlight those new materials and weaves in the new collections for ArteFino.
Social Impact: This group of weavers are made up of both men and women. When they are not weaving, they tend to their livestock and engage in farming. The income they generate in weaving is vital in sustaining their day to day lives.
Community: MANDAUE
We have been working with this community for over 1 year now.
While they are fairly new with us, these women, led by Hazel, have a wide range of skills and are quickly becoming invaluable to us. Because of their close proximity to our factory and their knowledge and skills in macrame, crochet, and basic stringing, the possibilities in design are endless.
Skills known for: macrame, crochet
Collaboration: We are teaching this group to macrame with natural raffia aside from the upcycled rope fabric that they are already accustomed to using.
Social Impact: These stay-at-home moms have a chance to contribute to the household income with the work that they do with us.
Community: MINGANILLA
We have been working with this community for only 2 months.
Skills known for: shell inlay and metalwork
Collaboration: We are working to create a new line of shell inlay bags that have never been seen before in the market.
Social Impact: These men were laid off from a factory but have persevered their craft, setting up their own shop for processing shells. We hope to provide them with regular orders as they are one of the communities we will be tapping for our Signature Line.
