For our products we use the colorful Altiplano blankets that handmade by the indigenous people of the Altiplano. For the local people they are practical—to protect from the strong wind and the cold of countryside, where the houses still are made from ‘adobe’ (natural brick), and the floor is just simply earth. For us they are colorful pieces of history as each blanket is not only unique, but also a family heirloom.
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Altiplano wool is cleaned with a natural 'root' that, when contacted with water, gives of a sort of soap liquid.
The wool becomes very clean and almost white after this bath. Then with natural ingredients, like cactus berries, they create a paint. Every bright color you see is a combination of several fruits, berries or herbs. On a self- made weaving loom the Andean women create the blankets. Every region has it's own pattern, color setting and symbols. We discovered a lot of pink and orange from the Potosi area, that's because in this region the colorful berries are growing.
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COLORFUL
South America is blessed with colors. Everywhere you look you are dazzeled with nature's color and beauty. The colored lakes of the Altiplano shimmer under the deep-blue Andean mountain sky, the breath-taking sunrise at the Salar de Uyuni, colorful food that is sold on the streets and, of course, the colorful inhabitants of the South-American highlands and their handmade products...
FA
BRICS
100 %
natural
COLOR
FUL
WOOL
SOUTH AMERICAN "CHOLITA'S"
With their slightly bronzed skin, brown eyes and thick black hair the Altiplano women make the colors of their typical outfits pop. These tradtional ladies from the Andes are called "cholita's." Their Spanish inherited outsfits have fuchsia, bright pink, fierce blue, red, yellow, orange ... many times all mixed together, and their braids, hats and bigs skirts, add to the beautiful surrounding.
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Making the Altiplano traditional blankets starts with a flock of alpacas or sheep. Alpaca's and sheep are perfect mountaineers and give good wool because of their long, thick coats. A few times a year their are shaved and the wool, often a ligth greyish colored, is used to create fabrics.
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HANDMADE BLANKETS
