Unique Artisan Gifts – NOVICA

Here on The Travel Tart, I usually write about the silly stuff that happens with world travel, such as some of the Funny Shopping Products found when Travelling.

But now and then, I come across something that I think is worth spruiking based on the good intentions and outcomes of something that can make a real difference to people who really need it (for example, Tribal Textiles in Zambia). This time, it’s about a website called NOVICA, which specialises in fair trade Unique Artisan Gifts.

So, what the hell is NOVICA? Well, it’s one of the world’s leading fair trade artisan websites that aim to give artisans all around the world an opportunity to sell their cool stuff on the world stage at a decent price.  

Like what you see below:

They work in association with the rather famous National Geographic to give talented artisans around the world access to the global market to sell thousands of gifts, accessories, jewellery and home decor items on their website. That is, to give the artisans the chance to make a half decent living from their trade instead of selling their stuff cheap to middle men who then mark up the price by triple figure percentages.

Just remember that the vast proportion of the world is in the Third World. Check out the very sobering Miniature Earth video which provides a great snapshot of the world. If you think that you’re doing it tough, if you are on unemployment in most first world countries, you are in the top 10% of the world’s richest people!

NOVICA – Unique Artisan Gifts with a purpose

With the advent of the internet, NOVICA gives artisans the opportunity to make their unique items available to the world. NOVICA provides detailed information and stories about each artisan, with them originating from Indonesia, the Andes, Mexico, Brazil, Central America, India, Thailand, and West Africa.

As an example, I recently scored an Alpaca Blend Blanket from the site which I’m going to use on the colder nights at home. What I like about the NOVICA site is that they actually feature the stories of the artisans. For example, a guy called Nestor Yana from Peru made the Alpaca blanket, which is shown below.

Yes, I did try my best to find the silliest product on the NOVICA website, but there wasn’t anything outrageous there – because they feature nice stuff to give to your family or friends. Previous unusual things I’ve come across in Peru have included eating guinea pigs, but haven’t had the stomach to try frog  juice!

But seriously, while many large retail stores continue to churn out identical assembly line manufactured products (which everyone else has), talented artisans around the globe often find it hard to source buyers for the product of their workmanship. As an alternative to buying something mass produced from a retail store whilst wandering aimlessly around a strip mall trying to find something unique, NOVICA is an option to find something not many others have whilst actually contributing to some good in the world.

NOVICA also helps out many of the artisans they deal with. They launched an Artisan Loan Program in 2010 which allows the internet community (that is, you and me) to fund small, zero-interest loans for artisans which range between USD$150 and $2,900.

These interest fee loans are repaid to lenders, who can then re-lend as many times as they want. Even better, repayments on NOVICA loans are pegged to artisan revenue. That is, if an artisan has a good month, they will pay back more – or less during slow months.

Anyway, I road tested the NOVICA site myself and I was very impressed how quickly I received the Alpaca blend blanket from the time of order. Now I live in ‘arse end of the world’ in a geographical sense in Australia, and I received the blanket within a matter of days from placing order – from South America! And it comes up wrapped up gift ready, like mine did below:

When you do receive your gift, you also have a description of the artisan included as NOVICA want you to know about who you are buying from. Here is Nestor’s card:

So there you go. If you’re after something a bit different in terms of a gift and you want to make a difference to someone in the world that would really appreciate it, give the NOVICA site a go for some unique artisan gifts.

I guess that this form of Retail Therapy is actually worth it – you win because you score something a bit different, and the artisan who made your gift wins because they are making a living. Makes a nice change from buying lots of useless stuff that you don’t need, can’t afford, which you use to impress people that you don’t like! ;P

Anyway, there are all sorts of promotions going on all the time at the NOVICA site that you might be interested in:

• Romantic Gifts for Him
• Romantic Anniversary Gifts
• Spiritual Gifts
• Cocktail Gifts
• Sculpture Gifts
• Romantic Gifts for Her

Anyway happy shopping!