My wake up call

I've been an artisan since 1999, but in 2005 I got a wake up call. 

I live in an archipelago in the Caribbean. Our main island is just 100 x 35 miles wide. Although we are small in size, in 2005 I was astounded to learn that we are the number one producers of garbage per capita in the world. 

I was devastated to think how my artwork could be part of the problem- so I began a journey that lead me to create a product using materials saved from waste: vegan wallets.

My passion is to educate on how to reduce our footprint on our beautiful planet by making meaningful pieces salvaged from waste.

My wallet's main material is Tetra Pak packaging for liquids. Although it is supposedly is recycable, in fact it is more likely to end up in landfills than in the recycling plant. It is very expensive to recycle and only a few states have processing facilities. Not where I live, unfortunately. The Tetra Pak has layers of paper, aluminum and polyethylene. Separating these layers is very difficult and expensive. 

Nevertheless, tetra pak pakaging is better than plastic, and there's a lot of things we can do to reuse this material. I recently learned that an Ecuadorian startup is building houses with it. Amazing, right?

But back to the wallets! When I first learned about tetra pak I immediately knew that I needed to create something special with it-something original. I spent a year working on my first wallets and purses. Of course, I was the first one to try them out. Still today, I am constantly making improvements on how to make them stronger and more durable. The interior of every single piece contains a sheet of tetra pak ,which makes them strong but still flexible- on the outside there's either images printed on recycled paper or vintage fabrics that I inherited from my mother. 

I take pride in my creations. Each one is unique, one-of-a-kind, and tells a story- mine, yours, ours.