Just a couple of decades ago the world was dominated by plastic, junk food and all-inclusive resort holidays.
Then something started to change, people began to realize that this "plastic" world wasn't all that interesting, as well as being harmful for the health and the environment.
People have begun to look behind them, to the past, and realize how much more authentic and wholesome things used to be.
From this moment on, things started to change, instead of going to eat every day in a fast food restaurant, people started looking for recipes to cook wholesome food and buying organic ingredients.
We began to view plastic with an increasingly skeptical eye, leading up to the ban on the production and sale of a whole range of single-use plastic products, which is being implemented in many countries around the world.
Also we have realized the beauty of the customs of the past and of the products made by hand with natural materials.
Right now we are in the middle of the transition, disposable plastic razors are still on the shelves, but alongside these there are metal versions very similar to those of 50 years ago.
We are in a phase where one generation goes on vacation to resorts while the next buy a backpack and crosses entire countries visiting every village they find on the map, talking to its inhabitants and trying to live as many authentic experiences as possible.
We have reached a point where we are willing to pay more for a genuine experience or an authentic product and to know that with that money we are doing something good, that we are feeding the world of humans, the world of artisan families and that of small communities, to the detriment of that of machines, large commercial empires, and monopolies.
Only 10 or 20 years ago we were entering into a pharmacy and buying the first medicine that the pharmacist offered us, today we surf the internet looking for a different solution, we experiment with natural medicines, or even with meditation, Yoga, acupuncture and other ancient techniques.
All this makes us understand how this world is changing rapidly, and how the new trends are the authentic, the natural and the human.
This is why I am of the opinion that handcrafted products are the new trend of the moment, together with organic products, body and mind care products and unconventional medicine.
People are no longer satisfied, and they'll be less and less, to buy products without a soul, people today want, with their choices, to change the course of things. By buying a handcrafted product, you are helping the small craftsman and his family to continue with his tradition, and at the same time give a better life to his loved ones.
To do this, however, we need to recognize the value of a handcrafted product. As you can read in the blog dedicated to crafting fique, this procedure is long and complex, involving many hands and a lot of knowledge.
We need to know how to appreciate the intrinsic value that a product like this carries within itself.
A Wayuu handbag for example can require from one to three weeks of work by an artisan, depending on the type and complexity, in the case of products in fique and caña flecha, (vegetable fibers) the process begins in cultivation, several years before the product reaches your hands. When you buy a product like this you are buying the time of the farmer who has cultivated these plants for years, you are buying the water and the sweat from his brow which he used to irrigate them.
When you buy a product like this you are buying the time where the whole community has come together to cut and transform these plants into material suitable for creating handicraft products. With this money you are contributing to the snack that will give strength to the whole group. With the money you pay for your bag, the artisans will finally be able to feed their families, buy everything they need to do their job and at the same time send their children to school.
Looking at things from this point of view it is clear that a handbag, or any of these products contains an intrinsic value much greater than what you are paying for it and when you look at it while you are waiting for the bus, sitting on the platform, you will feel proud of having spent your money to buy a beautiful, high quality product, which at the same time is making you part of this change.
A change capable of slowing down this frenetic world where we were getting used to live, where things are built in a fraction of a minute or in a quarter of an hour in the worst of cases, but where, we no longer even have the time to sit down for a moment to contemplate it.
All these moments, from the farmers' snack in their plantation, to the laughter of the artisans who tell each other stories while weaving their products in the courtyard or the old ladies who, instead of staying in a rest home, they occupy themselves by doing the little that their age allows them, and that, when their hearing and understanding allow them, they share the laughter of the other craftswomen.
To conclude, the value of one of these handbags lies in the fact that in addition of being beautiful and resistant, they contain all this world within themselves, the smiles as well as the sweat and the snacks on the plantation, and who knows how many other beautiful things.
Davide Casartelli