NIRMI Connects
TEXTILE ARTISAN WOMEN FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD
ARTISAN MAP
OUR COOPERATIONS
We start with cooperations with textile artisan women from Mexico and Austria . We will announce further cooperation countries shortly.
In Mexico we work with the NGO Impacto , which acts as an intermediary between the traditional weavers in the Chiapas highlands and national and international designers or social enterprises such as NIRMI. The NGO helps the women to set up cooperatives in order to be able to market their products better and to support each other. Impacto also organizes workshops to improve craft, social and entrepreneurial skills , empowering women and promoting equal coexistence.
The second textile cooperative of the highlands of Chiapas (Mexico) that we work with is Jolom Mayaetik . Founded in 1995, Jolom Mayaetik now unites over 250 weavers from 11 different regional groups.
We also support female entrepreneurship and textile handicrafts in Austria. Maria Wagner and her husband Karl run one of the last two blueprint shops in Austria in the Mühlviertel, the Blaudruck Wagner. Linen has been printed and dyed by hand in the family business since 1878, now in its fourth generation.
Mexico, Aldama
Weaver group "Luchetik"
Mexico, San Juan cancuc
Weavers group "Jalab Antsetik"
Mexico, San Cristobal de las Casas
Cooperative Jolom Mayatik
Change your patch. Change lives.
your impact
How do you specifically support our artisans with the NIRMI Impact Patch?
Weaving is the only possible source of income for many of the women. Especially for elderly women and mothers who take care of children, house, field and garden.
NIRMI ensures that they no longer have to put up with long sales routes or poorly paying middlemen. The women can integrate weaving into their everyday lives and are paid fairly for their work.
With the purchase of a NIRMI baby carrier you help these women to have a regular income, financial independence and to give their families more opportunities overall.
We pay the artisans a living wage and make sure to work through NGOs, cooperatives or social businesses that deliver long term support to these women. We often pre-finance textile material such as yarns and pay 50% of the labor costs up-front.
Mexico - Cooperative Jolom Mayaetik
The cooperative Jolom Mayaetik was founded in 1995 and now unites over 250 weavers from 11 different regional groups who support each other.
All members of the cooperative are indigenous women who face difficulties accessing educational and health resources and the formal labor market. All come from farming families who practice subsistence farming and supplement their meager income with seasonal jobs in the town of San Cristóbal de las Casas or as day laborers during the coffee harvest in other areas of Chiapas. Participation in the cooperative offers the weavers the opportunity to earn a fair additional income through the textile knowledge that is passed on from generation to generation.
Mexico - NGO Impacto
The NGO Impacto acts as an intermediary between the traditional weavers in the Chiapas highlands and national and international designers or social enterprises such as NIRMI. The NGO helps the women to set up cooperatives in order to be able to market their products better and to support each other. Impacto also organizes workshops to improve craft, social and entrepreneurial skills, empowering women and promoting equal coexistence.
Through Impaco we are currently collaborating with textile artists from the group "Jalab Antsetik" from San Juan Cancuc and "Luchetik" from Aldama.
Austria - blue print Wagner
In Austria, too, there are still traditional textile handicrafts. Blueprinting is a traditional craft that has almost died out in German-speaking countries. Maria and Karl Wagner run one of the last two blueprint shops in Austria in the Mühlviertel. Linen has been printed and dyed by hand in the family business since 1878, now in its fourth generation.
NIRMI
be part of the slow textile movement!
We see NIRMI not only as a product, but also as a learning project on the subject of sustainable textile production, where we can learn from the traditional textile artist communities from Mexico, Burkina Faso or Nepal in the Global North.
From generation to generation they pass on the knowledge of how fabrics can be spun, dyed and woven without electricity and only from natural materials. We can learn from the indigenous communities for the future how to slowly produce high-quality individual pieces for special occasions from regional natural materials.
Would you also like to be part of the Slow Textile movement? Follow us onInstagram !
