Selling recycled giftware from around the world is central to our ethical retail beliefs. We support Fairtrade as much as possible and we received a Gold award from the Bristol and Southwest Fairtrade Awards 2015. Today, as trends change, we find many imported giftware items are being labelled as ‘fairly traded’ due to the high cost of certification for small businesses. Recycling – or up-cycling as it’s often called today – allows these craftspeople to make items that can be enjoyed for years to come, hence prolonging the life of the material they use.
We stock recycled flip-flops from Ocean Sole of Kenya, recycled aluminium bowls, tealight holders and other small items from India, recycled metal sculptures, garden stakes, bird feeders and flowers from Zimbabwe, drinks tin can sculptures from Vietnam and recycled seedpod and pinecone birds from Zimbabwe. We also use several Fairtrade wholesale suppliers who believe, like us, that by supporting trade from marginalised small producers around the world is best to reduce poverty. Examples of their recycled giftware are: the recycled bike chain range, recycled crayon range, oil drum art, Mexican wall art, circuit board clocks, coasters and pen pots, plastic bag chickens, coconut bowl range, oyster shell bowls, other bowls made from old newspapers and magazines, bottle-tops, telephone wire and various other recycled materials. Other recycled items we’ve stocked include clocks built into car engine pistons, bags from military tents, jewellery with miniature railway figures, old tractor parts…need we say more!
We stock a range of Fairtrade leather and Buffalo leather hand bags, lap-top bags, overnight bags and wallets and purses, as well as other bags made from leather offcuts that would otherwise go into landfill. Ring-pull bags and other ring-pull items come from the Philippines whilst we also support the work of Hereford-based ring-pull jeweller Tinkan Art.
We do support items that are not necessarily recycled but made from sustainably sourced materials. Elegant examples are bowls made from bamboo, wooden bird sculptures made with Albesia wood from Bali, Himalayan salt lamps, finger puppets and worry dolls from Peru, felt animals from Nepal, and Moroccan-inspired lanterns and soapstone sculptures from India.
Some of our local artists and makers simply knocked on our door and showed us their work and we’ve taken them on to sell at a commission. It’s worked well over the seven years or more we’ve been here. So if you paint or draw, or work in any recycled medium, drop in or make contact. We’d love to start selling your creations.