Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Novica - Supporting Artists Worldwide

Have you heard of Novica?  I hadn't until I was recently asked to review their products.  At first glance this company sells beautiful handmade goods from across the world.  However, perusing further, I discovered they are more than just a retailer.  Novica provides artists from third world and developing nations the opportunity to sell their goods for fair prices to customers world wide. 

I was intrigued by this concept since in the past I have travelled to two places represented by Novica, Bali and Thailand, and have seen the living conditions of artists whose talent should afford them better circumstances.  My own husband designs and builds furniture by hand and I am highly aware of the time and skill required to make these goods and the prices that good quality work should demand.  By recognizing the value of artistic goods in the third world we can help artists there to live a better life and contribute to the betterment of their communities.  But also I hope that we can raise awareness of the value of artistic goods worldwide so that everyone can flourish.


Novica offered me a gift certificate to try their products and I was delighted to be able to choose from a wealth of items.  Through their website I was able to search by country, product, price, type of material used or the artists themselves.  I have a weakness for scarves and quickly dived into the acessories section.  Each item was clearly photographed and I was even able to discern what type of weave was used by the clarity of the photos.  I was really pleased with the attention to detail this company exudes.  When placing my order a virtual passport was created and stamped with the countries I had purchased from.  Shipping details were clearly spelled out and when the packages arrived they were gift wrapped with cards from the artists and a postcard from the country of origin.

Items arrived beautifully gift wrapped

Please take a moment to look at Novica's website for yourself.  Then come back and leave me a comment about an item or artist that struck your fancy.  A draw will be made and one commenter will receive their own $50 gift certificate for Novica.

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Novica has an exceptional amount of hand crafted items in categories such as furniture, rugs, tableware, women and men's jewelry.  In addition they have now introduced a program called Novica Live where you can be involved in supporting artists worldwide by throwing Novica parties and introducing Novica to your own friends and family.

17 comments:

Jane said...

I had to stop looking as it was overwhelming the choices and quality of the workmanship!
BUT I LOVE paisley so much and there was this shawl:
"Wool shawl, 'Midnight Grace'
The legendary elegance of Kashmiri weaves blossoms throughout this wool shawl by Adil. Woven on a traditional loom in shades of black, brown and crimson, it is lavishly bordered with florid detail."
I may just have to get it whether I win or not!!

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

I like the idea of the support of artists across the world. We try to support Fair Trade products where ever possible. I will check out their site.

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

Just spent the last little while going through the web site. There is so much! I love the scarves and shawls a lot, hard to pick one. I do like the wool tote handbag, Zapotec diamonds.

RURAL said...

It is overwhelming, this is an amazingly beautiful presented site. Wow, and like everyone else I have a weakness for scarves. Batik printed silk, oh beautiful....sigh. There are some in blue and green, and white...

Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

Casa Mariposa said...

This is my kind of site!! It reminds me of www.fite.org, which I support. I LOVE all the jewelry! I love to make jewelry and loved the She Elephant silver cuff from the Hill tribes. I use their beads in my designs sometimes. I also love the scarves, especially the batik!! I'm bookmarking this! THANKS!!

BTW, I thought the carrot cake might be purple, too. But the carrots were orange on the inside so it just looked like a regular cake. I'm going to make another one when I harvest the Atomic Reds. :o)

Jennifer@threedogsinagarden said...

Hi Marguerite, I also like the idea of supporting other artists from around the world. It is tough making a living as an artist! My favourite things on the site were the teapots. (I usually have tea in the evening.) I would buy a turquoise elephant and buddha teapot by Putu Oka Mahendra.

Marguerite said...

Jane - I'm a big paisley fan too and was very tempted by all the scarves. Did you see 'Paisley Waltz'? I was really torn on what to order.

Janet - It's great to see more companies using Fair Trade isn't it? I loved that this one is accessible by internet. Living in a smaller community items like these are harder to come by.

Jen - They really did a good job on the site didn't they? I was immediately impressed how easy it was to manuvre around. Especially with all the stuff to look at.

Tammy - I haven't heard of fite but will be taking a look. I was happy to share this site after I took a look at it. It's very well done with lots of great stuff and the artists themselves seem to be very involved and benefitting from it.

Jennifer - how could I have missed the teapots! I didn't even see those. It's really interesting to see what people pick out that interests them.

wiseacre said...

I looked with gifts in mind.

Loved the backgammon sets by Ketut Sandi. A bit expensive for the grand kids but not for their mother. I'd want one just because of the great wood craving.

Putu Oka Mahendra caught my attention with a couple of things. - it's always tea party time with 3 grand girls and the elephant motif caters to my wife's obsession with nick-knacks bearing trunks.
- we also pick/buy a lot of flowers and the 'Frangipani Frogs' vase really caught my fancy :)

The site got bookmarked - thanks for sharing such a great place.

Michelle said...

Well, I almost missed this post completely. It's wonderfully done and what eye candy! I have to look around this site more. So much to see but I gravitated over to the jewelery first and drooled through all the pretties there.

How wonderful that this site gets such great support. I mean, National Geographic! I'm going to bookmark this site and share on my FB. There's something in everyone's price range and with Christmas just around the corner... *I know. Ouch, eh?*

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. This was a tough one. I loved the men's alpaca wool sweater by Nestor Yana -- but then I spotted the games section. By day, I am a social worker in a high school, and students love to play with the small toys that I have on my desk. Yes, high school students enjoy playing with toys! So, now I'm drawn to the wood labyrinth by Rakesh Pathak. Simple design. Warm wood tones. And it needs concentration, thought, planning, and skill. Beautiful!

Unknown said...

I will give it a look see. I am hoping a substantial portion goes to the artist. It is a very slick looking site.

Marguerite said...

Wiseacre - I ended up buying a present as well. There were a number of items I thought of for Christmas gifts so I think I'll be making a return visit to this site in another couple months.

Michelle - when you said Christmas i thought NO but it's true. I need to start thinking about gifts already because we send all of our gifts in the post.

Dirtman - welcome! Everyone needs a toy to play with, even us adults! I work for Social Services as well (the legal portion though) and many of us have small games in our offices to provide a bit of distraction on the really tough days. I can see how this item really appeals to you.

Tufa - that was the one piece of information I couldn't locate. I did find that each artist is represented individually and they control their own prices so they have some autonomy which I liked. But the company would obviously need to make money as well. A little more clarity on how the money is alotted would certainly make this site more attractive.

Debbie/GardenofPossibilties said...

Marguerite, What a wonderful site to bring more attention to. There are so many fantastic ietms but I think I was most taken with the glass vases. They are all so lovely but I think my favorite was the cobalt blue one - what wa way to showcase your favorite flowers.

Gardeningbren said...

I spent ages looking at this site..so many beautiful things, most especially the shawls and jewelry. Thanks for the link, I have passed it on to others.

Marguerite said...

Debbie - I've yet to see a vase I didn't like. In fact I ended up buying a vase for myself and a scarf as a gift.

Brenda - glad you liked this. I was rather surprised I had never heard of them before but was happy to learn a bit about them. Like you I spent ages browsing.

Diana Studer said...

I had missed reading this, but thanks to Wiseacre, I'm here, late.

Anonymous said...

I love indigenous art and always buy when I travel. Thank you for the link, it makes traveling in a new way.