The Andean Collection - Our Story
Our Story
Amanda Judge founded The Andean Collection in the
fall of 2008 while she was in Ecuador researching rural women’s survival
strategies in the face of extreme poverty for her master thesis. The point of
her research was to settle on a few tangible projects that an outside agency
could do in order to help the community make long lasting improvements in their
own standards of living. As it turns out, instead of just writing about these
possibilities, Amanda decided to put her own ideas into action.
After discovering the amazing natural materials that were used in native
jewelry making, Amanda knew that finding a market for jewelry made out of these
natural seeds would be more beneficial than any academic paper could ever be.
Amanda then extended her stay in Ecuador to lay the groundwork for The Andean
Collection. The first task was to find disadvantaged artisans who had a drive
to create a better life for themselves and their families. Next was training
the artisans on order production and of course, showing them how to use email.
Since the beginning, The Andean Collection has been training the artisans is
jewelry design, helping them fortify their supply chains, and let’s not forget
the endless cross-continent goose chases to find the highest quality raw
materials in South America.
Artisans handcraft our designs from natural seeds that
have been sustainably harvested from the rainforests and lowlands of South
America. The commercialization of these seeds helps to ensure the survival of
the world’s rainforests by providing an alternative income for its inhabitants
rather than logging or selling their land to destructive industries. Through a
very manual process, seeds are transformed into
beads with gorgeous natural irregularities, both in color and form, which truly
makes each piece one of a kind.
The culmination of all of this is a fashion forward, eco-friendly and fair
trade collection of jewelry that is available at retail outlets as well as
here on our website.
A behind the scenes look at our work can be found on our
blog.
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