Peacekeeper Truth Serum Blog

Awamaki is a Peruvian non-profit organization, committed to working with Quechua women weavers based in the district of Ollantaytambo.  In its Awamaki Lab fashion design residency—allowing up-and-coming fashion designers to create a sustainable capsule collection with its weavers– the Awamaki  project is committed to revitalizing the weaving tradition and creating a place for it in this modern economy, as well as improving the well-being of the weavers, their families, and their communities. The first design collaboration was released in January, featuring the designs of Paris fashion student Nieli Vallin (pictures below):

The weavers use backstrap looms, which the Quechua women are able to roll up and take with them as they care for their herds of alpaca, sheep, and llama. Using the backstrap loom produces a double faced weaving in which the pattern is the same on both sides, but the colors are reversed. The fibers they weave come from their own herds of alpaca and sheep, with coarse llama fiber for items like sacks and horse blankets. The yarn is naturally dyed using native plants and insects.

Profits made from the sale of the weavings are reinvested into the project and the community. The profits provide an education to school-age weavers, an emergency expenses fund for the women and their children, and funding field-trips and capacity-building workshops.

For more information about the Awamaki Lab project, you can visit their website and even purchase some of the women’s designs!  Let PeaceKeeper know if you give this non-profit your own Kiss of Approval by leaving a comment below!

With Love,

The PeaceKeeper Team

(Writer: Renee Estey.  Editor:  Jessica Smith.
For more information about PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics, visit www.iamapeacekeeper.com.)

This Valentine’s Day, Peacekeeper has teamed up with the Ian Somerhalder Foundation (www.isfoundation.com) to raise funds to help heal the world with our Valentine’s Day Charity Auction.   This auction ends Monday, so there’s just a couple more days to give a little of your heart to the world!

The IS Foundation aims to empower, educate, and collaborate with people and projects to positively impact the planet and its creatures. The foundation is built on a team of people who view the environment as an interconnected organism in which we are an integrated part.

They are currently joining forces with us at Peacekeeper Cause-Metics to empower women and their families through a connection to organic farming and environmental activism by giving them the opportunity to pursue an education, a trade, and a way out through our Peacekeeper Fund.

We are providing an IS Foundation Gift Basket complete with an IS Foundation t-shirt, a gym bag, a cap, and boyshort undies, two tickets for a tour of ‘Mystic Falls,’ the fictional town of Ian’s TV Show The Vampire Diaries, and a personal message from Ian to the largest donor of the Valentine’s Day Charity Auction!

After the largest donor, the next twenty donors will receive the Peacekeeper Cause-metics Gift Basket complete with our award-winning lipstick, gloss, nail polish, and lip balms.

Click here to send as little as $5 to the campaign! Everything you share is tax deductible! Give even the smallest amount this Valentine’s Day and help us achieve our goal of world harmony and peace!

With Love,

The PeaceKeeper Team

(Writer: Renee Estey.  Editor: Jessica Smith.

For more information about PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics, visit www.iamapeacekeeper.com.)

Getting fed up with the mid-February blahs?  Had enough apple cider and hot chocolate?  We at PeaceKeeper have, and right now we’re dreaming of getting out of this New York winter and setting sail for warmer climates.  Maybe El Salvador.   Sipping coconut juice on a beach in El Salvador would really hit the spot right now.

But to really relax on that beach, we need a bathing suit.  And not just any bathing suit—a super-sexy, sustainably made bathing suit.  And that’s why PeaceKeeper’s Kiss of Approval this week is the sexy, bohemian swimwear line Olga Olsson.

Brazil-based designer Ruth Ferguson (who named the brand after her inspirational grandmother) works with women and young artisans in Rio de Janeiro to design and transform hand-painted silks, organic cotton, and locally sourced linens and wools into gorgeous bikinis and kaftans.  In the Rio Atelier there exists six seamstresses, one pattern cutter, and one fabric cutter.  These workers are paid a fair wage, not by amount of product made, but by months worked.

At the second atelier, based in the district of Complexo Maré, artist Ana Castro teaches handpainting, dying, silk screen and dip dye methods on fabrics to young artisans.  Everything is as sustainable as possible down to the cute tags made from recycled cards and tied with a “fita de bonfim” ribbon. This ribbon can then be worn around your wrist as a traditional “make a wish” bracelet; once it breaks, your wish will come true!

Shop Olga Olsson and support “products that enhance diversity, celebrate traditions, build communities, create meaningful employment and respect local environmental conditions. “  You can check out their website at www.olgaolsson.com.

With Love,

The PeaceKeeper Team

(Writer: Renee Estey.  Editor: Jessica Smith.  Pictures courtesy Olga Olsson.

For more information about PeaceKeeper Cause-Metics, visit www.iamapeacekeeper.com.)