5 Rug Vendors Earn GoodWeave Label

July 21, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Rugs on July 22, 2011

Five more rug vendors have joined GoodWeave's efforts to end child labor in the rug industry and to offer educational opportunities to children in South Asia.

The latest companies to earn the GoodWeave label include:
* Monterey, Mexico-based Calvirugs, which makes sculptural rugs using hand woven wool, silk and hemp in designs derived from natural textures and urban materials. Calvirugs also collaborates with the Mohair Council of America by donating yarn to indigenous Mexican weavers.
* Christina Ruhaak Design(http://www.christinaruhaak.com/) in Chicago, Ill., uses silk and hand-spun Tibetan wools to make rugs that play with saturated bright colors and texture. Owner Christina Ruhaak sought out ethical mills through GoodWeave before beginning her business.
* Indo Designer Rugs Trading Inc., based in Calgary, Alberta, sells hand knotted wool and silk rugs to customers in North America, Europe, and Japan. Owner Rana Mehrotra travels to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and his wife and co-owner Anchal€™s home town of Varanasi, India to find rugs for the company€™s customers.
* InnerAsia, Hanover, N.H., works to revitalize Tibet's rich rug weaving heritage and promote Tibetan arts and crafts. Tibetan-born Founder Kesang Tashi has trained new generations of weavers and created wide ranging collections of wool and silk rugs in traditional, transitional and contemporary designs. The collaboration with GoodWeave embodies Tashi's Buddhist heritage and longstanding commitment to social responsibility, merging commerce with compassion.
* West Coast-based Shivhon integrates social responsibility into the production of custom, handmade wool and silk knotted rugs with nature-inspired designs. Shivhon aims to make rugs in an environmentally sustainable way while also ensuring fair prices for consumers and fair wages for workers.

The rugs produced by these five companies are available in nearly 50 retail locations across North America.

GoodWeave USA now licenses more than 80 North American importers to use the GoodWeave label on their child-labor-free rugs. GoodWeave conducts frequent, unannounced inspections of the looms of these licensed companies to ensure they employ adults only. Each company also pays licensing fees that help support the rescue, rehabilitation and education of former child weavers and other at-risk children in weaving communities among many other social initiatives.

"As GoodWeave participants, these companies help bring positive social change to the communities where their rugs are made and demonstrate a commitment to the quality and integrity that only a skilled adult weaver can bring to the craft of rugmaking," said Nina Smith, executive director of GoodWeave USA. "Each company that joins GoodWeave and the consumers who purchase their child-labor-free rugs help bring us closer to ending child labor."