Meet Our Partners
CUERO MALEC is a leather shop in Samayac founded by Lorenzo Xum Ortiz. Lorenzo began working with leather when he was ten years old, and now he employs around 10 to 15 people in his shop. He and his team are skilled at using leather to transform second-hand clothing, including traditional Guatemalan huipiles, into beautiful purses and bags.
RUTH AND NAOMI is a sewing and crafts cooperative in Chichicastenango, Guatemala founded by local tailor and Methodist pastor, Diego Chicoj. The cooperative began as a way to provide a source of income to widows of Guatemala’s Civil War. Now, both men and women sew and weave tableware, pillows, and blankets. They also crochet bags and coasters.
CERAMICA PALOPO MULTICOLOR is a small, family-owned ceramic pottery workshop in the small town of San Antonio Palopo on the shores of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. The potters shape, paint and glaze each piece by hand. We fell in love with their teardrop patterns and colors!
RIDE 4 A WOMAN is a non-profit started by Evelyn Habasa in Buhoma, Uganda. The non-profit empowers over 300 women from 11 surrounding communities struggling with HIV, domestic violence, and poverty. The women pedal sew making beautiful napkins and aprons, and weave baskets of all shapes and sizes.
THE HEMP FOUNDATION is a nonprofit organization in India committed to improving living conditions for communities in the Himilayan state of Uttarakhand. The Foundation trains men and women in modern agricultural techniques that can be integrated with their existing wisdom regarding farming. Through promotion of the legal growth of hemp and its diverse usages, the Foundation connects hard-working and impoverished hemp farmers in India with the right markets.
MALA THAPA MAGAR is the founder and CEO of Himalayan Allo Udhyog (HAU), a company that produces nettle (also known as allo) fiber, fabrics, yarn, clothing and bags. Mala’s company indirectly employs more than 600 people, mostly women in remote villages in Nepal. While raising the standards of living of these women, the business has also helped raise awareness of the sustainability of nettle fiber. Himalayan nettle is a perennial plant that grows quickly and uses much less water than cotton and no pesticides.
WOMEN OF XOJOLA take time out of their daily responsibilities – caring for children and grandchildren, harvesting bananas & coffee, cooking and cleaning – to weave beautiful fabrics on backstrap looms. These mobile looms, made of wood and a strap that is tied around the weaver’s back, have been used by Mayan women for centuries.
SOUFIANE BELHAYL is a skilled leather artisan in Marrakech, Morocco who started learning his craft at the age of 12. Soufiane and his 4 partners create beautiful purses and bags out of vintage kilim and leather, leather pillow covers and leather tabletop items such as placemats and napkin rings for Intertwined.
Soufiane also identifies and recruits other Moroccan artisans to create designs for Intertwined.
JUN B'ATZ' is a cooperative in Momostenango, Guatemala where more than 20 families hand-process wool from the highland sheep, hand-dye the wool, spin it into yarn, and create blankets and rugs on traditional wooden looms. Each blanket takes several weeks to complete. This time-honored craft has been passed down from generation to generation.
OUR AFGHAN FRIENDS arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina in 2021 from Afghanistan, fleeing the country as refugees when the Taliban resumed power. We cannot use their names because some family members remain in Afghanistan. In Greensboro, they have quickly adjusted to their new lives and have found various jobs to provide additional support to their family. They use their expert seamstress abilities to assemble Intertwined's mixed-textile pillows, combining fabrics (vintage and new) from various countries with our signature hemp fabric.
COPAVIC is a glass recycling and hand-blowing workshop located in Cantel, Guatemala, where skilled artisans transform recycled glass into a stunning array of glassware. The process involves sorting, cleaning, and melting the glass, shaping it using ancient techniques, and finishing in ovens for durability. Established in 1976, Copavic now employs around 40 artisans and provides comprehensive on-site training.