Aztec Arts to Appear at Manchester's Fairly Traded Market

Manchester, United Kingdom, May 19, 2006 --(PR.com)-- Fair trade is the hot topic of 2006, with Latin America leading the way in encouraging traditional crafts and industries.  To show their support for the fair trade movement, Manchester, which recently became a fair trade city, began holding specialist fairly traded markets in September 2005.  Since then they have grown in popularity and are attracting new stallholders and customers all the time.

One of the new stall holders is Aztec Arts.  Started by two friends who met five years ago in Madagascar on a charity trek, Aztec Arts have been at the last two fairly traded markets.

Joanna Pollard, one of the partners in the joint Mexican-British enterprise explains how she got the idea for the business:
"In February 2005 I visited my friend Kath, who has lived in Mexico for several years. We stayed in Oaxaca, which is a part of Mexico rarely visited by tourists, particularly British visitors, and I was struck by how unusual the local crafts were. I had never seen anything like the shiny black pottery, painted wooden creatures known as alebrijes and hand woven rugs. I simply knew we had to help these people carry on their traditional crafts and expand their market to the UK and Europe," she says.

Through their website: www.aztecarts.co.uk, which was designed by the third member of the team, Juan, the company sells items such as jewellery, bags, clothing, ornaments and household textiles.  All their goods are hand made and fairly traded in rural areas of Mexico and central America.

Saturday 3 June will be the last stand-alone fairly traded market, as from July the market will become a combined two day organic and fair trade market. Keep an eye on the Aztec Arts website: www.aztecarts.co.uk for more details.

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