Posted from Kickstarter.com:
Ricefield Collective crafts handmade knitted accessories that keep indigenous people on their ancestral land.
The Beginning
I met Jean Mundiguing at a viewpoint overlooking the Philippine rice terraces in June 2011, which the Ifugao indigenous people have been farming by hand for an estimated two thousand years. Jean pointed to her own terrace in the distance, and over the next few hours, we talked about her and her neighbors' lives. Many people were abandoning their land because they had no steady source of income, and their fields produced barely enough rice to feed their own families. Jean was afraid that she would end up in the same position.
I was knitting while we talked, and I told her I would teach her so that she can maybe make money by selling hats to local tourists. I came back the next summer and spent six weeks teaching her and six other women in her village how to knit, but the numbers grew as they began to teach each other. It became clear that the only way for the project to be sustainable is if we harnessed the power of the Internet to bring their products to a world market. That was how Ricefield Collective grew from a local initiative to a Kickstarter campaign.
Product Development
When I left Ifugao and got online, I talked about the project with Anna Maltz, the textile artist and knitwear designer who taught me how to knit. She worked with me to design a knitwear collection inspired by Ifugao, and we also contacted Stephen West, who agreed to have us produce one of his classic patterns that fit our existing ideas, and to visit us in the Philippines to come up with new designs.
The people of Ifugao have been farming terraces by hand for centuries. They are both highly sensitive to beauty and unfazed by manual labor, two qualities that allow them to make high-quality handknits. Combine this with the talent of top-level knitwear designers and a director who is fluent in both the languages and cultures of the Philippines and the West, and we have the promise of products that possess both the depth of tradition and the delight of innovation.
Our Products
As tokens of appreciation for contributing to our campaign, we've prepared limited edition hats, cowls, and sets from our collection.
Each of our products is made from the softest American wool from Quince & Co. in Portland, Maine. They come with a picture of the woman who made the item along with a tag that's signed and numbered by her. You can wear them knowing that they're not only beautiful and warm but are also made by someone happy.
UPWARD HAT
This uniquely-structured beanie's bold, soaring line will make you stand out in the sea of plain beanies, and shows off the curve of your apex. It's a no brainer. Be one of the First Fifty to pledge (our BFF's in other words) and get it for $25!
SPIRAL SLOUCHY
If there's such a thing as a slouchy overachiever, this slouchy is it! The Spiral melds innovation with a classic elegance in its swirling structure. It's impossible not to get caught up. It's our thanks to you for a $40 pledge.
WINDSCHIEF HAT
One of acclaimed indy designer and WestKnits Fun Squad leader Stephen West's signature patterns, the Windschief Hat is available for the first time as a finished item. We chose it with Stephen because its twists and turns go perfectly with our collection. Be one of the First Fifty pledgers (again, that's a BFF!) and get it for $45.
TERRACE COWL
Red is the major color of the Ifugao people, so what better way for us to celebrate it than to make this Kickstarter Special Edition cowl. Inspired by a local basketweave pattern, the limited edition of 200 for our Kickstarter campagin are the only ones we will ever make of this cowl in red. Get it for a pledge of $65.
ANY TWO HATS
For those of us who can't decide on a color, or want to get a hat for ourselves as well as a friend, then this pledge is the way to go. Get any two hats from our collection for $85.
CLIMBING CABLE SET
Like our women to their land, this pom hat and plush cowl simply belong together. They're united by rising cables that make them both super-warm and comforting. The other Ifugao color is black, but the heathered charcoal gray of this set reminded us so much of the hand-dyed black textiles in Ifugao with their variations in color that we decided to also make this a Kickstarter Special Edition. This version of the set in Charcoal will be the only time that this set will be produced in this color in a limited edition of 100. Get it for $100.
We have other product rewards for larger pledges, such as a set we call LOTS OF PRESENTS because it's one of each piece from our collection, which you can get for $275. We also have the LOTS AND LOTS OF PRESENTS because you get each piece from our collection in all colors for $500. Then we have the SUPER-CUSTOMIZED set, where you get everything from the $500 pledge level plus a custom-accessory made just for you along with a digital video with our members thanking you for your amazing support. You can get this set for a pledge of $1,000.
Our Special Reward:
Spend Time in an Ifugao Village
Enjoy the warmth and industry that first made Meredith fall in love with Ifugao. Jean keeps a room in her house for when her relatives visit to help with planting and harvest. We'll fly you to Manila and book a bus ticket for you to Banaue, where we will take you to the village of Uhaj and let you stay with her. You can join her in making rice she farmed herself, and you can come to the field where she maintains her crops. She'll even take you on a tour of the neighboring village and other rice terraces in the area. If she happens to be busy, another one of our collective members will host you.
Thanks!
Special thanks to the following people who have made this project possible:
Team: Anna Maltz, Design Director • Kris Sugatan, Public Relations • Igor Shteynberg, Technical Director • Stephen West, Design Collaborator • Larilyn Sanche, Video Editor • Alex Cunningham, Cameraman • Rizalyn Nagabe, Administrative Support
Testers and Samplemakers: Dora Lenchuk, Akshata Dhareshwar, Margaret McKinnis, Alli Cornett, and Purlewe RieMill
Knit4Life Photo Supporters: Todd Shalom, Claro de los Reyes, Adam Rompel, Marinus van der Veen, Roderick Kimball, Jess Falcone, Jessica Metzler, Antonia Ruppel, Aze Ong, Dav Clark, Audia Denton, Xine Yao, Shoan Yin Cheung, Cait Randerson, Samantha Taylor, Penny Dewind and Don Kyle, Susan and Noa Kwee, Aida Grøndahl Thalberg, Pien Maltz-Klaar, Saskia Maltz, Cherise Silvestri and Oscar, Adedayo Ajibade, Fanny Boiten, and Dawn Allison
Models: Vic, Drew Nauman, Jillian Marshall, Nikolas Hoepker, Patrick Ayscue
Also Thanks To: Jung Hwa Song, Enongo Kasongo, Aryol, Kaisa, Audia Denton, Tanya Zimbardo, Meredith Johnson, Christina Newhard, Courtney Bolton, Kaisa Kaakinen, Melody Ramsey, and Ori Heffetz
Risks and challengesLearn about accountability on Kickstarter
We work in a village that is far from the city and subject to typhoons and landslides. Though we do not foresee delays in production because of this, nature is unpredictable, as we ourselves in the United States have learned over the past few years.
We are working extremely hard to prepare the women we work with for the upcoming production cycle. We're confident that our members are sufficiently trained to produce our patterns, but because this is our first collection, we also wish to keep our expectations realistic. It is for this reason that we limit the number of items in the collection, because we want to ensure that we can deliver our products by our fulfillment date.
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