Meet Amanda Zehner of Living Threads Company in Golden

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Zehner.

Amanda, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was inspired to build Living Threads Co. after living and working in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras where I was doing international development work with several not-for-profit organizations with focuses on sustainable agriculture, health, and education.

During this time, I personally became good friends with the women and families who now make up Living Threads Co. Living and working I was also able to see first hand the many challenges artisans in poor communities with little access to markets and resources faced — primarily access to markets, credit, training and support, and design. Together, we created Living Threads Co., a home décor and lifestyle brand that considers social and environmental impact as well as quality and design.

At the same time – The space I live in and the things I surround myself with have always been incredibly important to me; from one year of interior design school as a freshman in college to my mud hut in The Gambia as a Peace Corps volunteer, which I spent days re-decorating with new paint, a new mud floor, and wall hangings of traditional West African mud cloth textiles. Continued travel and time living and working abroad only encouraged my love (others might say obsession) for textiles and artisan craft as well as the people and culture behind it all.

Working in Guatemala and Nicaragua, I learned more about the tradition and technique of weaving and become more passionate about the preservation of the tradition and art form, as well as an understanding of the importance of the creative economy and artisan income around the world in some of the poorest and most remote communities. Especially for women.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No unknown road worth exploring is smooth. Challenges and lessons along the way have been more than I can relay here – from the difficult lesson that running a small business is a whole lot of paperwork to the realization that when you start a business that you are passionate about you will never have another day off.

The small business community has been an incredible resource to help me learn about everything from website design and SEO to product photography, pricing, wholesale strategies and branding. One of the greatest challenges for LTCo and I think more broadly in the artisan sector has been the need to invest in capacity building on a local level (business training, quality control, etc.) but not being able to, or wanting, to pass that cost on to the end consumer. Finding ways to provide the very necessary business development and training our partner artisans need while keeping product competitively priced.

Living Threads Company – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Our mission is to preserve traditional art and improve livelihoods by connecting rural small scale artisans to markets. We design all of our products hand in hand with our artisan partners. We create limited-edition, small-batch designs and prioritize quality, design, and fair wages over quantity.

I am proud of the relationships we have built with our partners and the investment we have made in building their capacity and independence. It is important to me that each of the artisans we work with understand the market that they are a part of. Last January we had the opportunity, through the National Museum of Women in the Arts, to bring one of our partner artisans, Ana Mesia, to Washington DC from her indigenous Maya town on the shores of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. It was incredibly inspiring to see her as a spokesperson for her home, her art, and her culture, here in the US, all while connecting with people through her craft of weaving.

It is these personal relationships, as well as the unique product, each with a unique creation story that sets us apart.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I refer back to the previous questions. Seeing our partner artisan from Guatemala, Ana, in front of both museum go-ers and George Washington University students and faculty sharing her own story and art. Challenging and changing the way young and old consumers look at the products they choose to purchase.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://livingthreadsco.com/
• Phone: (937) 839-2075
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @LivingThreadsCo
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LivingThreadsco/
• Other: https://vimeo.com/283983191

Image Credit:
Samuel Corum

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