Ceramic Salt Cellars

Description

Add some style to your kitchen with a highly decorative and useful Fair Trade ceramic salt cellar.

The beautiful patterns have been etched by hand in Nicaragua by using sharpened bicycle spokes in a technique called “scrafitto.”

It also comes with a beautifully convenient (and sustainably sourced!) tropical hardwood spoon – allowing you to scoop out the ideal amount of salt.

Approximate size

Salt cellar – 12.5cm wide x 13.5cm tall.

Spoon: – 12 cm x 3 cm

Care

Clean with a soft cloth

Do not put it in the dishwasher

How these ceramic salt cellars are made

The ceramic salt pigs are handmade in Nicaragua from freshly collected clay on a traditional manual kick-wheel and fired on a large outdoor kiln.

They are masters of a very detailed geometric work that can be seen on these salt cellars. Each piece is gridded out on the vessel and then the surface is meticiously scratched using a sharpened bicycle spoke, a technique called “scrafitto.”

You can read more about how these wonderful ceramic salt cellars are made here.

How your purchase can make a difference

Known as the “land of lakes and volcanoes” Nicaragua is also home to the second-largest rainforest in the Americas and a popular tourist destination. However it is also among the poorest countries in the Americas and 48% of the population of Nicaragua live below the poverty line, with 79.9% of the population living on less than $2 per day

Fairtrade benefits to communities

Your purchase will help support families like  Don Leopoldo Potosme and Sara in the ceramic community of San Juan de Oriente, Nicaragua.

In this community houses and workshops are often integrated as one. The home of Leopoldo and Sara is no different, and with nine family members sharing the space, they literally eat, sleep and breathe pottery. The Potosme family has four children, two of whom, with their spouses, help to produce the orders for Women of the Cloud Forest.

With the proceeds from their Fair Trade crafts they have been able to send their youngest son to medical school!

About the suppliers

Women of the Cloud Forest has been working in fair trade since 2001 and have direct, long-term relationships with small family workshops and cooperatives in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru. In addition to placing consistent orders with their artisan partners, they provide business training and product development/design and offer no-interest micro-loans and direct grants for workshop capacity building.

This holistic approach to business enables their artisan partners to grow their businesses and access new markets without creating cycles of dependency.