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"A San Francisco company called Oryjin, which is participating in this weekend\u2019s Fair-Trade Bazaar at the de Young Museum, specializes in Laotian jewelry and scarves, and it\u2019s a business with a difference.Instead of taking advantage of low wages in the southeast Asian country with a troubled history and a struggling economy, Oryjin supports people still under Communist control by building their handicraft business in the countryside.\u201CHandicrafts are the bellwether of culture,\u201D says Oryjin co-founder Mark Sloneker, \u201Cand in a country where private business was still illegal recently, buying and selling their beautiful work helps create \u2018Communist capitalism\u2019 on the Chinese model, on a minuscule but still vital scale.\u201CWe help master craftsmen and village women weaving artisans find markets for their products outside of Laos, introducing this talented group to self-sustaining business practices that will empower them and their communities with this direct-to-the-source revenue stream,\u201D he says.Among the jewelry selections offered by Oryjin is sterling-grade white silver antiquated by tumbling in a mineral solution. Artworks and handicrafts on sale at the free event, being held in&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; the museum\u2019s Piazzoni Murals Room&amp;nbsp; (which will be turned into an ecological street fair setting) meet the criteria of \u201Cquality products that improve lives, protect the environment, and benefit communities.\u201DStuart Hata, director of the museum stores, says the bazaar is \u201Can educational complement to the de Young\u2019s renowned collections of native arts from around the world.\u201DParticipating organizations include members of the Fair Trade Association such as Oryjin, Gianna Fair Trade (southeast Asian textiles), Globally Minded (Mayan jewelry), Good Paper (multi-ethnic stationery), Mayan Hands (Mayan crafts) and Woven Promises (African textiles).Other exhibitors are showing and selling Nepalese kids\u2019 crafts, and Haitian, Central Asian and African arts and crafts.For Oryjin, purchase prices go directly to the artisan making the pieces, and additional profits are shared with the Participatory Development Training Center."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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