Call it the Whole Food-ification of America, but more and more consumers want to know that whatever they’re buying is eco-friendly and has a positive ethical impact. While those sentiments have made their way into what we eat and what we drive, how about what we wear for jewelry? It’s difficult to picture how someone could come up with 100 percent all-natural and sustainable jewelry, but Angela Sanchez - an engineer and Babson MBA - did just that.
Sanchez, who’s originally from Colombia, launched an innovative jewelry company called Artyfactos with her family. What’s so special about it? All of the pieces are made out of components you’d only find in nature - including orange peel, coffee beans, kidney beans, acai seeds, melon seeds, miniature coconuts (yes, that's a thing), tagua nut and bombona - which, if you look at how elaborate the jewelry is, it’s mind-blowing how that could be possible. And, better yet, it helps create employment opportunities for workers in Latin America.
“Every time I’d visit my parents, I'd buy a necklace for me and my sister. People would always stop us to say, ‘I love them. Where did you get them?’ I’d say I got them in Colombia and they’d ask if we’d sell them to them.”
That was two years ago, when Sanchez and her family started to bring over jewelry from Colombia a few pieces at a time so they could sell them to people in the U.S. It was more of an experiment then, mostly because Sanchez wasn’t sure if that many folks would be fans of the jewelry’s vivid colors. It turns, the bright colors were part of the appeal.
Once she realized American demand for the pieces was there, it transformed into a family business. For Artyfactos, Sanchez’s sister handles the procurement logistics, while her husband is involved in the IT aspect and her mom - who still lives in Colombia - is in charge of operations down there. Even her young daughters are in on the venture, helping as she packages the products. And her 8-year-old was the artistic genius behind designing the company’s children’s line.
The look of their jewelry is amazing in and of itself. But there’s so much more to Artyfactos than offering killer statement pieces. For one thing, the fact that the jewelry is all made of materials found in nature - something that I still can’t believe from looking at it - so it’s all sustainable. And on top of that, the venture is changing the quality of life for Colombian artisans by creating stable jobs for them.
“I love the idea, but it’s more than a piece of jewelry. There is a social impact and an environmental impact,” Sanchez said. “We’re working right now with artisans in Latin America and it’s a way they can provide for themselves. We’re not just creating a sustainable income for them. We’re also giving them technology and manufacturing tools so they can improve their business capacity.”
She continued, “Before, they’d go and sell it on the streets. It wasn’t formal work. They would make something at home, go on the street, put a blanket down and sell their pieces...It is very hard for artisans. The fashion industry down there had changed and most jewelry is back to brass and copper. Tourists are the ones who are their customers, and depending on tourism in Colombia is hard because not a lot of people choose to go there.”
If you had any doubt about the heart-warming capabilities of Artyfactos’ reach, Sanchez was kind enough to share a particular case where the company has positively impacted the life of one of their partner artisans.
"I am going to tell you a story: One of the artisans we’ve been working with and placed a couple of orders with, she called me and said, ‘Can I ask you for a huge favor?’ She’s 27 years old and has an 11-year-old daughter. She’s young and the father isn’t around, but he told her he would pay for her daughter’s school that year. In Colombia, we have public schools, but most of them are private and most children go there. It costs tuition to go there and he had promised he would pay for the whole year. She got a call from her daughter’s school saying they cleared off her desk because the tuition wasn’t paid, so she asked if we could give her a deposit in advance for the next order. We told her, ‘Of course,’ and with that, she was able to pay for a whole year of school tuition for her daughter...Now, she’s able to go on vacation, she’s thinking about buying a house. She’s feeling like she can make a better life for her daughter. The place where she lives is a humble area and she was telling me, ‘I really don’t like living here. There are a lot of gangs and I don’t want violence to be around my daughter.’ She can now look to move somewhere else. For me, these stories are more important than the product."
Moving forward, Artyfactos is looking to grow the business to support more artisans in Latin America. In addition to selling its jewelry online, the company also has pieces available in several boutiques throughout Massachusetts and one in Texas. The plan is to expand into more shops so it can increase its volume of work and loop in more artisans to accommodate that growth.
