Intercrafts Peru SAC is a Lima-based fair trade organisation which is specialised in Peruvian handicrafts: Promoting their richness, value, diversity and culture, they offer a variety of original and unique pieces by Peruvian artisans to the global market. In doing so, Intercrafts Peru sets a focus on long-term partnerships and therefore works with the same artisans since its founding – around 300 craftsmen in different places of Peru who are organised in associations and artisanal groups within the Central of Craftsmen of Peru (CIAP). 

CIAP is an interregional Peruvian artisans’ association that started marketing and exporting the products of its member in the 1990s. It was also the same association that founded Intercrafts Peru in 2002. Intercrafts Peru serves CIAP as a commercial structure, with the main objective of promoting and exporting the artisanal products of its members. 

Intercrafts Peru and CIAP are promoters and activists of fair trade in Peru and Intercrafts Peru is a Guaranteed Member of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO). The organization therefore aligns its work with the 10 principles of Fair Trade.* Among other principles, Intercrafts aims to create marketing opportunities through international sales and thus to “contribute to the sustainable development of the artisans, their families and their communities,” as to put Intercrafts' mission in their own words.

Tika Rumi is one of the associations of artisans that cooperates with Intercrafts. The artisans are specialised in silverware and jewellery. With currently 8 partners, Tika Rumi is a small group of artisans located in Villa El Salvador, an urban, largely residential coastal district on the outskirts of the capital and the largest city of Peru, Lima; most of its members originate from other regions of Peru like Cuzco, Cerro de Pasco, Huancayo and Lima.

Another one of the Intercrafts Peru artisans is Alejandro Hurtado Laveriano who’s workshop is based in Huancayo, the capital of Junín Region, in the central highlands of Peru. The artisan is an expert in gourd carving, in Spanish known as “mates burilados”. The “Mate Burilado Peruano” (“Peruvian Gourd Art”) is a traditional crafts technique that has been representing communal or personal Peruvian stories in gourds for several thousand years. Alejandro Hurtado Laveriano’s drawings usually represent scenes of farming life.

The gourd, known as “mate” in Peru, is the basis of the fine art of the “mate burilado”. To create this design, the gourd is first peeled, cleaned and dried. After that the artisan can carve the three-dimensional design into the gourd, using a special tool called “buril”. The “buril” is a wood stick with a steel nail attached to it. It is common to find miniature drawings on “mates burilados”, which can only be made with the help of magnifying glasses. For this purpose, an additional tool, a kind of scalpel, is used.

A selection of Tika Rumi’s beautiful silver jewellery pieces and Alejandro Hurtado Laveriano’s “mates burilados” are available in our shop.  

*The 10 principles of Fair Trade include, among other principles, ensuring good working conditions, commitment to transparency, fair trading practices, fair payment, freedom of association, non discrimination and gender equity, as well as respect for the environment. More information here.

The photos show some of the artisans of Tika Rumi and Alejandro Hurtado Laveriano.

As of May 2021.