Our first campaign as Artisanal Pride will represent Argentina. Our main goal is to run multiple campaigns in other countries and develop a website where people from around the world can purchase these products, and learn about the cultures of our incredibly diverse world.
With That Said, First Is Argentina!
Argentina is a large and diverse country with many cultures. One of the lesser known cultures is in the North.
The Goal of Artisanal Pride Argentina is to share our culture through the everyday products we use. Our team is made up of three Artisans who create products representing the Northern culture of Argentina, plus our Buenos Aires team who will help introduce these products by providing logistics, customer relations, and marketing.
These three products have been especially designed and crafted for the Kickstarter community by our artisanal team members in northern Argentina:
1. The gaucho knives and forks are handcrafted, and used for traditional asados (barbecue’s). The gaucho’s knife is a very personalized and treasured item—a source of pride for any owner.
2. Aguayo are brightly colored, intricately designed textiles that originate in northern Argentina and are made from llama, alpaca, or sheep wool. These clothing items, such as gloves, hats, and scarves, are beautiful additions to any person’s wardrobe.
3. And finally, Mate! Mate is similar to herbal tea. It is made from the stem and leaves of a plant. Drinking mate is a very social custom. Mate helps with digestion, gives you energy, stimulates mental alertness, and brings you closer to other people!
-Blades are made of Stainless Steel
-The handles are crafted from guayacan wood (species typical of the Chaco Forest), or from cow bone.
-Designs on the blade and handle are made of bronze or alpaca.
-Leather cases are made of cowhide
You can choose from the knives below. If you choose the knife and fork package the fork will have the same finish for the handle. Lastly, you can choose from the leather carrying cases shown (and stain color).
You can also choose if want your name (or some other words) imprinted on it as seen below or nothing imprinted.
Yerba: the stem and leaves from a single plant, finely chopped. Has a flavor mixed of tea, vegetables, and herbs. A little bitter to the taste, similar to green tea. Contains caffeine.
Mate: the round cup used to put the yerba in and originally made out of calabaza (squash)
Bombilla: the metal straw used to drink from the mate, and functions as a filter.
Preparation: Fill your mate with the yerba of your choice to just below the rim. Those who like to add sugar or sweetener usually do so on top of the yerba. Then pour hot water (temperature should be just before boiling: 70-80C or 158-176F) into the mate. The remaining water should be poured in the thermos. While holding the top of the bombilla, put the bombilla into the drink. It is ready to be served. There are various ways of preparing mate, this being just one of them.
Customs: Drinking mate is a very social custom, people of all ages partake in this custom. There is usually one server who pours the water and then passes the mate to each person in the group, once you finish drinking your cup you pass it back to the server. One thing that might seem odd to foreigners is that everyone shares the straw, but this is part of the custom (and you don’t clean it in between serves). You will see people drinking mate in their homes, at the park, at restaurants, at the office, even in the car! There are many health claims to drinking mate, but there is no doubt that drinking mate is beneficial. It gives you energy, it’s great for your digestion, it stimulates mental alertness, and last but definitely not least, it brings you closer to others!
Many specialty world market store sell yerba, like Cost Plus World Market and Whole Foods, otherwise it is available online at Amazon and many other delivery websites.
Learn How to Prepare Mate
These brightly colored, intricately designed textiles called aguayo, originate in the plateaus of the Andes in northern Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru. Made from the wool of either llama, alpaca, or sheep, everyone owns aguayo. Multi-useful, these fabrics are beautiful additions to the house, as table runners, sofa covers, blankets, on the wall, as a carpet! In this campaign will only be offering LLAMA.
See Picture Caption For Color Options.
See Picture Captions For Color Options. All Items are Unisex and one size fits all.
For all the items below you can choose to have the tag on the outside or on the inside or not at all.
1. Argentina is the second largest country in South America. At 2.7 million km2 in area, it is the 8th largest country in the world.
2. The name Argentina comes from the latin word for silver “argentum” because people thought the mountains were possessed with silver.
3. The Tango dance and music originated in the streets of Buenos Aires, most notably in the neighborhood of La Boca, the riverbank of Buenos Aires, in the late 1800’s.
4. The Southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia, is located in Argentina. Capital of the province Tierra del Fuego (land of fire), there are currently 57,000 inhabitants living in Ushuaia.
5. World’s widest avenue, the Avenida 9 de Julio, is in Buenos Aires. At over 300 feet wide, it has 7+ lanes on either side of the avenue with the Metrobus (rapid bus lanes) going through the center.
6. The first ever animated film was made in Argentina, “El Apostol,” in 1917, by Quirino Cristiani.
7. The Beef. Oh, the beef! Famous worldwide, Argentina is known for having amazing meat.
8. Dia del Amigo. Instead of the known Mother’s day, Father’s day, etc, they decided to make Friend’s Day!
9. Argentina has both the highest and lowest points in the Southern and Western Hemispheres. The highest being in the province of Mendoza, Mount Aconcagua (6,959 m), and the lowest in Santa Cruz, the San Julian Great Depression (-105 m).
10. The use of fingerprints as a way of identifying criminals was first used in Argentina.
By backing our KICKSTARTER campaign at any level, you will have the opportunity to vote on the country we run our next campaign for.