Fair-trade focus: New shop features African baskets, international decor

Seven years ago, Irene Zuehlsdorff set out to start a “giving” business that would personally benefit those making the products she sells.

It took some work, but the Kalispell woman eventually tapped into a women’s cooperative in Ghana, West Africa, that makes baskets to help break the cycle of poverty in that country. Those baskets and the personal stories they represent were the springboard for Zuehlsdorff’s business, First Choice Decor.

After spending several years making the rounds at arts festivals and quilt and fiber-art shows, Zuehlsdorff has opened a shop at the corner of Fifth Avenue West and Idaho Street in Kalispell.

It’s filled with not only African baskets but also handbags, batik wall hangings and other African gift decor made with fair-trade guidelines.

“I was so taken by their ministry,” Zuehlsdorff said about Patex Enterprize, the West African women’s cooperative. “Every product has a story.”

The co-op was started by Patience Bawa Abakuri, who saw a need to help women provide for their families by using their talents in weaving or making pottery, beads and other products. The weaver or craftswoman is paid half the price and the other half is used to buy necessities such as food, utensils and clothing, Zuehlsdorff explained. Each woman is asked to prioritize her needs.

“Patience believed that if you help the woman, you help the child,” she said.

Zuehlsdorff hasn’t traveled yet to Africa but has had the opportunity to meet Patience and her husband Dominic, who call her “Mama Irene.”

“Bolga Baskets” are woven of veta vera grass, an indigenous renewable resource in the Northern Bolgatanga District of Ghana. Each basket takes about three days to complete.

As baskets arrive in big bundles, Zuehlsdorff separates the compressed baskets and dips them in hot water to mold them back into shape.

First Choice Decor also has a selection of Laga designer handbags, another product line with a poignant story.

The intricately stitched bags are made by Indonesian women who survived the 2004 tsunami and are rebuilding their lives. The women have memorized the patterns applied to textiles with non-electric treadle machines.

“The whole premise is to support groups trying to lift lives out of poverty,” Zuehlsdorff said.

She deals with a number of distributors, including several who offer products certified with the Fair Trade Association. The Fair Trade brand ensures products are derived from equitable partnerships between marketers in the developed “First World” and producers in underdeveloped regions of Asia, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere, Zuehlsdorff said.

“A lot of bigger corporations are getting into fair trade and paying attention to” customers who are conscious of fair-trade guidelines, she said. “People don’t realize how much they can do by buying” products made under fair-trade guidelines.

First Choice Decor’s inventory runs the gamut, from wall hangings made in the Ivory Coast to glasswork from Swaziland.

Zuehlsdorff, a Flathead High School alumna who has lived in the Flathead since 1963, worked for 25 years as a bookkeeper, including 18 years at Dr. Pete Nelson’s dental office. It was time to do something different, she said.

The quest to open a store in Kalispell began in earnest recently when Zuehlsdorff’s inventory began growing and she needed a place to display all of the products. She has operated a kiosk at Kalispell Center Mall during the Christmas holiday season for several years and participates in gift shows from Oregon to Billings.

She and her husband, Gordon, looked downtown for space and had all but given up the search when she found the house at the corner of Fifth and Idaho advertised for lease. As it turned out, the building was owned by a woman Zuehlsdorff knew from church, who was happy to lease it to her.

Beyond providing a storefront for gift items that are benefiting women in Third World countries, Zuehlsdorff wants to make her shop into an information center for people who want to get involved with fair-trade advocacy.

“I’m open to doing whatever God sets before me,” she said. “Right now I’m just stepping through open doors.”

She plans to continue selling her decorative baskets and giftwares at area craft shows this summer.

She’s scheduled for the Flathead Cherry Festival in Polson on July 16-17, Kalispell Arts in the Park July 22-24 and the Eureka Fiberfest in August.

Store hours at First Choice Decor are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. The store is located at 188 Fifth Ave. W.N. in Kalispell.

For more information, go online to www.firstchoicedecor.com, call 250-8544 or email Zuehlsdorff at contact@firstchoicedecor.com. The store also is on Facebook.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.