When an experimental design, the Triangle Snake, succeeded with North American shops and an international catalog, the flow of orders employed a few families of weavers in Santiago Atitlan. Other families of weavers saw the sudden money and wanted work also. However, the 5 inch wide Triangle Snake required strong men to weave the width. I did the obvious -- I reduced the width of the design to 3 inches, then 2 inches, then 1 inch. Widows could weave during the day as they cared for their children. Teenagers -- young men and women like Juan Pablo and his wife -- could weave several belts a day. No longer did the Mayan families need to work the plantations on the Pacific Coast.

And attention to detail and the purchase of first quality thread produced the highest quality Guatemalan belts on the market.

For an example of quality, go to the side-by-side view of a village-woven Zuni belt machine-washed 100 times and a new, never-worn or washed Zuni belt.

The new belt shines with the brilliance of new thread, yet the old, worn belt retains the strong colors and intricate detail of art created by experienced, highly-motivated artists.

Working with the designs and innovations I developed, the village weavers exported direct to my design center in the United States. From there, I shipped the products to shops throughout North America. Catalogs sold the products to customers throughout the world. Resort shops sold the products to travelers from other wealthy nations.

This enterprise sold traditional crafts to First World shops and catalogs as wearable art. Sales returned dollar earnings to the remote villages of the Third World.

Sales of the products made the weavers the highest-paid workers in the village. Money from the First World business went direct to the artists -– boutique and catalog sales paid for the education of children, medicines for families, purchases of land, and start-ups of other businesses. Juan Pablo told me, "One belt, we buy one block for the house. Wife and I weave all day, every day."

I am seeking work in Arabic-speaking countries to repeat this success with artists in remote villages.

(Drawings done with ink and straight-edge, later with vector graphics. Juan Pablo and his wife and baby photographed with a Canon camera. Drawings and photos scanned via Canon LIDE 500 to PhotoShop, assembled in Flash.)