DOuroPreto history in the web is completelly linked to
the PeopLink project.
Our
comunitty is sprayed in the deeps of the rural area of Ouro Preto , and always
had problems with comunication with the "external" world . Since 70's
, the only market we had was the fairs , all over Brasil. Between fairs , no deals . Our customers cannot reach us ;
far ,unpaved hard roads and no phone.
The way
our work is produced , with all working in her own home , impose the need of a
computer to try to keep the caos organized , allowing physical control of the
proccess , storage of information on sales to help planning , costs control ,
etc. The natural choice was a notebook , that can go
door-to-door , as we needed.
After some fights , the system allow an organization
level that increase the production highly. Very good ,
but how about markets ? We've started to drop prices , to ensure colocation of
all the production allowing keep the fractal growing
rate of the community intact. Was a non-sense actitude
say no to anyone that wants to learn a hand-work ; the only way to
the community production grow is adding , literally ,
hands. But drop prices has a limit ,
and we was seeing problems in near future .
Suddenly , in 2002 , cell phone signal in the farm ... Very
weak , but better than nothing. Lets buy a phone and an
external antenna. The guilt for this lines still remember the bright in the
eyes of all looking for the little toy
.Reading the manual someone say " this thing has internet
capability ! ". An idea was born. Let's buy a cable , we
have a computer !
We learn that cell phones
connections was very slow , expensible and unstable , and that networks needs a
completely different approach and concepts ,
different of a machine working alone . A new world , at
first view extremelly complicated.Much things to learn and very short available
time . Since our focus in the web was the external
markets (Ouro Preto receive visitors of all the world and the interest of them in our work always is
vivid , some of them showing interests in re-sales ,etc) in our first try
in a search engine we look "exportar artesanato"
(exporting workmanship) and find in the Brazilian Ministry of Industry web-site
a link to Crafts Center , were we was kindly redirect by Ms. Michelle Han to Mr.
Salcedo , in PeopLink.
Mr. Salcedo show us a CatGen
project . We study the way they operate and , surprised , see that was
exactly what we was needing . Off-line work , simple to operate to people like
us with no skills on the web , specifically designed for artisans groups . Fly
on the first shoot...
We , naturally , have
problems . Cell connections is very unstable and slow , speccialy with bad
signal , expensive and the files was growing . Here enter the CatGen Support
Team , with his infinite patience.
After teach to zero-starters
all the proccess , they offer us a personal care , allowing us to send our
upgrades on the site in a ZIP format , with the crew taking the job of
publish. So much thanks to Mr. Alexey Cholokov , team
leader ! This was done at night (low phone rates) , when we go to a top of a
mountain in the farm to have better and stable cell phone signal . We put all in our truck , and using a car battery
charged during a day with a photovoltaic charger (heritage of our times with no
eletric lines too...)spend 2-3 hours sending our files ( later we discover the
Downloads Managers , that among with the team goodwill help us too much in this
task...)
(Notebook , car battery , power inverter , 7160 cellphone ,
USB/Serial converter)
Meanwhile , in Ouro Preto , 35 Km away from the farm , was
instaled a public broadband provider ; this allow us work under best conditions
and give a holiday to the support. We start to save the work in a USB flash
drive and do the e-mail read and answer , and the site upgrade in a public
machine.
An evolution , but still slow proccess ; we see a
message in a day , respond 2 days before and see the answer 2 days more. And the visitation and sales growing ... What a tool
!
As a happy end (or a new beggining ) we see a little
provider of satellite conection borning in Rio de Janeiro state , near. After some contacts and calculations we see that the site
was deserving better resourses ; we was having 1 page-view minute , contatcs and
sales that , despite the slow proccess using cyber-coffees, was allowing us to
not only support the fractal growing of the community , but research ways to
speed up this. We've had months with the site
responding to 20% (!) of the total sales . More work for
all , less pricing due to scale ; more sales due to good prices
; inclusion of people even more far , of the core ,
turning economic agents people normally with few or none options ,
the rural women. Very good.
By now , we have sattelite 24hrs conection, cheaper than we
spend before montly with cellphone calls ; a good deal...
By now , we offer Skype , messengers , and soon a IP phone
, freeing us from the cellphone high rates , as channels between us and our customers ; we have clients in USA,
Germany, Portugal, UK and Spain , and we can talk to them cheaper than calling
the neighbour...
Among , we have had consults from : Italy , Norway , France , Emirates , Australia , Israel ,
Togo , Nigeria , South africa , Argentina and Colombia.
Please note that all the proccess not take more than 4
years , surprising us at each step. We have now a fully
functional e-shop , allowing us , from the deeps of the rural area , reach our
customers on-line , real time , sometimes with people from the other side of the
planet. Brave new world...
Our sincere thanks to all the people involved in the
proccess. Please be proud , all of you. Thanks to your
work , a more improbably enterprise that could be access to the Web is selling
his work worldwide , providing work and keeping alive a tradition that was
vanishing here , the manual embroidery. Keep moving ! Do the same to more people
!
And you , artisans groups around the world , dream too !
Contact these guys , they are great ...
What you
find in the Web about us
RISORSE.NET - News hi-tech <- Notizie ... Le implementazioni attuali spaziano da una cooperativa brasiliana
(www.catgen.com/douropreto) specializzata nella vendita
di ricami a livello mondiale, fino a ... www.risorse.net/news/articolo.asp?ID=7071 - 22k - 13 dez. 2003 - Em
cache - Páginas
Semelhantes
Forum du commerce international - La revue trimestriel du Centre
... ... Unis. Il a été créé entierement via une
connexion téléphonique cellulaire a l'internet (http://www.catgen.com/douropreto).
...
www.forumducommerce.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/538/
Les_n%E9cessit%E9s_des_PME_sur_les_march%E9s.html - 69k
Who are us ? We
live and produce Hand Embroidery in the deep agricultural area of
Ouro
Preto, inward of the state
of Minas Gerais, Brasil. All our family is involved and so much others
families around us. We worked as producers in last 29 years with many root
workmanship's kinds and , in last 14 years
with 100% cotton hand
embroidered clothing that we sell , fairs and
partnerships , all over Brasil.
We was
co-founders , in 1975 , of the today's self-proclaimed biggest
workmanship fair of Americas ( 70.000
visitors/fair coming from all Brazilian states and even from others countries
, 3.500 stands) , where
until now we sell our work every Sunday morning in Belo Horizonte ,
capital of the state ,
100 km away from our ranch . We sell , weekly too, in Ouro Preto, 40 km away ,
Both are very , very , good markets ;
offered with no costs , maintained by the cities and the
products sold in are tax-free , due to be
handmade .
We crafted (we're still crafting...) a
network of production partners, each working in his own home , sprayed in
the rural area of 4 cities (Ouro Preto , Mariana ,Barao de Cocais e Catas
Altas) (this virtual production line , the fair sales and
the tax-free condition allows a drastic cost reduction , that
reflects in our prices , let partners work
when (and if) they can and is environment-friendly
as a result
of a 100% sprayed resources distribution)
We work with people that do not have much time to
work with the embroidery and ,otherwise, do not have any another way to
turn herselves economically
active due to distances and circumstances. They're
all rural women , with husbands to help in the fields and sons to
care . We delivery in each home the work (in the embroidery , with the
area to be embroidered designed , the line colors and needles -- in the
sewing , the cotton fabrics cut and modeled and all the materials needed ) and
take back again periodically , interval depending on local (some of them
reached only with horses or
motorcycles) ,
to pick up the work done (no cotes or quantity
obligation).
It's a virtual line production , we cutting the
cotton and including the appropriate materials for each task and distribute ,
taking from the sewers to embroiderers , an from those to the laundriers
We do not say no to anyone who want to work or learn to , and in this
way the production (and the partners involved) grows 40% / year
(by now 13.000 units/year) ; we adjust the sell prices to ever permits the collocation of
all the production.
Please note that
all the process occur with everybody working in your own
home.
We try to take all the
process under control using a notebook ,that goes everywhere, and a database
.
But the people interested in join the work was growing , more than
the sells .
and our prices was "in the limits" and we cannot drop them down
more to increase sells.
In the unit , each people involved earns the same
; so, their number is always
growing ; in the beginning we teach
all interested partner the basics on embroidery and sewing ; by now, the friend teaches the friend
and neighbors to neighbors , resulting in a fractal , constant grow.
This pricing politics and production
process result in very pretty clothing , handmade, cheap , and allow too
cheap retail prices.
In this way we have now peoples that resell our work in
18 Brazilian states , USA and Spain.
The vivid interest from the foreigners
in our work , in Ouro Preto (that receive people of all the world), give us a
hope that the external markets can help us to
keep growing the number of partners in the actual constant .
Our 16 hours/day work actually is keep the partner's
hands filled . We are a community sprayed in the very deep inwards of the
state , that grows by herself , if have markets. It's a virtuous circle
: new markets needs more production ; production grow , in our case ,
only with more hands , that need markets. We research and
design models and embroidery stitches and colors, prospect ,buy and
organize raw materials , cut and group each model/size , design the area to
be embroidered , guide the way out trough the process by taking and
delivering , organize, project and control production , prospect
clients and sell .
Our products are socially correct and must be ,too,
ecologically correct. The only place were the process have potential to be
aggressive against the environment is in our ranch (our Home) , were the work
is concentrated ; in all others places the scale of the work , due to
the absolutely sprayed distribution of the production process , do not have
this capacity. The only public service present in our ranch is electricity
; all resources must be self provided (water, sanitary devices , trash handle
, transport ,etc) We have no other way ; we feel in the skin any errors in
this matter. We NEED to work ecological, We work only with 100% cotton ;
only bio-degradable in the wash, inorganic waste sold to "EcoGeraes" ,
organic turned in humus. We don't kill animals or eat meat .
All
the people involved in our work learns that the customer is the master
; the completely horizontal hierarchy of the process turns this notion
easily clear. We knows that he pays for all the process and
that our work depends on him. Every partner is your self - evaluator, and a
evaluator for the tasks prior executed in the piece by other partner; it
works fine . We have hi-quality products. Due to the many steps of
the process, the 100 % sprayed distribution of the people and his number ,
the number of models , sizes and colors we produce, and the need of prior and
post-sell work , the only way to manage our kind of process is using a
computer program. It allow physical control of the process, and give as
sub-product lots of information that help to plain what to product
,according to each model , color and size sells. We learn how to and make our
own system , that have his beginning in 1989, and is being updated and
adapted since that. It controls costs , production resources distribution
between models and sizes, raw material stocks use and reposition, sales
, clients , finances and produce statistics on all it . --------- We do
not produce now sophisticated crafts. But our work is single , hand
made , pretty , cheap , sells easily , is very resistant , helps the
rescue and multiply of a tradition here that was
vanishing and involves lots and lots
of people , rural
women, in the production process..
Our adress
is:
Chapada's Farm , Glaura district , Ouro
Preto
There is no mail services to the ranch . Please send mail
to
P.O.Box 32 - Itabirito - Minas Gerais - Brasil - CEP
35450-000
Our phone is 55-31-8499-4961 (Rural stationary cell
phone, please
insist if you have a message "out of
area"
You will find :
Overall for babies , with embroidery an
crochet,with buttons inside the legs and elastic.Button
closing on the back
Long Pants with the slightly wider mouth.
Belt inlaid in the cos, braguilha and waist embroidery
Used in set with the long sleeve blouse and
chemiset; pockets in the front and external
(embroidery) behind. .
Capri pants (bellow of the knee) with rubber
band (and belt of cotton with micangas) in the
waist, with pockets behind and applications
of cotton laceworkt in the bar.Selleds ones or set
with the Mini-blouse.Many colors of cotton
and embroidery
Hand embroidered pants with more suitable
motifs.In strong cotton,with cargo pockets.Elastic and
cotton rope as belt.
Capri pants with inlaid cotton rope as a
belt,that can be used with belts up to 3 cm.Embroidery
in the pockets.
Shorts with rubber band (and belt of cotton
with micangas) in the waist, with pockets behind
and applications of cotton or crochet in the
bar.Sold ones or set with the Mini-blouse. Many
colors of cotton / embroidery .
Embroidered short with cotton rope belt .
Can be used with another belts, up to 3 cm.Pockets in
the back.
This model is shorter than the secretary
model . Alllow the use of another belt instead the one
that come with. Embroidery in the waist , hem and back
pockets.
Skirt with hand embroidery with ziper
in the back . Under the knee .
Embroidery on skirt with frill joined to the
skirt body with crochet or lacework. Rubber belt inlaid with cotton rope .
Hand embroidered skirt with elastic , with a
frill joined with crochet or lacework . 100% cotton
, pre-washed
Hand embroidered bag with Crochet or
Lacework
Hand embroidery in chemisette , with crochet
or lacework,100 % cotton .Delicate embroidery in
many colors.
Hand Embroidered Chemisette with a little
rope as a set of buttons , medieval style. The covering
under the rope and the hand embroidery let
use more adjusted to the body or not , as you like.
Used too as a corselet over tiny blouses and
in set with the capri pants.
Chemisette with cotton lacework or
crochet . Hand Embroidery , with belt in the back to adjust .
Hand embroidered in the back .
Jacket with embroidery
in the pockets and in the back. Medium cotton. Longer than the children
model
Embroidered
cotton short jacket with buttons closing in the front . Made with heavy cotton in long sleeves.
Hand embroidered short
Blazer , in strong cotton with light cotton cover inside. Belt in the back to adjust the width. In white , natural and in colors ,only in adult
sizes
Long sleeves blouse ,
with button closing , in medium or heavy cotton. Only for the sizes ( S , M , L , XL)
Hand embroidered
bolero in cotton . Tied in the back. To be usede over
blouses,dresses,chemisetes,etc.Adjustable
Long sleeves hand
embroidered dress , with embroidery in lateral pockets
and back belt . Lacework or crochet
application.
Comfortable, resistant
and practical dresses. Size below of
the knee and adjustable width with the belt sewn to the back. Can be used with or without blouse and
is in many colors of cotton and embroidery
Embroidered dress ,
3/4 sleeves . Can be used on the shoulders , with embroidery in the back and is made in medium cotton ,
in all colors. For while , only in adult
sizes
Embroidered
cotton dress with a frill joined to the dress body with croche or cotton
lacework.Can be adjusted in low neck with a little opening back in the elastic
trail and with the back belt .
Hand Embroidered
dresses , with a tiny holder and cotton lacework ; back closing with
ziper.
Hand Embroidered
Lacework dress with lacework , back closing with zipper , cross rope to
adjust , light cotton doubling in the skirt .
Embroidered dress in
light cotton , for childs up to 10 years.Back closing with buttons , including
the holders that can be adjusted changing the button position.Cotton
lacework.
Long sleeves hand
embroidered dress , with lacework all over the both sides of the cloing
line,with buttons.Embroidery in the back too.
Hand embroidered long
(to the feet) dress , long sleeves , back belt to adjust , front closing with
buttons with embroidery and crochet in all the closing line.
Hand embroidered Dress
with border sleeves in cotton with handmade finish and hand embroidery .
Embroidered in the back , buttons in the top back.Can be used by pregnants and
is made from the Zero size to LG
Crochet and hand
embroidery . Made in short or long sleeves , and in
models with lacework. . Various colors and
thicknesses of cotton .
Crochet or lacework
and hand embroidery . Made in short sleeves and light cotton with finishings in
crochet and cotton lacework.Belt in the back to adjust.
Hand embroidery in
gown with elastic on the shoulders. Modeled long , in medium cotton.
Embroidery in blouse ,
with cross rope in the front and belt in the back Can be weared without take off
the rope. Many colors of embroidery and thickness of cotton.
Embroidered lacework
blouse in cotton , with buttons in front . Light cotton
. Embroidery and fabric belt in the back to adjust.
Summer gown with hand
embroidery and cotton lacework , with short sleeves , in light cotton . Rubber
belts in the low neck and in the sleeves , allowing the use in the shoulder ,
like a gipsy gown Selled too in set with the capri pants.
Hand emboidery in long
gown, in special light cotton. Hand embroidered in the back , sleeves and front.
Only in white cotton , with many options of embroidery motifs and
colors
Confectioned in cotton
strengthened and total regulable gardening in such a way in height, saw handle,
how much in width, with the lateral belts. Used in such a way in the half
station, with blouses, how much in the heat, with tops. Made since the size 1
year (with internal aperture in the legs) up to XL.Elastic under the lateral
belt.Long and short legs for your choice
Boys overall , in hard
cotton , inforced and with motifs more apropriated for the "little angels". Side "cargo" pockets Only for the
sizes 2 - 4 - 6
rates) , when we go to a top of a
mountain in the farm to have better and stable cell phone signal .
