In January 2023, I traveled with Linking Hands for Learning to live with host families and build a school in El Carrizo, Nicaragua. We spent a lot of time with the children in the village, even taking the same hikes through the mountain paths they traverse each day to attend school.
Blown away by the culture's resourcefulness and resilience, I returned to Rochester, NY inspired to focus my MFA industrial design thesis project on developing a solution that could be manufactured locally (without electricity, running water, power tools, or modern-day shipping), utilizing materials sourced from the region and incorporating recycled elements, all while honoring Nicaragua's beautiful and diverse cultural heritage.
In remote Nicaraguan villages, while some families can afford things like backpacks, supplies, and school uniforms, others cannot. Most furniture in houses are plastic chairs.
Progress pictures as of 2/13/24
Anielka Martínez, the weaver from Ocotal who constructed this backpack by hand, and I on my last day in Nicaragua.
I connected with a weaver nestled in the mountains of Ocotal, Nicaragua. We worked together for several weeks developing and refining a backpack design for children in similar villages, along the way gathering feedback from other expert weavers, designers, craftsmen/women, material experts, furniture makers, professors, teachers, translators, and other friends in both the U.S. and Nicaragua.
In Feburary 2024, I returned to Nicaragua, this time for another school build in El Borbollón, and to conduct additional research/collaboration for my thesis.
I returned home with the completed prototype!
The backpack is constructed with pine needles collected from the forest, and hand-sewn by thread. The straps are made from braided recycled t-shirts. It is meant to be for children to carry schoolwork on their walks to school, and also dually to be used as a flat desk-like surface for doing work at home.
Additionally, this product is meant to accelerate local business. After speaking with the weavers and community members about this design, they will be crafting similar bag designs as exportable objects to other areas, hopefully eventually worldwide. For most of these women, selling hand-woven baskets is their only source of income and their only job outside of taking care of their children and homes.
Weaving Process
Ideation & Design
Next Steps
The themes of my thesis revolve around sustainability, resourcefulness, craftsmanship and culture. This experience and the connections I made with these people truly changed my life, and it's something I plan to continue to be a part of as long as I can.
Update!
See photos from my 2025 trip: Nicaragua 2025
Buy a basket from the Fuente de Pinos: Fuente de Pinos baskets
