My name is Joelle Maslaton Oster, living my dream job: I am international shopper. I travel regularly to over 50 countries hunting for “hidden treasures”—buried in a dusty marketplace or a shop on an obscure side-street—to find the best rare, exotic, local items to offer to you.
I used to do this for three decades as an industrial designer, developing products and the owner of award-winning store Joelle in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Those products varied from sustainable luxury home accessories sourced from Munich, to the most intricate Aguayo bangles, a textile made by native indigenous women of Bolivia at the border with Peru using alpaca or llama wool, in natural bright coloring.
Color is my language. It reflects the happiness of local craftspeople that coexist as a collective environment where tradition and impeccable skills transpire pure creativity of purpose to the decorative, practical and utilitarian world with the sole use of their hands.
Now I brought this operation online so I can share some of these treasures from around the world with you quickly, conveniently, regardless of where you live.
As a global product developer, I’ve:
Saluted the sun rising from the Himalayan Annapurna mountain.
Honored Yemanja, the Orixa queen of the ocean and patron of Brazilian fishermen, with flowers I placed on the Bahia de Todos os Santos waters.
Lacquered bamboo utensils with monks dressed in bright saffron at the foothills of Bagan in Burma.
Learned from Native American Indians during a ceremony how Turquoise stole its blue color from the sky.
Find more on Joelle Magazine and my Shop with Joelle Instragram page.
From each such adventure, I bring home cherished stories and photos…new extraordinary collaborations and authentic regional artifacts, that let me share their vibrant, unique cultures with you, my customer as innovative lifestyle trends in this far too industrialized civilization. As a result Vogue Magazine Brazil awarded me as one of the top 50 influential people in that country.
I hope you’ll enjoy the one-of-a-kind handcrafted marvels I’ve gathered here for your own shopping pleasure in this constantly updated catalogue. This emotional connection is shared with you as I offer momentos of my memories and that quoted by Duncan Campell and Charlotte Rey in their book -The craft and the Makers –“There is a value in personal relationships, a value of techniques saved by extinction, a value of a community centered around the craft production, a value of hard work, the value of sourcing material responsibility and the glorious reality that there are still some thinks money can’t buy!”
If you like them, please tell your friends. The more appreciators of these wonderful artisan goods visit here, the more I’ll be able to offer you in the future.
If you are looking to commission something specific for you or in bulk quantities for your store, feel free to contact me anytime.