The Standard Sister

Islands have long been havens for craft- shaped by isolation, necessity, resilience, and beauty. Cut off from the mainland, island communities preserved traditions that faded elsewhere, passing down skills by hand and heart, and creating what they needed from what they had. Surrounded by nature and steeped in ritual, they turned scarcity into artistry. From volcanic cliffs to sun-washed coastlines, these places don’t just offer beauty — they hold memory. We set out to find artisans whose work still pulses with heritage. Women and communities who have woven, carved, dyed, and shaped their way through centuries of solitude and change — creating not just objects, but anchors of culture.

Mundillo Lace Makers – Moca, Puerto Rico

Nestled in the northwestern hills of Puerto Rico, Moca is a small inland town known as the "Capital of Mundillo." Puerto Rico itself is a Caribbean island with over 3 million residents, a complex colonial history, and a vibrant culture shaped by Indigenous Taíno, Spanish, and African roots. Though globally celebrated for its music and food, in Moca, lace reigns.

Mundillo — meaning "little world" — is Puerto Rico’s traditional bobbin lace, a craft brought by the Spanish and embraced as a local art form. Artisans weave delicate patterns using wooden bobbins and a round pillow also called a mundillo, often to adorn baptismal gowns, wedding veils, and linens. Passed from mother to daughter, mundillo is both ornamental and deeply emotional — lace that tells stories through thread.

Across the Atlantic, another lace tradition thrives in the Mediterranean: bizzilla, the Maltese art of bobbin lace-making. Especially rooted on the island of Gozo, bizzilla shares structural techniques with mundillo but carries its own visual language, often featuring floral and symbolic motifs. Both crafts reflect how islands protect and preserve delicate legacies across oceans and generations.

Yaeyama Jōfu Weavers – Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, Japan

Ishigaki Island lies in the far south of Japan, part of the Yaeyama Islands in Okinawa Prefecture. With a population of just under 50,000, it’s closer to Taiwan than to Tokyo — surrounded by coral reefs and turquoise water. Historically, Okinawa was its own kingdom (the Ryūkyū Kingdom), with distinct cultural and artistic traditions that continue today.

One of its most exquisite crafts is Yaeyama Jōfu, a handwoven textile made from ramie fiber, known for being light, airy, and nearly translucent. The process is intricate — from harvesting and fermenting the plant fibers to weaving fine, gauzy cloths, often used for summer kimonos. Each piece is a whisper of island breeze, preserved in thread.

Threads of Life Textiles – Bali, Indonesia

Bali may be best known for temples and tourism, but beneath the surface lies a rich textile culture rooted in spirit and ceremony. Indonesia is an archipelago of over 17,000 islands, and Bali — home to 4.3 million people — remains one of the most culturally preserved.

Threads of Life, a fair trade initiative based in Ubud, supports over 1,200 women weavers across multiple Indonesian islands, including Bali, Flores, and Sulawesi. They work with traditional looms and natural dyes, creating heirloom-quality textiles for both ceremonial and everyday use. Each piece is more than art — it’s a map of lineage, environment, and belief, keeping ancient patterns alive in a rapidly changing world.

Cape Verdean Pottery – São Nicolau Island, Cape Verde

Off the western coast of Africa, Cape Verde is a volcanic island nation made up of 10 islands. São Nicolau, with a population of about 12,000, is one of the least visited — a stronghold of traditional culture and slow living. While Cape Verde is often celebrated for its music, another tradition lives quietly in its soil: clay pottery.

Women on São Nicolau shape everyday vessels and ceremonial pieces from the island’s earth using techniques passed down orally for generations. Without formal kilns or machines, they fire the pottery using open flames, giving each piece a smoky, elemental beauty. These vessels are used for cooking, storage, and ritual — practical yet sacred, rough yet timeless.

Kalinago Basket Weavers – Dominica

Tucked in the eastern Caribbean, Dominica is often called the “Nature Island” for its lush rainforests, hot springs, and volcanic terrain. With a population of around 70,000, it is also home to the Kalinago Territory — the last remaining Indigenous community in the Caribbean.

The Kalinago people have preserved many ancestral traditions, one of the most enduring being basket weaving using larouma reed. These handwoven baskets, often adorned in natural tones of black, brown, and beige, are both functional and symbolic. The tradition is passed from one generation to the next, representing resilience, identity, and an unbroken link to pre-Columbian Caribbean heritage. Today, Kalinago artisans continue to weave not just baskets, but their future — thread by thread.

 

Each of these artisans brings forth more than a craft — they carry the history of a place.

In thread, clay, reed, and dye, they offer a glimpse into the past lives of their communities — into rituals, routines, heritage, and the quiet rhythm of daily needs. A slower way of living that could only exist in isolation. When you are, in a way, your own island.