S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Businesswoman and designer Isabel Muxfeldt\u2019s idea of making cattle horns into female jewels worked out. Currently, company J\u00f3ias do Pantanal, from Mato Grosso do Sul, is exporting its products to Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United States. The biojewels have already even been exported to Dubai.<\/p>\n
Cotton thread, leather, Brazilian gems, silver, stainless steel and forestry wood are included in the finishing of the jewellery and decoration accessories developed by Isabel and Ana Muxfeldt, who use cattle horn as the main raw material. According to Isabel, cattle horn is greatly used in Mato Grosso do Sul for production of blowing horns (wind instruments used to control cattle) and for the drinking of terer\u00e9 (a beverage made out of mate herb and cold water).<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the beginning it was hard to make suppliers accept the idea of working with horn for production of female jewellery,\u201d said Isabel, who has the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae) and the Technological Incubator at Uniderp, in Campo Grande, the state capita, as partners. For the production of the items, J\u00f3ias do Pantanal employs nine people. \u201cMany are women over 40 who do not have many work opportunities,\u201d said Isabel, who made a point of saying that all of them underwent training and work from home.<\/p>\n
All the exports were made through the company site. According to Isabel, sales take place mainly in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere. The shipments are through the postal service. \u201cWe have great interest in exporting to the Arab countries, but we have not yet received orders,\u201d said the businesswoman, who sent some products to Dubai, through a colleague in Mato Grosso do Sul, and is awaiting return.<\/p>\n
Currently, J\u00f3ias do Pantanal produces 1,000 items a month, but may greatly expand production if demand rises. \u201cIt is all done very artistically and we always follow [fashion] tendencies,\u201d said Isabel, who inaugurated a company showroom one year ago in Campo Grande. To promote the jewels in Brazil, the partners participated in fairs in several states.<\/p>\n
Apart from earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings, J\u00f3ias do Pantanal is also investing in a line of accessories for offices and decorations. \u201cOur items are already present in several shops in several states in Brazil,\u201d said Isabel.<\/p>\n
The state of Mato Grosso do Sul has the largest cattle herd in Brazil and cattle horn is treated as a by-product by slaughterhouses, normally not being industrially reused. It was from this principle, making industrial residue into products that translate the culture of Mato Grosso do Sul, that Isabel started working with the jewels in 2002.<\/p>\n
Award<\/b><\/p>\n
Creativity, quality and management of J\u00f3ias do Pantanal caused Isabel to be among the three Brazilian finalists in the second edition of the \u201cEmpretec Women in Business Award\u201d, organised by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad). The initiative is turned to women from several countries who participated in the Empretec, a UN seminar that, in Brazil, is promoted by the Sebrae. The aim is to work on entrepreneurial behaviour.<\/p>\n
Contact<\/p>\n
J\u00f3ias do Pantanal<\/b>
Site: www.joiasdopantanal.com.br<\/p>\n
*Translated by Mark Ament<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Businesswoman and designer Isabel Muxfeldt, from J\u00f3ias do Pantanal, is successful in the transformation of cattle horns into biojewels. The items are already sold in Europe and the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2307,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-economy"},"wps_subtitle":"Businesswoman and designer Isabel Muxfeldt, from J\u00f3ias do Pantanal, is successful in the transformation of cattle horns into biojewels. The items are already sold in Europe and the United States.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}