Artisan quality mark
Andalusi Originals
Historical context
Al Andalus is one of the most amazing historical periods of the peninsular Middle Ages. Between the 8th and 15th centuries, a political, economic and cultural phenomenon developed, marked by Islamic hegemony after the conquest of 711. Over the course of eight centuries, a new civilizational order fermented as a result of the convergence between the local Hispano-Roman tradition and the innovations brought by the Eastern and Amazigh cultures that had just come into contact with Europe. This period extends up to ten centuries if we include the artistic manifestations resulting from the survival of the Andalusian population in new territories, such as the crowns of Castile or Aragon, in expressions such as Mudejar or Moorish.
The Iberian Peninsula underwent a profound transformation in all areas, particularly in the cultural and creative field, with a special impact on the architectural and patrimonial wealth. The Mosque of Cordoba, the Alhambra in Granada and the Giralda in Seville are three universal icons of Andalusian art and their fertile influence spread for centuries through countless expressive modes of popular culture. Even today, his mark is fruitful in pottery, embroidery, carpentry, ceramics, goldsmithing, leather, esparto grass, glass, basketry and dozens of other manufacturing disciplines. Andalusian art absorbs and recycles local techniques to give shape to a new language.
The sense of unity of Islamic art throughout the world, which connects Al Andalus with empires such as the Mughal and Persian empires, generates ornamental and decorative patterns based on three elements:
– Geometric patterns: Complex and repetitive designs reflect the Islamic emphasis on infinity and unity.
– Arabesques: Stylized motifs of flowers and vegetables cover planes and spaces.
– Calligraphy and epigraphy: Arabic writing, often featuring verses from the Koran, serves a decorative as well as a religious function.
As for the disciplines to be considered, according to the type of materials and related techniques, we can list the following crafts:
Pottery and ceramics
Textiles
3. Leather and fur
4. Wood
5. Silverware and jewelry
6. Forging and metal
7. Glass
8. Basketry and natural fibers
9. Stone
10. Paper and cardboard
11. Costume jewelry
12. Painting and illustration
13. Mixed techniques
According to the definitions of craftsmanship that we will take as a reference, and which are listed below, it should be noted that there are two fundamental elements in the consideration of craft production, precisely those that for UNESCO are worthy of safeguarding: the individualized production by a craftsman (author) and the set of necessary knowledge (techniques, processes, etc.) required for craft production and which must be transmitted from master to apprentice. The human factor and knowledge are, therefore, the two axes on which the artisan activity and its permanence in time pivot.
For the purposes of Law 15/2005, of December 22, 2005, on Andalusian Crafts, crafts are considered to be the activity of creation, production, transformation and restoration of products, by means of unique manufacturing systems in which personal intervention is decisive for the control of the elaboration and finishing process. This activity will be based on the mastery or knowledge of traditional or special techniques in the selection and treatment of raw materials or in the aesthetic sense of their combination and will have as a final result an individualized product, not susceptible to fully mechanized production, for its commercialization.
For the United Nations – UNESCO, traditional crafts are perhaps the most tangible manifestation of intangible cultural heritage. However, the 2003 Convention deals primarily with the techniques and knowledge used in craft activities, rather than the craft products themselves. Rather than concentrating on the preservation of handicrafts, safeguarding efforts should focus on encouraging artisans to continue making their products and passing on their knowledge and skills to others, particularly within their communities.
Definition of quality mark
The quality mark refers to a set of specific and differentiated properties that define a given product or activity. It identifies the character or hallmark of a way of working, a cultural trait or a geographical area. The quality mark is intended to distinguish certain values inherent to a product and to protect it on the market against fraudulent imitations or industrial manufacturers.
In short, it is an effective identification tool that makes it possible to delimit a specific type of securities in order to protect them and promote their commercialization in an open and competitive market. It also seeks to establish a high degree of trust between the product and its customers as a guarantee of purchase.
To certify the authenticity of specially protected products, it is necessary to establish a regulatory framework that develops a regulation to be applied voluntarily by all operators. First, it must establish a recognizable name and logo to be used by producers under the supervision and authorization of the issuing holder, whose responsibility is to certify the products and services covered by the quality mark. To do so, they must comply with a series of previously stipulated requirements. These requirements are indicated below, in the section dedicated to the process of obtaining the quality mark.
Producers are obliged to sign a quality commitment and to apply good ethical practices with the guarantee that the raw materials used in the production of their articles are of a quality that matches the characteristics and use of the final product, and that these have been produced in an eminently manual way. They must also guarantee their geographical origin or the authenticity of their cultural framework, in this case, the Andalusian.
Protected values
The central objective of a quality mark is cultural and ethnographic protection. This purpose is achieved through the preservation of a specific tradition, the survival of certain manufacturing techniques and the use of specific materials.
The aim is to recover, promote and update certain craft trades in a global context of maximum competitiveness. To this end, it is advisable as accompanying measures to encourage the training of artisans, promote artistic creativity, foster innovation and design, open new commercial channels and highlight the uniqueness of manufactured products.
Traditional culture is part of the universal heritage of humanity, as certified by Unesco, which includes handicrafts among the tools at the disposal of peoples as a form of knowledge and affirmation of community identity.
International organizations are also aware of the “extreme fragility” of certain forms of traditional culture, such as craftsmanship, and therefore encourage governments to take a more active role in safeguarding them through the administrative instruments at their disposal. Generational replacement, in particular, is a major challenge facing the sector.
Economic indicators
Handicrafts play an important role in the social, economic and cultural spheres. Protecting traditional culture and crafts is not only preserving an identity trait linked to the territory but also sustaining a fundamental economic network in the rural world and in historically depressed urban areas.
Although Al Andalus was characterized by an extraordinary development of urban centers throughout the peninsula, which contributed to the creation of environments conducive to the development of the arts and sciences, today many of the hallmarks of quality have a direct connection with the rural environment and therefore contribute significantly to the fixation of population and demographic settlement.
There are some 64,000 registered artisan companies or workshops in Spain, employing more than 210,000 people, according to pre-2020 data. The overall economic contribution of this social fabric amounts to some 6 billion euros, 0.54% of gross domestic product (GDP). Craft agro-food processing is the subsector that employs the most labor and generates nearly half of the gross value added (46.49%), followed by ceramics and glass (13.51%), wood and vegetable fiber (12.03%), furniture and textile manufacturing (7.27% and 7.23%, respectively).
One of the most serious problems faced by artisan enterprises is the difficulty of accessing financing to ensure the viability of their activity or to modernize their manufacturing production methods. Only 18% of artisan firms have external funds, while 82% use their own financing to face any eventuality.
In general, and this is stipulated in most of the autonomous professional regulations, for a company to be considered an artisan it must have less than ten employees, not including direct family members. Most of the artisan workshops are family-run and have an average of 2.5 employees per business.
Employment generation in the artisan sector is usually higher than in any other industrial production segment. The ratio of jobs per annual turnover is reasonably high, although it depends on the subsectors involved.
However, in Spain there is a lack of rigorous records, inventories and catalogs that x-ray an activity such as craftsmanship, which exhibits a remarkable capacity for resistance in an increasingly globalized world.
Design and modernization
There is a commonplace that attributes to craftsmanship an obsolete mode of production, anchored in past times. However, the reality of the traditional manufacturing sector belies any prejudice and certifies that the handicraft activity lives in step with the times in terms of innovation, modernization and new technologies.
Design is by no means incompatible with traditional culture. Moreover, it is advisable to incorporate design into manufacturing production methods, either through the continuous training of craftsmen or through the intervention of external professionals who bring to our products that added value that we may lack.
Modernization is an unavoidable imperative. Artisans must remain attentive to changes in the sector in order to integrate the innovations available in product development, materials procurement, logistics, design, storage, distribution and marketing into their entire production chain.
Design must be incorporated into the handicraft production system without losing its personality or distorting its traditional values, which are the essence of its nature.
Marketing
The sales and marketing channels for artisan pieces must also be updated and incorporate digital tools and online commerce models.
A recent European Union study also profiled the handicraft buyer. The results indicate that it is predominantly female (69% of respondents who identified themselves as craft buyers). By age range, there is a fairly balanced distribution: 20 to 35 years old (29% of buyers), 36 to 45 years old (22%), 46 to 55 years old (24%) and 56 to 70 years old (26%). As for the employment profile of the buyers, 43% are private sector employees, 25% are self-employed, 13% are retired and 12% are civil servants. Most use social networks, and say they buy handicrafts for themselves (79%) or as gifts (55%).
In terms of intensity and level of spending, there are several profiles: the “investor”, who spends more than 1,000 €/year (7% of all buyers), the “craft lover”, who spends between 300 and 1,000 €/year, in several purchases spread over the year (22%), the “occasional buyer”, who spends between 100 and 300 €/year (71%).
With respect to the type of handicrafts and sales channel, the most sold categories are: ceramics, textiles, wood, jewelry, glass and leather. The main sales channel (51%) is the craft market, followed (45%) by the craft store or workshop.
Online sales channels are not currently the preferred channel for European female buyers, with few specialized channels. Etsy has more than 96 million buyers and 9 million sellers, the best-selling handmade products are jewelry. Amazon Handmade has a platform for verified artisans. For the Spanish market we highlight Artesanum or elmercadoartesano.es, with a much smaller audience than the global platforms. Selling online – according to the artisans themselves – requires a lot of dedication since the product repositories must be constantly updated and in many cases this time is not compensated when the price of each unit is low.
Andalusí Originals. Artisan quality mark
Fundación Las Fuentes de Junta Islámica has been the driving force behind the Andalusian Medinas Network project, which seeks to alleviate the dispersion of economic and social resources around the Andalusian heritage. The Andalusian Medinas Network is an instrument for the economic and social development of the territories included in the program. It aims to highlight the value of the Andalusian medinas and what their tangible and intangible heritage represents as a contribution of the Andalusian civilization. The enhancement of heritage, in a coordinated territorial development project, is structured in the following areas:
Heritage protection
– Study and resignification of the Andalusian medinas.
– Inventory and protection of tangible and intangible heritage.
Promotion and territorial structuring
– Enhancement of economic resources, particularly tourism, handicraft production and gastronomy.
– Vertebration of the territory around the generation of routes and incentives.
– Contribute to the establishment of population in sparsely populated areas.
– Facilitate the development of Muslim-Friendly Tourism.
Sustainable tourism development
– Creation of thematic routes.
– Content and narrative generation and web marketing through various forums.
– Link to Marketplace dedicated to Andalusian products.
Education
– Educational and participatory resources.
– Training on Andalusian history and heritage.
– Workshops.
Promotion in outbound markets
– Attendance at tourism promotion fairs and events
– Development of joint tours with operators
– Umrah+ and Ziyarat product development.
– International agreements.
The Andalusí Originals brand is a tool for a niche market with great interest in artisan and cultural products, particularly linked to the Andalusian civilization. Andalusí Originals has been created to differentiate the handcrafted product of Andalusian aesthetics, inspiration or technique from others. At the same time as the artisan quality mark, an exclusive sales channel for Andalusian art and crafts has been set up on the Red de Medinas portal (www.visitalandalus.org).
The portal is aimed primarily at people with cultural concerns related to the Andalusian civilization and the artistic and craft expressions that emanate from it. One of the most important market niches it targets is the Muslim public, to whom it also markets tourism, cultural and educational products. This niche market, faced with the number of objects of Asian industrial manufacture that try to pass themselves off as handmade craftsmanship in Andalusian territory, is the one that demands some kind of guarantee of authenticity. This is why this quality mark has been created, as a distinctive mark of the pieces that really meet the criteria demanded by this profile of buyer.
The process of obtaining the mark includes an audit of the workshop and manufacturing processes to guarantee, precisely, the craftsmanship behind the products and the link with the Andalusian civilization.
The Fundación Las Fuentes de Junta Islámica, as owner of the quality mark, will be ultimately responsible for its concession or refusal, for drawing up and maintaining the regulations governing its use and for promoting the products covered by it.
Rules of use
Craftsmen, workshops or manufacturing companies that aspire to incorporate the Andalusí Originals quality mark must comply with a series of requirements, as stipulated in these regulations for use. To this end, they undertake to accept the provisions herein and the authority of the quality committee constituted for this purpose.
FIRST PROVISION
The Andalusí Originals quality mark was created with the aim of protecting, preserving and promoting the artistic values of popular character emanating from the civilization of Al Andalus and transmitted through the centuries by the traditional culture. The regulations for the use of the Andalusí Originals trademark define the criteria to be met by artisans in order to adhere to its effects, as well as to implement its correct application and, eventually, to proceed to its suspension when the obligations contracted are violated. The trademark may be used by individuals and legal entities when they have formally adhered to the guidelines indicated below and provided that they express an unequivocal commitment to the purposes expressed herein.
SECOND PROVISION
To adhere to and make use of the Artesanía Andalusí Originals brand, as well as enjoy all its effects and advantages, artisans and manufacturing companies must meet the following requirements:
a) Be legally registered as artisans and be up to date with all the corresponding obligations.
b) To prove the elaboration by artisan methods of pieces, products or articles of Andalusian aesthetics, concept or techniques for at least one year prior to the present application.
c) To prove that such pieces, products or articles are made with raw materials of the appropriate quality and are part of the Andalusian popular tradition rooted in a specific geographical area.
d) The products to be protected under the quality mark will be of artisan elaboration, adjusting to the definition expressed in Law 15/2005, of December 22, 2005, of Crafts of Andalusia, as well as in the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of 2003.
THIRD PROVISION
Application procedure for the “Andalusí Originals” artisan quality mark.
As a quality mark whose objective is to guarantee the authenticity of knowledge, processes, materials and products, Andalusí Originals is granted only after passing an inspection procedure according to the requirements indicated in these regulations.
This inspection is biennial and will be granted only to those products included in the application and complying with the requirements specified in these regulations. The grant of use of the trademark shall not extend to other products not included in the application. The use of the trademark, as a registered trademark before the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, will be monitored and must comply with the Trademark Use Manual, a document that will be sent to those applicants who pass the granting procedure.
1. Submission of application
The craftsman, workshop or company that aspires to adhere to the Andalusí Originals craftsmanship quality mark must formally apply to Fundación Las Fuentes de Junta Islámica, as owner of the Quality Mark, by means of the application form contained in Annex 1. This application initiates the inspection procedure after which the use of the trademark will be granted, with the conditions that fit each case.
The following documents must accompany the application form:
– TAX ID / VAT NUMBER
– Proof of representation, if applicable
– OEPM file of the registered trademarks, if any, of the products for which the Andalusí Originals quality mark is requested.
– Proof of transfer according to payment letter.
In addition to the application form, of which only one document will be sent per artisan, workshop or company, as many product data sheets as necessary will be sent.
A non-refundable down payment will be made according to the payment letter included in Annex 1.
All documentation must be sent in digital format to info@fundacionlasfuentes.org.
Application review
Fundación Las Fuentes will have 3 months to review the application and request, if necessary, any additional information it deems appropriate. The management commission of the “Andalusí Originals” quality mark may rely on external reports or consultants to assess the authenticity of the aspiring pieces or products. The management committee may personally inspect the artisan workshop and verify in situ the production method if it deems it appropriate for the completion of its evaluation work.
After the review process, the management committee of the “Andalusí Originals” quality mark will issue and communicate its decision in writing to the applicant, by means of a report. If the evaluation is positive and it is verified that the applicant and the products comply with the requirements indicated in these regulations, a positive opinion of GRANT OF USE OF THE QUALITY MARK “ANDALUSÍ ORIGINALS” will be issued, together with the guidelines for its use.
If the evaluation is negative, a report will be sent listing those aspects that do not comply with the requirements indicated in these regulations. It will be the applicant’s responsibility, if desired, to correct any deviations from the requirements and restart the application process.
3. Granting of the trademark
Together with the grant of use of the trademark, successful applicants will receive by e-mail the Andalusí Originals trademark logo together with the manual of use of the trademark. Fundación Las Fuentes de Junta Islámica reserves the right to verify at any time the correct use of the trademark. Their fraudulent use may incur serious infringements that will be determined by the channels established by law.
4. Control of the use of the brand
Fundación Las Fuentes de Junta Islámica reserves the right to carry out the verifications it deems appropriate to control the use of the trademark, and also reserves the right to take legal action against fraudulent, abusive or unauthorized use of the same.
5. Use of the trademark on the products
The Andalusí Originals trademark may only be used on products for which its use has been granted. Under no circumstances may it be used in other products or transferred to third parties. The Andalusí Originals brand will be used as a quality distinctive and never as a product identification, nor should its use be misleading as to the nature or characteristics of the product.
6. Period of validity and renewal
The Andalusí Originals trademark is granted for a period of two years, being necessary to renew it once this term expires or in case the product suffers substantial modifications that compromise those criteria for which the use of the trademark was granted. In any of these cases, it is the applicant’s responsibility to proceed to initiate the procedure for the renewal of the use of the trademark, for which he/she will contact Fundación Las Fuentes de Junta Islámica.
7. Suspension
The authorization to use the Andalusí Originals trademark may be suspended when the use of the trademark exceeds the authorized uses of the same.
Fundación Las Fuentes de Junta Islámica may proceed to revoke the use of the same and to use the legal means necessary for the protection of the value of the trademark.
Download the documentation to apply for the Artisan Quality Mark “Andalusí Originals”.
This activity is co-financed by Fundación Las Fuentes and the Municipal Institute for Economic Development and Employment of Córdoba.
