Ethnic Style for Your Home Found Online

Here are seven places to look for home decor with handmade, ethnic appeal.

1. The Hunger Site (www.thehungersite.com) has a large store page. After you click to give, browse down to "Home & Garden." Warning: once you order, there's no way to take it back. I accidentally got two of something, once, but I gave one to a relative. They do good in the world (click daily!), and they are reliable. I and other family members have ordered from them, and never had any trouble. Your order helps people, too.

2. NovicaNovica (www.novica.com/) has items for sale from all over the world. You can shop by area, or by type of item. They give you a brief bio of the maker, "to create a bridge between you and the many talented artisans across the globe." Never had any trouble ordering from them, except one time when something arrived broken and was promptly replaced. They're good people.

3. Global Mamas (www.globalmamas.org/) works to help African women gain economic independence. I haven't shopped there myself, but they have a lot of nice clothing; I wish they'd make more of that great fabric into items for the home.

4. The Fair Trade Federation (www.fairtradefederation.org/) helps you find retail stores that carry Fair Trade items - things that are made by people paid a living w5. Indianselections.com

5. Indianselections.com (www.indianselections.comg the item in your virtual cart.

There are many other sari sites, and a lot of them make curtains, pillow covers, bindianselections covers, saricurtains course, you can order the saris and make the curtains, etc., yourself. I'm not recommending one over another. (I ordered a sari once, from a site I don't remember, and got a different one than the one I ordered. I used the one I got; it was too much trouble to try to change it.) If you search for "sari saree curtains," you'll get hundreds of hits.

PLEASE NOTE that many countries use the word "silk" in a very casual way, where we would say "silky" or "imitation silk." This happens with rugs and saris. "Poly silk" and "art silk" are not silk. There's nothing wrong with polyester, but you should knsareeat you're getting. And when it comes to rugs, they just say "silk," and mean mercerized cotton, I believe.

6. Rugs are something I'm very leery of buying online, but the RugMark site (www.rugmark.org) lists companies, both online and off, that sell rugs that are certified child labor free, with their looms licensed and open for inspection. That does not make them cheap, though. Woven Legends (www.wovenlegends.com) makes beautiful, child-free carpets, and DOBAG (the RugMark project for reviving rug weaving with natural dyes,) makes amazing ones. Check out Woven Legends "folklife" link, just to enjoy. Last time I e-mailed to ask, they ran several thousand dollars per rug, though.

7. Ten Thousand Villages has shops in various cities, as well as their website, www.tenthousandvillages.com/ They carry all sorts of stuff, including rugs that are fair trade, though not Rfolklifebeautiful pillow covers, toys, kites,lamps, all sorts of stuff. I've bought from their shop in Cleveland, though not online. They're good.

Why be stuck with what's local? Shop global!