Ama-La ... the "mother" of all ethical shopping

An impromptu visit to her daughter in Dharamsala in April 2004 during her gap year has, quite literally, turned Vanessa Ashley’s life around. As is often the case, Vanessa bought back several unique gifts for her friends and family though the difference here lies that by December of that year she had quit her job and set up a wholesale business importing several different handicrafts from countries such as India and Tibet. Vanessa started by selling her merchandise at local shows and when the opportunity of a Lymington store came up she jumped at it and 'ama-la' (meaning "mother" in Tibetan) had a base. As of 1st May, when she moved into her pretty little store at the bottom of Lymington High Street, the business took a huge leap forward, and Vanessa sees this space not only as a local store but a base for all of her clients at the many fairs in which she appears annually.

The store itself has a wide range of beautiful, hand crafted, unique stock including some of my favourites below....

Tibetan soft goats wool shawls, either plain or patterned, have a wide range of uses. These shawls, handmade at the foothills of the Himalyas help to support some 12,000 Tibetan refugee children cared for by TCV.

Kashmiri stoles handmade by a family run business in the same area. Made from 100% fine wool or silk, all stoles are unique in style, design and colour.

Many ranges of individual and unique jewellery including Tagua jewellery, made of vegetable ivory, from the South American rainforests, wooden jewellery from Ukraine, ceramic jewellery from Kenya, beaded jewellery and lariats from Zimbabwe and felt  jewellery from Nepal.

As far as purchasing unique items it doesn’t get much better in Lymington than this! Once the stock has gone its gone! Not only this though, we can now all also get a good feeling out of feeding our shopping habits as much of the merchandise supports organisations in countries such as India, Nepal and Zimbabwe. This was a huge priority for Vanessa when she set up her business, to ethically source beautiful products that can, in turn, help rebuild the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves. The passion that Vanessa feels for such causes is so apparent and really makes the shopping experience in ama-la second to none; a friendly store with beautiful stock and certainly a pleasure to promote here at LDC.

Vanessa started by selling at shows and although has now found the store in Lymington she continues to travel to many local shows in the area.  This summer look out for Vanessa’s stand locally at Brockenhurst Park Horse Trials (17^th – 19^th August), Bath & West Show (31^st August – 2^nd September), Romsey Show (8^th September) and The Wedding Exhibition at De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel, Southampton (7^th October). There will be many more to come in the future and we at LDC will be certain to keep you up to date with where this beautiful merchandise may be found!

Ama-La, 9a High Street, Lymington, Hants, SO41 9AA

Tel: 07812 182 150