Stephanie Jolluck's Story~
Coleccion Luna
Founder, Owner, Designer and Buyer...Social Entrepreneur & Humanitarian.
A social entrepreneur, Stephanie started her own business at age twenty-six focused on women’s empowerment, alleviating poverty, sustainability, & promoting cultural diversity and understanding. For the past ten + years she has travelled to Guatemala to work directly with the Mayan Indians on a line of textiles created with PURE LOVE from their reclaimed Indigenous clothing using Fair Trade practices
Surrounded by art and antiques her entire life, she naturally fell into her mother’s career footsteps as founder and owner of Coleccion Luna. An Atlanta, GA native, Jolluck was raised in a home filled with art, unusual antiques, and a driven passion for discovering hidden worldly treasures. Her parents owned an antique import business that allowed Jolluck to appreciate and see first-hand different ways of life in different cultures. Thus when it came time for college, her upbringing soon led her to pursue a degree in both Latin American Literature and Anthropology. During her University studies, Jolluck headed to Mexico to practice and perfect her Spanish at The Universidad de Guadalajara. It was during this time that her future in importing and exporting began to blossom. Jolluck’s parents agreed to assist her venture with funds needed to continue Spanish classes, pay rent and maintain a living in Mexico if she would frequently visit art and antique markets looking for hidden Mexican treasures to send back to the family business.
Soon after returning from Mexico and finishing her degree at Georgia State University, Jolluck found herself volunteering on a Mayan Indian Co-op in Guatamala in 1997. She spent three weeks giving her time & energy to an organization that helped empower Indigenous women who had survived the violent
Guatemalan Civil War that had recently ended after 36 years. She then backpacked alone for 2 months and rapidly fell in love with the rich and vibrant colors of their textiles. Jolluck explored the country and grew amazed at the 2,000-year-old textile tradition that was slowly disappearing. She could not bear the thought of this beautiful tradition going extinct and wanted to share it with others, as well as to help alleviate the poverty she had witnessed during her travels.
A business plan was developed and at the age of 26, Jolluck formed Coleccion Luna, a company dedicated to the Guatemalan trade and tradition of textiles. Jolluck travels a 4-6 six times a year to the Highland Region of Guatemala, working directly with the Indians on her designs. It is a partnership: the line of textiles is created from recycled Indigenous clothing ~ "huipiles" (blouse like garments), "corte" (skirts/utilitarian fabric), "faja" (belts) that are hand-woven, hand-embroidered, woven on a backstrap loom, woven by treadle loom, or machine embroidered. Jolluck gives them her designs and they create the bags and pillows from their gently used tradtional clothing. A cottage industry, the artisans work work in the comfort of their homes and when they have free time, giving them freedom to work and tend their family responsibilities.
Jolluck is inspired by the Indians and the country she calls her second home. After a decade of working with the same families, they have become her "Guatemalan family"; she has become a "madrina"/godmother to her artisans' childrens. To this day, Jolluck supports various non profits organizations in her artisans communities including : CARE , Safe Passage , & NEST
An avid yogi for more than 10 years, in October 2009, she completed her 200 hr Yoga Alliance Certified Teaching Program with Purna Yoga, which focuses on alignment based asana, meditation & pranayama, applied philosphy, and nutrition. Her approach is that "all life is yoga" and that one must take their yoga off their mat and into their world and live life yogically...Following the path of her Dharma to create positive social change, she is excited to share in the transformation of our world through teaching Purna Yoga, as well as using it as a vehicle in her "sacred activism" with yoga retreats in Guatemala to support various humanitarian organizations in the region where her artisans live and work.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margret Mead