Chapas de Tapas!

Chapas - Nicaraguan for earrings
Tapas - Nicaraguan for bottle caps (not Spanish small plates of yummies)

Support a Social Start-up AND be fashion-forward!

You are being issued a special invitation to be among the first to have the fashion-forward accessories of Nicology. The women of Nicology and their families live in and around La Chureca, Managua's massive municipal dump. Several of the women otherwise work collecting tossed plastic bottles from the streets of the city, and sell them for pennies a day to consolidators who ship them to other countries for reprocessing.



This is Maria and her son Moises. In addition to collecting bottles Maria is a part-time domestic maid. Full-time maids earn around $200 a month.



We are ready to offer our unique jewelry for sale. As my goal is to pay the women as much as possible, I am trying a direct sales approach.

Here´s where YOU come in!

BROWSE the photos.

SELECT a design. Or several! Select a piece of jewelry for yourself, your honey, a friend, your favorite barista, your hair stylist..


ORDER by making a blog comment beneath the photo. You can request colors, styles, or specific bottle caps, and we will do our best to accomodate you within our inventory or caps.

PRICES are listed for different styles. Certain design elements are more expensive, such as the stones, and will raise the price.

DONATE when you pay, consider making an extra investment in the women of Nicology. Think of it as venture capital with a massive return in personal satisfaction.

SEND or GIVE your payment to:

Joanna Hirst in San Diego, email

Kevin in Chicago, email

in Washington, DC, email

Deadline to be sure your jewelry is delivered before the December holidays is:

Your city contact will notify you when your jewelry is available for pick-up in early December.


We don't only need your money, we need YOU! You can

spread the word to your friends,

refer us to a local gift shop,

host a selling party,

volunteer to sell at an arts and crafts fair where you live,

provide business counsel if you know anything about selling things online or exporting or fair trade markets,

make us a project of your church, or company, or yoga studio

help with distribution (we can't ship one by one from Nicaragua)
or
come visit us!

Be part of the fun!