Now this is pretty cool: National Geographic teamed up with artisans across the world to start Novica, an online retail shop that sells beautiful handmade home décor and gifts that come directly from the artisan. If you're looking for high quality ethnic furniture and accessories, this is the best place we've come across. It's like World Market without the mass production. Featured here is the "Spanish Elegance" leather ottoman, hand embossed by artisan Jose Antonio Rios.

The Tooled Leather Ottoman is available at Novica for $144.95

The craft of embossing leather in the Rios family has been handed down from generation to generation, becoming a part of Peruvian culture and tradition. To this day, all the design and labor is handmade: embossing is done with chisel and hammer before the leather pieces are placed on the wood base.

And here we were, complaining about carpal tunnel from typing...