Economic Growth Peru Project #12229

Support native artisans & rainforest in the Amazon

by Center for Amazon Community Ecology

Support native artisans & rainforest in the Amazon

Project Report | Dec 15, 2015
Artisans gather in Santa Lucia de Pro for skill-sharing workshop

By Campbell Plowden | Executive Director & Project Leader

Special anaconda model guitar strap /Plowden-CACE

Dear Friend of the Amazon,

Shortly after I got back from my most recent trip to Peru, our project manager Yully told me about a good kind of challenge she needed to deal with quickly. “Doctor, we were expecting about 20 to 25 artisans from Ampiyacu villages to come to our skill-sharing workshop this month, but fifty-five artisans have shown up.” While our work in three main villages was doing well, our repeated attempts to involve artisans from a few smaller communities including the workshop host Santa Lucia de Pro had not taken off. This workshop, however, finally seemed to ignite interest in this and four other smaller villages so Yully had to scramble to pull extra funds together in the remote Amazon town of Pebas to feed the large group of artisans and their small children.

We had contracted several veteran Bora artisans to show their groups how to make a few popular models of woven handicrafts with chambira palm fiber. Brillo Nuevo artisan Beder carefully explained how to weave the complex “anaconda” pattern belt while Gisela worked with her group to make the multi-colored tight-weave “naca naca” (coral snake) pattern guitar strap. One teacher Rosa from Puca Urquillo said, “I’m here to share the things I know and inspire others to make their own hot pads. While I am a teacher, I also want to learn how to make the “anaconda” belt because I’m also a student and need to keep learning.”

I was particularly excited that the master calabash carver Rider agreed to be a “professor” in this workshop for the first time. While some artisans could etch a figure that looked like a bird or fish onto the dark-brown pod, Rider had used various sharpened and scallop-ended nails embedded in a wooden handle to create miniature scenarios of hummingbirds, monkeys, and snakes in their natural environment with individual personalities. He and a few accomplished artisans had been reluctant to share the fine points of their trade, but he excitedly told me in October, “I can make a set of tools that I invented for everyone in my group so they can improve.”

The workshop produced the result we hoped for. Wilder from the host village told our videographer Tulio: “I’ve made some “tutumas” before, but I was not enthusiastic about selling them because they weren’t well made. In this workshop, I learned from someone who really knows how to do it well. I can make “tutumas” much better now and am excited to try to sell them. I appreciate CACE organizing these workshops that give us the chance to learn.”

We are now selling Amazon Christmas tree ornaments and woven handicrafts made by our partners at gift fairs, house parties, offices of non-profit groups, and Christmas tree growers. Please contact us to buy any crafts now or host a craft sales event next year.

Thanks so much for your generous support, particularly at the end of the year, that makes this work possible.

Sincerely,

Campbell Plowden

Executive Director

Project Leader

Bora artisan with woven bag and daughter /CACE

Rider with calabash pod maracas / Plowden-CACE

Artisan workshop at Santa Lucia de Pro/Davila-CACE

Rider teaching tutuma making / Davila-CACE

Bora artisan Rosa with woven bag/Plowden-CACE

Making naca naca guitar strap at worshop /CACE

Toucan calabash pod ornament / Plowden-CACE

Dragonfly ornament from Jenaro Herrera/Plowden-CAC

Turtle calabash pod ornament / Plowden-CACE

Woven frog ornament from Chino / Plowden-CACE

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