Arts and Crafts: Best of

Wandering through arts markets, talking to local craftsmen, choosing and bargaining for the most beautiful pieces of local culture was one of the things I looked most forward to and without doubt enjoyed wholeheartedly. As a result, I came home with a large selection of beauties from around the world - and if it weren't for the logistics and pricey postage I would have brought so much more ....


South America (Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina)

One of my most favourite pieces - I call it the 'Lama necklace'. About 30 years old and has been used on the necks of lamas when they're let out in the mountains to graze for the season. Obviously, it's made of lama wool, and has a few metal bells which make a beautiful singing sound and lets shepherds know where to find their animals.

The most amazing pre-Inca time wall hanging (lama wool of course), author below.

Another amazing antique piece - about 30 year old Peruvian lady's hat, bought at a second hand crafts market in Cusco.

And me, right after the purchase - couldn't be happier!!

I never stop admiring similarities of different cultures and their colours, patterns and textiles even though they're separated by thousands and thousands of miles. This is a beautiful Peruvian belt which reminds me a lot of the Latvian 'Lielvardes josta', see below.

And here's the author of the Peruvian version, in the streets of Cusco:

More knitted stuff - the central symbol on these gloves is Pachamama (Mother World) - the fertility goddess in the Andes and Inca cultures and one of their main deities.

Peruvian crafts women do the whole cycle of textile and clothes production themselves - starting with preparing and making the wool, dying it, spinning, weaving, knitting, sewing etc etc..

More lama products, here - beautifully soft sweaters. You will hardly find any tourist in Peru or Bolivia who hasnt bought one of these or isnt wearing it...

And finally - Inca silver...

Tumi - the symbol in the above and below pendants - is a sacrificial ceremonial knife characterised by a semi-circular blade, made of either bronze, copper, gold, wood or silver used by some Inca cultures. Today, tumi is the national symbol of Peru and is extensively used in Peruvian tourism publicity.

Silver and gold bracelet with tumis (above), and a silver pendant with the whole cycle of Inca life engraved (below - averse and reverse)

A beautiful handbag from Argentina

Fiji

Beautiful Fiji shell necklaces and local crafts lady selling them.

South East Asia (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia)

Northern Thailand and Laos surprised us with a great diversity of hill tribes and thus very diverse local colours, textiles, costumes and traditions. When visiting yet another - Mien - village we were (as usual) surrounded by girls and women selling us bracelets, scarves and other smaller souvenirs. They were really pretty but I could not not notice the beautiful dress/coat that one of older ladies was wearing. It had the most striking bright red collar going all the way down to waistline... Half jokingly, I asked if instead of the bracelets I could buy the dress. She first was quite confused (mind you this is all in the international language of smiling and finger pointing, as we don't speak the local tribal languages and they - no English). When she realised that actually I might be serious, she took it off and gave me to try it on. It was amazingly beautiful.... "Yes - we're buying it", is the verdict! The lady found a newer version of the dress - one that had been prepared for other women in the village. We wrapped it in our bags and I promised Dan that one day I WILL actually wear it in London :)

Another beautiful dress, from the Lanten village. It almost made it into our bags as well, but was about 3 sizes too small for me :( In the photo below you will see why...

One day Dan and I were invited to visit the second day of a wedding in an Akha village. While Dan was having some Lao Lao - local whiskey - with other men, I had the privilege to be invited to the women's area, where local girls and ladies surrounded me in a circle and started dressing me in a full Akha ceremonial outfit.

Ten minutes later I'm ready ... The sun is burning and I can hardly breathe in all the braids and silver headbands, skirts, and shirts and vests... When saying goodbye, we are presented with an older version of one of the jackets which we humbly and happily accept.

The Lisu hill tribe is famous for their decorative little pompons - I love them and buy pompons alone, pompons on small bags, pompons on big bags etc ...

Thai praying beads and a bracelet in Jade.

Africa (South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya)

Wooden bowls, masks and carvings from Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

From Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar - beautiful Maasai jewelery: necklaces, bracelets, earrings, sandals, belts.

With Oli - a young Maasai man, who's helping his family with selling Maasai jewelery and accessories. He also has a Facebook account and wants to be friends with me.