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HANDICRAFTS (See
our PHOTO GALLERY)
- Introduction
- Pottery
Chulucanas
Pottery
Ayacucho
Pottery
Puno Pottery
Cusco Pottery
Shipibo
Pottery
- Basket and Straw articles
- Images
Masks
Retablos
Huamanga
Stone Carvings
Wooden Carvings
- Carved Gourds
- Jewelry
Silverwork
Gold Filigree
Semi-Precious
Stones
- Leather Goods
- Sarhua Boards
- Textiles
Hessian
Weave
Embroidery
Cotton Thread
Inlays
Tapestries
Needle Point
- Decorative Utensils
- Replicas of Precolumbian and Colonial art
INTRODUCTION
Peru boasts one of the largest varieties
of arts and crafts on Earth as can be seen from the
growing network of exporters.Each year they exhibit
the skill of Peruvian craftsmen in Europe, Asia and
North America. The diversity, color, creativity and
multiple functions of Peru’s folk art have made
it a fundamental activity not just for Peru’s
cultural identity, but also as a way of life for thousands
of families including entire communities, such as Sarhua
and Quinua in Ayacucho. You, like millions of people,
will be tempted to take these wonderful and inexpensive
souvenirs to your home country.
Works of art, both big and small
spark admiration among Peruvians and foreigners alike.
They are steeped in centuries of history, imbued with
pre-Hispanic shapes and symbols merged with others brought
over by the Spaniards. Peru has forged a multiple and
complex identity which is paradoxically one of the reasons
why Peruvian arts and crafts tend to shift towards naive
art and lend their works a touch of innocence.
The excellence of Peruvian artisans can be seen in the
harmony of the geometric designs in weavings, the minute
portraits of peasant farming life on carved gourds called
mates burilados and the cultural mestizaje or blend
in the colorful retablo boxed scenes. There are also
finely carved Huamanga stone sculpture, the complex
Baroque nature of the wooden carvings, the beauty of
gold and silver relics and the many forms of pottery
shaped from clay.
These works are just some of the cultural manifestations
of people who communicate mainly through art, using
a language whose fundamental aspects are abundance,
fertility and confidence in the future.
POTTERY
Pottery is one of the most widespread activities in
Peru.
Pottery is widely traded in the markets
of Cuzco, Juliaca (Puno), Arequipa and at a network
of arts and crafts centers and fairs held in Lima.
CHULUCANAS
POTTERY
Ancient pre-Hispanic techniques used by the Vicus,
Recuay and Pashash cultures such as “Colombine”
and “Negatives”, obtained by cutting off
the oxygen flow to the oven, are still used today
in Chulucanas (Piura) and in the northern jungle by
the Arabelas communities.
Another technique used in Simbila
(Piura), and in Mollepampa (Cajamarca) is that of
paleteo, whereby potters shape the clay with their
hands and then beat it with a paddle, or paleta.
The utilitarian and decorative
pottery of Chulucanas particularly in the district
of La Encantada, where there are some 250 artisans,
is one of the finest in Peru. This is largely because
of the fine tones achieved by potters and the burnishing
of their jars in the use of the black color as well
as the sculpting of typical characters (chicha vendors,
musicians and dancers) and animals that come to life
in the hand-worked clay.
AYACUCHO
POTTERY
In Quinua, a village located 25 miles from Ayacucho, pottery
is the town's main activity. The quality of the red
and cream-colored clay lend these works a unique characteristic. Despite
their simple, almost childish forms, they are highly
expresive.
Quinua is best-known for ceramic pieces such as small
churches, chapels,houses and bulls called the toro
de Quinua. Local potters have also become popular
for figures such as peasant farmers, gossiping neighbors
and a variety of religious themes.
PUNO
POTTERY
The best-loved ceramic figure to come out of Puno
is the torito de Pucara, the ceramic bull that is one
of Peru's best known pieces of pottery.
The figurine was originally made as a ritual element
during the cattle-branding ceremony. The bull figure, which
is also a flask, was used to hold the chicha which
was mixed with the blood of cattle and drunk by the
high priest conducting the ceremony.
Puno potters also make churches, country chapels and
homes, whose apparently unassuming design is covered
with a white glaze. The figures are decorated with
flowers and dashes of ground glass. Other common motifs
include musicians, dancers and various elements of
flora and fauna from the Lake Titicaca area.
CUSCO
POTTERY
Cusco's pottery is heavily influenced by Inca tradition.
In a movement that has revitalized Cusco art, known
as Inca Renaissance, potters have created a vast collection
of pieces.
These include the Tica Curuna (a flower motif), ppucus
(dishes) and various types of colorful crockery such
as keros, arybalos, qochas, ayanas and raquis.
Another trend in pottery is the socalled "grotesque"
tradition, originally created by artisan Eriberto
Merida and apparently inspired by the figures in Quinua
pottery.
This style comprises rough, unpolished
figurines such as peasants and Christs with deformed
and even tormented facial features with oversized
hands
SHIPIBO
POTTERY
In the jungle, in addition to the Arabela, the Shipibo
women living around the Ucayali River produce pottery
from a highly malleable clay called neapo.
The most common decorative motifs include the well-known
geometric lines or designs, which artisans use to
represent their vision of the world.
The most elaborate objects include globets carved
into shapes that are half-beast, which take on different
positions, showing clearly-defined sexes. The potters
also frequently craft huge jars shaped like animals
such as tortoise and some of the local bird species.
BASKETS
AND STRAW ARTICLES
This art form includes straw hats and baskets woven
from native reed species such as carrizo, junco and totora. Baskets
and hats are produced mainly in the regions of San Martin, Piura
and Cajamarca, while totora reed is largely used in La
Libertad and Lambayeque to make the reed rafts called
caballitos de totora, vessels used for thousands of years
by fishermen in the seaside community of Huanchaco, near
Trujillo.
IMAGES
This art form dates back to artisan
traditions during the Vice-regency and involves the
creation of objects linked to religious and even magical
ceremonies. The regions of Ayacucho, Cusco and Huancavelica
produce the greatest variety of figures. These traditional
images include the retablo de San Marcos or cajon, crosses,
saints, Nativity scenes, the Holy Family and the many
different portrayals of the infant Christ. These figures
are made from a variety of materials, including dough
made from potatoes, medlar seeds, plaster, glued cloth
and maguey, the local fruit. The most common images
produced by this art-form include religious images with
long, stylized necks created by artisan Hilario Mendivil
and his wife Georgina in the artists' quarter of San
Blas in Cusco.
MASKS
Many Andean dances use masks as part of the dancer's
costume. The most common motifs include demons, angels,
blacks (negritos), Spaniards (españoles) and
all kinds of animals.
The most important exhibition of masks is held in
the southern Andes, such as during the festival of
the Virgen de la Candelaria. Junin is another major
producer of masks, while a rich variety linked to
myths and customs of jungle villages is manufactured
in the Amazon area, like for example in the Bora community
in Loreto.
Masks are made from a range of materials that are
as varied as their place of origin:plaster, leather,
wood, wire sheeting and tin. The most typical masks
include those of the Piro culture, the parlampan (picaresque
characters of the area of Huaral), the auquis of Ancash,
the jija huanca (styled from gargoyle heads), the
huacones of the central highlands and the famous demons
of the seven deadly sins of Puno.
RETABLOS
Tiny human figures, animal froms the area, images
of Christian saints and pre-Colombian deities, stars,
mountains and lakes are some of the themes that appear
in the colorful world of the Cajones Sanmarcos or
Retablos from Ayacucho.
Ayacucho craftsmen found these portable altars to
be the perfect element to craft their own religious
tradition as well as the religion imposed upon them,
without sparking fears among colonial religious authorities
of idol-worshipping. The figures in these retablos,
or boxed scenes, appeared on two levels. The upper
level symbolized the heavens, with saints and sacred
Andean animals, while the lower portrayed life on
Earth.
The retablos initially were limited to the world of
shepherds and peasant farmers in Ayacucho. In fact,
the Ayacucho artisans have done most to promote this
important tradition of Peruvian imagery. Some of the
best-known craftsmen include the late Joaquin Lopez
Antay, Florentino Jimenez and Jesus Urbano. These
three names have given rise to three schools or tendencies
of retablo: magical-religious, traditional, and historical
and realistic. Today, styles and themes have multiplied,
while Cuzco has emerged as a major manufacturing and
trading center.
HUAMANGA
STONE CARVINGS
Peru is home to several different types of stone used
for carving: granite, basalt, andesite, lake pebbles
(found in Puno) and white alabaster known as piedra
de Huamanga, which comes from Ayacucho.
Huamanga stone carvings were born
in colonial times as a result of a shortage of marble
and porcelain. Early motifs included figures of the
infant Christ and other religious imagery such as
saints, crosses, virgins and relics. Later, artisans,
who found the stone ideal for carving, developed new
religious motifs as well as images linked to the local
Creole culture (for example, the image of the vicuña
stamping on the Castille lion). Today, Huamanga stone
carvings are used to portray Nativity scenes within
oval - shaped, recesses and replicas of the War of
Independence monument at Pampa de la Quinua outside
Ayacucho. Other, rougher figures are also carved,
mainly as souvenirs for visitors.
WOODEN
CARVINGS
Wooden carving as an art form heavily influenced by
religious polychrome sculptures took off in colonial
times. Artists made retablos, statuettes and decorated
furniture in churches and convents whose complex Baroque
style reached its peak in the famous San Blas pulpit
in San Blas church in Cusco.
One of the current wooden carving centers is to be
found in the town of Molinos, near Huancayo. There, artisans
make a range of objects from utensils and decorative
pieces to toys, featuring acrobats with movable arms, as
well as a series of animals including roosters, ducks, horses, donkeys, lions
and a veritable bestiary of mythical beats. Other finely
carved pieces include the bastones de Sarhua, where
the painted boards (tablas) are made.
CARVED
GOURDS
The legenaria bulgaris gourd, known as mate in Peru,
is the basis of the fine art of the mate burilado. The
oldest carved gourds date back 3,500 years and were
found in the Huaca Prieta temple (Chicama Valley) on
Peru’s north coast. In more recent times, this
practice has boomed in the town of Huanta near Ayacucho,
where artisans made the mates huantas. This gourds stand
out for the vitality of the thick but steady lines,
which etch scenes of everyday life in the Andes. Another
variation is that of miniature drawings, which can only
be appreciated with a magnifying glass. The technique
involves etching fine lines into the gourd with a scalpel
called a buril, creating a series of drawings that generally
represent active scenes of farming life. Today, the
central Andean department of Junin and specifically
the districts of Cochas Chico and Cochas Grande are
the main production centers of mates burilados.
JEWELRY
The abundance of minerals and semiprecious
stones in Peru have made it possible to develop creative
metalwork since pre-hispanic times.The oldest example
of goldsmithy in South America dates back to the Chavin
culture (1000 B.C.). Later,priceless pieces were found
in the areas of Chancay,Paracas and Cusco,as well as
superb work done by the Mochica,Chimu and Lambayeque
cultures.
In the late 1980s archaeologists
discovered the Royal Tombs of the Lord of Sipan corresponding
to the Moche culture (600-1200 A.D.). The tomb of the
warrior priest featured ceremonial dress and ornaments
worked in gold with techniques that were highly advanced
for the time. These techniques, used even today by artisans
working with jewels, sculptured pieces and utensils, include
alloys,smelting with laminated pieces, chiseling, soaking, smelting
gold threads, filigree and applications, incrustations
and clasps.
The replicas of the beautiful jewels,
found in the Tomb of Lord of Sipan are very popular
with the public. They can be acquired in the museum
in Chiclayo or in Lima at the Gift shope located at
1175 Larco avenue, Miraflores. For more information
contact them at: info@peruartsandcrafts.com
SILVERWORK
The main silverwork areas are the departments of Junin,
Huancavelica, Ayacucho and Cuzco.
Silversmiths who have maintained a rich colonial tradition,
have developed a wide variety of shapes and motifs,
crafting works of art with figures of fowls, peacocks,
horses and stars, as well as articles for religious
and domestic use.Other important works of silver include
wrought silver pinches done in the Cuzco colonial
style, the tupu pins to fasten the lliclla shawl,
alpaca necklaces worked in black onyx and bamboo,
silver necklaces set with obsidian, burnished silver
earrings set with opals in several colors done in
the colonial style, and silver-edged wooden frames
for paintings and mirrors.
Another major technique is
silver filigree, where both silver and gold are thinned
out to a minimum and worked into extraordinarily beautiful
items. One of the main filigree production centers
is Catacaos (in the department of Piura), heirs to
the tradition of the Vicus culture.
GOLD
FILIGREE
The goldsmithy technique involves thinning the gold
to minimum proportions to thread it together, creating
jewels of extraordinary beauty. The town of Catacaos
in Piura, heirs to the Vicus culture, is a major production
center of the delicate art of filigree.The most commonly
produced pieces are dormilonas, a type of earring and
necklaces, which often feature the moon motif.
SEMI-PRECIOUS
STONES
Other materials used in arts and crafts. especially
in jewelry, are chosen from a vast variety of semi-precious
stones, many of which found in Peru, while others are
imported, like in the pre-hispanic era in what is today
Colombia and Ecuador. Generally these stones, the most
spectacular of which are Peruvian turquoise or crisocola,onyx,obsidian
and opal, are used to make necklaces, earrings, rings
and bracelets. Nor should one forget the use of the
traditional red seashell called spondylus, once called
"the sacred food of the gods",used to craft
superb pieces of jewelry.
LEATHER
GOODS
The first superb works of leather
were made during colonial times: chests, armchairs and
a tremendous variety of saddles,harnesses and other
riding pieces. The decorative motifs were developed
using painting, soaking and embossing, ever inspired by
the dominating Baroque art of the era.
Today artisans continue to make the
same objects, especially chairs, armchairs, tables and
chests, where decorations involve traditional themes.
Puno artisans also make leather little horses featuring
a beautiful and tender naive style.
SARHUA
BOARDS
The Ayacucho community of Sarhua is now world-famous
for its painted boards (tablas), one of the most original
examples of what is known as folk painting, a tradition
that includes drawings by Spanish chronicler Guaman
Poma de Ayala (sixteenth century), watercolors by Bishop
Martinez Companon (sixteenth century), works by Creole
painter Pancho Fierro (nineteenth century) and paintings
by other anonymous artists who painted murals in provincial
churches and chapels from colonial times up until recently.
Sarhua boards are also called quellcas, for
their similarity to the ancient drawings that the Incas
had made to note down events during their regime. They
are colorful illustrations painted on a flat wooden
board, portraying the town customs and accompanied by
a written explanation.In the beginning the tablas were
drawn on the roof beams (where family trees were once
notched), but today the art form tends to be rectangular
or square to make the boards easier to trade. One of
the driving forces who rejuvenated this art form was
Carmelon Berrocal (1964-1998), who modified the established
techniques without losing sight of the original features, creating
paintings based on oral traditions that he himself compiled.
TEXTILES
Modern peruvian weavers are heirs
to a long-running pre-hispanic tradition that was developed
across the length and breadth of Peru. Outstanding work
includes the Paracas funeral shrouds and Inca and Ayacucho
Wari weavings. The oldest textiles ever found were uncovered
at the pre-colombian temple of Huaca Prieta in the Chicama
Valley and are believed to date back 4000 years. Preferred
materials-which are still used today-include brown and
white cotton; vicuna, alpaca and llama wool. Other materials
occasionally include human hair and bat fibers and more
commonly, gold and silver thread. In addition, natural
dyes are still used today, combined with aniline and
other industrial dyes, while the vertical loom and pedal
loom are still the most commonly used tool for weaving
blankets and yards of cloth.
Key weavings regions include Ayacucho, Puno, Cusco, Junin, Apurimac
and Lima.Cusco decorative work often features the tika, representing
the potato flower and the sojta, a geometric design symbolizing
the sowing season. Cusco weavers produce a wide variety
of chullos (woolen caps with earflaps), woolen cocaleaf
pouches, blankets featuring geometric patterns, cummerbunds
and chumpis weaved by the meter, like the ones sold at
the Sicuani market or in the Sunday market at Pisac.
Ayacucho is another major textile center, as it is a
region where over the past few decades artisans have
gained a following for their tapestries of weft and
warp with abstract motifs.
HESSIAN
WEAVE
This form of artisanry is of contemporary origin,
brought over from Chile en the 1970s.
Known locally as arpilleras, this cloth often features
previously elaborated figures representing themes
such as testimonies and local traditions. The portrayal
of characters, animals and plants sewn into the main
fabric lend the material a three-dimensional efect.
Women quickly incorporated Hessian weave into artisanry,
especially the highland migrants in the outskirts
of Lima in districts such as Pamplona Alta, where
in this technique they found a way to express themselves
artistically. This artisanry, now common in Peru,
has produced sterling work in areas such as Cuzco,
where weavers have added traditional decorative elements
such as dolls and Inca textiles.
EMBROIDERY
The embroidery work of Chiqnaya, Puno, is famous for
its lambswool or cotton blankets, large and small,
which represent scenes linked to the sowing and harvesting
seasons and fiestas. Other well-known embroidery is
produced in the town of Chivay, in the Colca Valley
near Arequipa. Their work is decorated whith ribbons
and blackstiches.
The arts and crafts fair in Huancayo,
Junin sells petticoats called "centro" which
are entirely embroidered and used underneath a unicolor
skirt.
COTTON
THREAD INLAYS
The art of hilado, cotton threading, takes advantage
of the natural color of brown cotton and the suggestive,
sober tones of natural dyes, although now the native
cotton variety is facing major competition from industrial
cotton, specially in artisan areas of Monsefú
(Lambayeque) and Cajamarca.
The tradition dates back to pre-hispanic
Andean civilizations and artisan production mainly
lives in some communities along the coast and the
upper highland reaches.
In the Amazon, craftsmen produce
elaborate dresses and slawls of fine and flat threading,
on which the shipibo natives make drawings of geometric
lines inspired by hallucinogenic visions brought on
by the use of medicinal plants.
TAPESTRIES
Tapestries crafted in the Ayacucho quarter of Santa
Ana continue to use pre-hispanic geometric designs,
which have incorporated modern effects from an optical
perspective.
Another area that produces superb
tapestries in San Pedro de Cajas in Junin Region,
where townspeople continue to use natural dyes from
cochineal and plants.
NEEDLE
POINT
The discovery of chullos, bonnets, sashes, dolls and
other pieces from pre-hispanic cultures along the
coast ( Paracas- Nazca – Chancay and Mochica)
showed that Tejidos de Punto (needlepoint) is an ancient:
This technique basically involves knitting pieces
–mainly clothing- by crossing one loop through
another. However, the technique allowed artisands
to decorate the textile which haut-and bas-relief.
Today, this knitting technique has become a flourishing
industry in Puno, Cuzco Arequipa and Lima.
Puno is the country’s largest producer of chullos
and sweaters made from vicuña, alpaca and lambswool.
In this area, the men are the ones who knit socks,
stockings and chullos from alpaca wool.
DECORATIVE
UTENSILS
The artisan market produces a wide variety of decorative
pieces and utensils made from painted glass, wood or
clay that have drawn from the style and techniques found
in the decoration of Cajamarca mirrors. Utensils include
trays, boxes, jewelry cases, desktop articles, decorations
in the shape of animals, pens, table centerpieces and
the other articles. Decoration is largely centered around
tiny flowers and leaves in a variety of colors. Many
of them have been artificially aged with special dyes
and then given a layer of varnish.
Cajamarca and Apurimac are the main
areas that produce these objects.
REPLICAS
OF PRECOLUMBIAN AND COLONIAL ART
Another important line of arts and
crafts of Peru is the replica of precolombian art. It
is well known that different cultures that thrived in
the country left a legacy of true pieces of art, such
as portrait-huacos (pottery) of the Mochica culture.
These were called such because the expression of distinct
human emotions, such as sadness and happiness, aribalos
of the Inca culture and the textiles of the Paracas
culture, just to mention a few.
 One
of the most prominent artist in the replica of huacos
of different cultures is the Great Master from Cajamarca:
Alejandro Velez. winner of numerous national and international
awards.
The Escuela cuzqueña or Cuzco
School of art originated in the ancient Inca capital,
was a 17th-century movement which blended European and
indigenous motifs to create a new world art form. Most
paintings were devotional in nature and richly decorated.
Artists incorporated recognizable Andean elements into
their oil paintings such as local flora and fauna, customs
and traditions.
Reproductions of original paintings are available in
Cusco and Lima. One of the peruvian artists that stand
out in the reproduction of these paintings is Luis Paredes,
his works are known for its excellent quality and beauty.
These paintings can be obtained in the same shope of
Miraflores.
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