Download Manos Amigas - Peru Gourd Piggy Bank

ARTISAN-CRAFTED PERSONAL ACCESSORIES, HOME DECOR AND GIFT ITEMS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE
Gourd Piggy Bank
Save your change and change the world!
A piggy bank ingeniously crafted from a
hollowed gourd stores your money. Just
pull out the cork snout to gain access to
your loot.
Materials:
About the Artisans
Manos Amigas Peru
Peru, a country with over 5,000 years of
recorded history, is one of the most culturally
diverse countries in the world, boasting 43
native languages! But despite this complicated
array of cultural influences, Manos Amigas,
which means "hands joined in friendship,"
hunts high and low to find talented artisans
who make a variety of handicrafts in
impoverished areas of Lima and in the
Andean highlands. Think ceramics, jewelry,
wind chimes, gourds, retablos, and textiles.
Manos Amigas even offers tourist packages to
different cities and towns to teach Peruvian
culture to visitors and show off the artisans’
excellent craftsmanship.
Gourds are from the same plant family as
the squash, growing on a vine very
similar to that of the pumpkin.
Remarkably, archaeologists have
discovered gourds dating as far back as
6000 BC! Since this time, gourds have
been used as storage containers, cooking
and eating utensils, musical instruments
(in places such as Africa, South America,
and the Caribbean), and highly decorated artistic sculptures.
To create beautiful decorations, artisans use inks, stains, natural paints, carving
techniques, and wood burning to turn these simple plants into works of art. First, a
ripe hard-shelled gourd is picked, the outer waxy skin peeled away and the remaining
part left to dry in the sun for roughly one week. For decoration, this gourd is
sometimes dyed, or a black ink made of burnt leaves or grass mixed with animal fat is
rubbed into ornamental carvings.
Etching is also a very popular decorative technique. Making do with the most
rudimentary tools, artisans carve complex designs into the gourd's surface. Often they
craft their own tools, grinding pieces of iron with river stones until they have fashioned
fine points and chisels. Once carved, the gourd is burned using either a pointed
wooden stick that has been placed in eucalyptus embers until it turns red-hot or a
"pirograbador" – an engraving tool with a hot wire tip; the tool is then painstakingly
held against the gourd in order to etch and blacken the designed motifs. In this way,
beautiful pieces of art are created featuring deep black areas set against the natural
golden orange colour of the gourd.
Today, the organization hosts training in
Lima for all its artisans across Peru every two
years, providing transportation and housing.
Meanwhile, 20 per cent of profits are directed
to social work efforts such as helping a feeding
Travel the world with each visit to Ten Thousand Villages.
program for poor children by providing warm
Learn how Fair Trade really makes a difference. Our goal is to provide vital, fair income to artisans by
meals, school uniforms and school supplies.
marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. Ten Thousand Villages sells product
from more than 30 countries, providing work for nearly 60,000 people around the world.
www.tenthousandvillages.ca
©2014 TEN THOUSAND VILLAGES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.