Paco and Rafael

Much of our time in the office is spent writing up artisan histories, documents that describe in pictures and words the artisan’s process of creating their products, and a “how to get there on the bus” document in case there are future volunteers who will make a visit by themselves.

While I want to share parts of what we learn, the sheer amount of info is daunting. My goal is to post a couple of relatively brief cuentos from time to time, but without posting the artisan’s entire story. If Sam gets back on the blogging bandwagon, perhaps he will share more of their stories there. Here are two for today.

Paco
After the business part of our visit to Yenny and Julio’s workshop was completed, Julio brought out his parrot, Paco, for us to meet. Among his many interesting features are the following: he goes crazy with jealousy if Yenny tries to hug or embrace Julio when Paco is within sight; he says “hola” when he hears the telephone ring; and, when it comes to matters of drinking, he is a Peruvian parrot through and through: he only drinks Inca Kola. 

Paco suspiciously checks out the gringos

Yenny, keeping her distance from Paco and Julio

Inca Kola, yuck! I mean, yum!

When we got back to the office and were going through older photos of Yenny and Julio’s workshop, I found a photo of pottery samples that Paco had wormed his way in on. 

Rafael
Rafael del Campo’s workshop is crammed into two rooms in his small home. 

He and his twelve workers even produce artesanía crammed into small spaces.

This worker is building tiny nativities in tiny bottles, in a tiny nook carved out of the pottery workshop

He has submitted paperwork for permits to build a second story, to expand the workshop, but expects a lengthy delay: “It’s Peru.” After he shows us his workshop and current orders, he shows us the stuff he’d really like to produce. And they are gorgeous, interesting, and unique. But for it to be affordable for a client like Global Gifts or Ten Thousand Villages to buy it, Rafael would have to experiment in ways to make them much lighter, by not using so much clay and perhaps altering the design, as the weight alone would make it cost prohibitive to ship. And to feasibly produce these in larger quantities, he would have to upgrade his kiln.

 

But these are such cool designs, and he would get to tap into his creative side... I want him to be able to do this instead of (what looks to me like) the same ceramic pieces that every other artisan makes. 


I suppose I should quit wanting a lot of the artisans to be able to follow their creative side into the unknown world of market trends and flighty consumer tendencies, and stick with the things that are proven to have a market and which pay bills on time, but I want them to be able to follow their passions and make a living at the same time.