Update from the Road: Retablos and Ceramic Artisans

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

An update from Peru from Emily

This week I got to go visit a cooperative of ceramists and retableros in the outskirts of Lima. 

Understanding the Culture

One "taller" or workshop I went to visit was from a group of artesanos who are all originally from Ayacucho. When terrorism from the Sendero Luminoso or "The Shining Path" struck the region many people moved to Lima to have a safer life. This group of Ayacuchanos stuck together after they moved and created a small artesano village where they still practice the traditional techniques from the region such as the "retablos". The spanish word retablo translates to "behind the table or altar" in Latin and are regularly used as portable altars. They are formed in wooden boxes and the clay sculptures inside the box depict a scene that holds religious, historical or everyday significance to the people of the the Peruvian and Bolivian highlands. They were brought over by the Spanish to teach the indigenous people of Peru about Catholicism. Much like the other many socially significant rituals and traditions that the Spanish brought over, Peruvians, in a very syncretic fashion, starting fusing their culture and depicted everyday life instead of focusing just on the Catholic religion. I was super impressed by the retablo below depicting Noah's Ark. The person showing me this told me that it was this particular artisan's social commentary on how we are polluting our Earth.

 Encouraging Good Luck

I couldn't resist buying an adorable Ekeko from the co-op. Ekeko is the god of abundance and joy, and figurines are known for bringing good luck. A tradition is to place cigarettes in the Ekeko's mouth once a year. Our Ekeko is already up to a pack a day, so we think we are going to have tons of luck. The Ekeko is traditionally depicted as a man with a mustache wearing traditional Andean clothes and completely loaded with bags and baskets with food, household objects and currency bills. He is commonly found as a little statue to be put some place special in the house, in this case, our new office in Lima. 

The legend of the Ekeko tells about an Indian girl working in Bolivia who was in love with Isidoro Choquewanca. She left the town where they both grew up and in an attempt to protect his love, Isidoro gave her a small statue known as an Ekeko. Isidoro enrolled in the indigenous army and was briefly reunited with the girl. He left food near the statue every week, but no one knew it was him. As the story goes, during a siege on the town, it was believed that the Ekeko provided food in hard times and helped people survive.

Writing this blog entry, I started to explore the idea of emiLime being a pioneer in syncretic fashion. As I meet more talented artisans everyday, I immediately start to design and think of how I can take their amazing skills and adapt them into a product that I would want to wear or display in my home. Is syncretism a bad thing? If the merging of cultures and people inevitably happen, should artistic traditions stay isolated and in their original form? I believe everything is fluid, especially human beings and our thoughts and feelings which are at the root of creativity, so I like the idea of very traditional techniques retaining their essence, but being able to adapt. I think this is best way to keep these traditions alive.  For me, bringing my culture and my perception of beauty and fashion and blending it with the amazing materials and skills that I come across in Peru is pure fashion syncretism.

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Arm Warmers: A History

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Some people call them fingerless gloves, texting gloves, wristlets, arm warmers, pulse warmers, but whatever you want to call them, at emiLime, we are huge fans. The design plus the amazing qualities of alpaca have made our arm warmers the most popular product. Many creative people use our alpaca arm warmers to paint, take pictures, play instruments, knit, and lots of people love to wear their in their chilly offices.

Some of our favorites emiLime arm warmers are the classic Star crochet arm warmers and the visually and tactilely interesting Zing and Flow alpaca arm warmers. Most people understand the design because of the popularity of smart phones, but we often hear from people that they don't understand how they keep you warm because your fingers are exposed.

Long before the advent of iPhones and Blackberrys, people were wearing wrist warmers so they could work outdoors while keeping their hands toasty warm while still being able to access their fingers. A customer told us how 30 years ago she bought a pair in Germany, after seeing them on the wrists of every shopkeeper at a Heidelberg farmers market. They were also spotted indoors on mothers doing their knitting or cooking in poorly heated country houses.

People living in the colder mountainous areas of Europe have used wrist [i.e. pulse] warmers for centuries. You often see people wearing felted or knitted cuffs for additional warmth in Austria, Switzerland, southern Germany, Sweden, and Norway.

The key to wrist warmers is their ability to trap the body's natural warmth inside allowing for the hands to be warmed by your own blood. By insulating the vulnerable blood vessels that lie closest to the surface of your wrists, the warmers prevent heat loss letting the warmed blood flow through your hands to keep them toasty. It's sort of like having an internal hot water bottle and using the arm warmers as a knitted coozie.

Alpaca wrist warmers are made from the premium insulating fiber. Alpaca has been keeping the cold away from the rural people of the Andes for centuries and combining it with a classic design from the savvy European shop keepers, it has been an instant success.

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