HANDICRAFTS

Our sales are only by order or in communities. We encourage collective purchases or purchases from shopkeepers and we send orders by post. The art of weaving with tucumã straw and natural pigments makes each piece unique, and delivery time is arranged one by one.

CATALOGUE

Attached to the woven pieces are these processes:

cutting the straw, drying the straw, dyeing and weaving.

When handicrafts are valued and consumed at a fair price, generating income for the hands of those who weave, the younger ones get excited, learn the craft and generations continue weaving, hand in hand.

TRADITION

One of the most traditional activities of the native Amazonian people is straw braiding. With a strong indigenous influence, this activity is linked to the great diversity of raw materials available, such as curuá, buriti, arum, jacitara and tucumã and the reuse of fallen wood, among others, which serve as inspiration.

ANCESTRALITY

From the elders, we have inherited techniques to produce objects and tools that facilitate the work in the fields and the production of flour, such as baskets, sieves, and tipitis, which are still used in our extractive practices. In addition, straw is still widely used to make roofs and even walls, doors and windows of traditional riverside houses.

CREATIVITY

The straw braiding techniques, passed on from mothers to daughters (and sons, eventually), have been refined and updated by our creativity and are already a mark of our craft, known worldwide.

IDENTITY

The traditional stitch unfolds in many others that refer to their creators and their communities. We can even identify the origin of a piece by the stitch developed, such as the jararaca stitch from the community of Arirnum, the embuá stitch from the community of São Miguel and the sacaí stitch from the community of Vila Gorete.

In other communities, the pieces can also be identified by their patterns, such as the ciranda dolls from the community of Vila Brasil.

PRODUCTION

Beyond the technique, there is a whole complexity involved in the production of pieces, which often involve all the family.

First, there is the handling of the straw, which includes collecting the straw correctly, removing the thorns, opening, drying and then dyeing the straw.

There is also process to produce natural pigments. The main colors are:

Yellow (mangarataia or saffron)

Black (genipap)

Purple (caapiranga)

Orange (urucum)

Brown (crajiru)

Dark green (genipap + mangarataia)

Blue-black (genipap of igapó)

Each pigment has a different extraction technique from leaves, seeds or fruits. Other colors are made from the combination of one or more natural pigments.

Finally, there is also the dyeing process itself, which requires boiling the straw in the desired pigment and drying it again. Only then will the straw be ready for braiding.

TURIARTE is a member of REDE Artesol – a platform that integrates craftsmen and other members of the productive chain of craftsmanship: traders, institutions, final customers and others.

ARTESOL