October 2016

Click the play button below to get you in an Ecuadorian happy state of mind!

Art in Ecuador comes in many forms such as paintings, construction, wood carving, weaving,  metal work, and more. So I am going to share with you what has kept us so busy the last few months. You do not have to go to a museum to find artisan’s overflowing talent within Cotacachi as well as anywhere in Ecuador all you have to do is peak around the corner!

Artisan’s Copy Cat Door

I first want to introduce you to Mauricio who is a young man that learned his craft from his aunt. Our friends at La Mirage introduced us to this talented young man when we first settled into our home. One of the first things he made for us was protection bars for our home creating an innovative design. Okay, you think protection bars? Well, as pointed out to me you should follow the customs of the Ecuadorians living here. So protection bars, walls, and dogs are needed to discourage a thief from breaking into your home or at least make him decide to find a home easier to assess. Also a good idea for Texans.

I have a friend in Texas whose home has been broken into several times and she paid around $7,000 to have a beautiful decorative metal door installed. Our Texas friend’s door is below. Now, look at the copycat version in our slide show. Pretty good huh!

 

So on our last Texas visit, we took pictures of her fantastic door and asked Mauricio if he could duplicate the door. So, we now have a  beautiful heavy-duty metal copy cat door that cost $400 and we are very pleased.  The entire process is done by hand.  We watched as he heated up the metal rods and then pounded and bent them into shapes similar to a blacksmith making horseshoes. The pictures in the slide show demonstrate some of the processes.

 

 Big Boy Wood Burning Pizza Oven 

We wanted a pizza oven on the patio as well as a grill to cook out on. Seems like most Americans desire an outdoor kitchen. So, we are not any different but our pizza oven process certainly was unique. Our maestro is indigenous and our oven is also. In the base, he used a special dark unique sifted dirt. When he requested wine, beer, eggs, molasses, and herbs we thought maybe he was going to have a party. No,  each ingredient was added to the black dirt in a specific order. The idea behind the process was similar to seasoning an oven. He brought his sweet wife with her little girl strapped to her back to cook the herbs in my kitchen. Bet she has never used an electric stove top! Once all the various concoctions were added then he added at least 100 wine bottles which they broke into pieces. Estelita Restaurant,  Ibarra graciously let us take as many empty wine bottles as we needed. Big shout out to Freddie for helping us load all those wine bottles in his taxi.  I never dreamed that they would use them all!  So we certainly do not have a GREEN EGG but even better Big Orange Coppery Big Boy Wood Burning Horno! We have already had some pizza as well as steak cooked in this Orange Coppery Big Boy.  I have to chuckle when I found out the names of our indigenous workers of Elvis, Giovanni, and Julio. They did a wonderful job and we are so pleased! True artisan.

 

Magical Artisan’s Painting

My neighbor has several whimsical original paintings by Jose Sanchez. She said she loved these paintings because they made her smile. I learned that he was an art professor in Quito but now his studio is nearly in our own backyard of the neighboring town. Wow! we found his humble little studio and were eagerly welcomed to tour where all the magic happens. We were honored to meet him in person and view his work. We bought 3 of his paintings and his imagination still amazes me. The last picture is of the artwork we purchased from a local artist. Usually, the cost of framing the art is more than the purchase price of the original art.

 

Artisan’s Unique Wood Carving

Yes, there is a little nearby town called  San Antonio which is known for the artisans that create masterpieces out of wood. We happen to stumble upon this little shop and got to meet the artist. His work is truly amazing. He even offered to teach Bill how to carve wood at no cost. Of course, we had to purchase a treasure for Bill. This resulted in a bust of Sigmund Freud and when you look closely you will see two nude women carved on each side of his head. Men always have women on their minds!

 

Other Artisan’s

The other local artisans include designing playful children’s knitted caps, and beautiful tagua jewelry known as Ecuadorian ivory and dyed in a variety of colors. Of course in one of the neighboring towns is a hat factory as well an artisan that weaves shawls on ancient looms. This is just a small sample of what surrounds us. Every day is an adventure that is just around the corner.

 

I had a friend ask me if I had stopped writing my blog. Retirement certainly keeps us busy and I will have to do better at updating the blog. Yikes, I already have the October blog completed and I will be following this blog today!  There is so much more to share!

Hugs to family & friends