Guadua Lessons: Part 2

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Remember that guadua course I wrote about a while back? The saw dust, the candle holders and all that jazz? I left you hanging with “Guadua Lessons: Part 1″. Well, this is part 2.

The last class is tomorrow, but Wilfredo’s caught the guadua bug and it’s become a bit of an obsession to constantly have a project on the go. And he’s gotten me into it as well. In fact, last weekend, about 10 of our latest creations were exhibition as part of the Mogotes Corpus weekend festivities that I’ve been writing about in the past week.

A few weeks ago, we started a shop on Etsy to support and promote artisans from Mogotes. It started with the fique bags by Eliana and then I added the bags by another Mogotes artisan, Amilce. Now you’ll find a bunch of guadua stuff over there. I wanted to show you a few of the little bits and pieces we’ve created and if you have a sec, check out the new blog for the Made in Mogotes project.

Here are a few of the latest guadua projects:

This candle holder is my first finished creation. I’m working on a few more – the same but different heights and with accent colors in pink and green instead of blue. There’s a bit of fique tied around the middle with some beads and it’s all shiny with varnish.

These vases were made by Wilfredo at the request of another artisan who wanted to use them to show off her collection of fique flowers (not pictured). She wanted the top to resemble a castle. Wilfredo is into the natural look. He likes the textures and color splotches that come out in the guadua when it’s coated simply in a layer of varnish.

Simple but useful, I made this mug with the intention of using it as a pencil holder. I was going to paint it, but I thought it looked nice natural. You can use it for all sorts of things – drinking beer, holding toothbrushes, a funky vase, etc.

One of these little tea light candle holders came in handy today actually when all of the power in Mogotes was cut and the house was pitch black. It’s simple. It’s useful. It’s decorative. You can use taller candles or put something cool inside the ring. Another natural Wilfredo creation.

This is nearly the exact same product as the candle holder above, but the hole goes straight through and make a really cool, unique vase holder, especially with the bamboo which is the same family as the guadua itself. Wilfredo made this at my command…;)

Wilfredo had a lot of fun making this one. He left it natural again which really works for its purpose. This one, I think, shows how versatile the guadua can be.

There’s more, but this is the last one I’ll show you here. I made this necklace from the scrap pieces of other projects, a bit of nylon and some beads. It’s all hand-painted except for the hearts which are made from napkins and decoupage technique. I’ve got loads more jewelry coming up soon.

Stay tuned.

Also, on the subject of guadua, if you haven’t seen it, I interviewed a Colombian artisan who works with guadua the other day. He has some really cool stuff if you have a sec to take a peek.

To consider for the comments:
What do you think? Pretty unique? Any suggestions or ideas to spark more creativity over here?

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