One Last Artisan Visit

Our last full week here at the Foundation is already turning out to be a busy one! With Mapuche New Year this weekend, we have lots of activities to celebrate.

But not before we squeeze in one more artisan visit. 🙂

Oscar is an artist and goldsmith who makes stunning jewelry from primarily cow horns. His pieces are so intricate, you’d think they were cut with a laser. But he does all of these by hand, and creates the designs himself.

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We visited him in his home and studio in Victoria, Chile, which is about an hour north of Temuco. He is a member of Rakizuam, which we have mentioned before, is an organization that Chol Chol supports that consists of mostly non-textile artisans (with the exception of Queen Isabel, who is an extremely talented weaver). We’ve also visited Don José (jeweler), Señora Sandra (ceramic artist), Franco (ceramic artist), and Estrella (painter) from the Rakizuam group.

He showed us some of his newest pieces that he’s working on, as well as some of his older creations. He also finds a way to incorporate other pieces of art that he finds into jewelry (like turning a woven reed piece into a bracelet). He’s not Mapuche, but sometimes uses Mapuche symbolism in his pieces.

It’ll be fun to edit this last video for him. I know his pieces get a lot of attention in the store, so now people can know more about him.