Folk ArtFestival

Santa Fe, New Mexico

What is Folk Art?

•Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring trades people.

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In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic.

• Annie Scott-• South Carolina

West African-Senegal• & Sierra Leone

Other terms that overlap with folk art are naïve art, Arts Primitive, Pop art, outsider art, traditional art, Tribal art, "self-taught" art and even "working class" art.

Subject-Style Ethnographic Art according to……• Tradition/Customs• Belief systems, ceremony, religion• Wealth, level status in community

Choice of Materials• Environmental availability/ trading • Medicinal, Magical, and Religious

properties

International Folk Art marketEntrance

Oaxaca, Mexico

South Africa

Jaheni Mkhize – South AfricaTelephone wire

Leonorah Mdanisi and the Shangaan and Venda Women of the Giyani Region

Beadwork

Martina Navarro - Mexico

GuatemalaBackstrap Looms

Ecuador

Ecuador

Mexico

Peru

Shanti Bai Kalahalli, India

ElhadjiKoumama

TuaregTradition

Niger WestAfrica

Tuareg Men & WomenWear talisman amulets / boxes

Tuareg Amuletstcherot talisman boxes made of silver, brass, and /or

copper. Contains papers written from the Koran, magic formulae or potions.

Khomissar pendent given to each daughter upon the 17th birthday

Tuareg Crosses: Now worn by women, before passed down from father to son, “My

son, I give you the four corners of the world because one

cannot know where one will die.” The four directional arms

of the cross will disperse all evil to the four directions.

Tuareg Rings: Passed by men & women with affection.

Cornelian pyramids or triangles worn by women more than

men, dates back to 6,000 BC, for healing disorders & blood

Tibetan-Prayer BoxThe design of this prayer box pendant originated in Tibet where it was used as charm container pendant called Ga’u. It was widely used by the tribes around western and

eastern sub-Himalayas many centuries ago. The tribes placed charms inside the Ga’u to ward off malignant evil that caused calamities. Through keeping a charm with them by

placing it in the Ga’u, they are believed to be protected from the malady of their inhospitable environment.

The semi-nomadic, pastoral Samburu people of

northern Kenya were named by a neighboring

tribe because of their striking jewelry and face

paint reminiscent of colorful butterflies.

Rebecca LolosoliKenya Year(s) attended: 2009 (Supported by Bridge for Africa), 2010

Agnes PapatitiKenya

Year(s) attended: 2008, 2010Supported by BEADS for Education, Inc.

Bead Work Agnes Papatiti practices traditional glass bead work in the Kajiado District, a lightly-

populated section of the Rift Valley just south of Nairobi, Kenya, where the Maasai are the dominant population

Color Choicescolored coded messages, examples from the Zulu

* A long beaded necklace made of white beads, to ward off evil spirits & or purity of love, "My heart is pure and white in the long lonely nights.”

• Black says, “Darkness prevents my coming to you.”

• Pink stands for poverty• Green, coolness• Blue stands for rejection, “You are a noisy

bird.”

• New Mexico- Turquoise stands for the sky

Turkmen Women’s Active Rights Association (TWARA)Afghanistan

Year(s) attended: 2010Turkmen Women’s Active Rights Association (TWARA)

Embroidery, Jewelry and Weaving Ghulamullah Muradi, marketing manager for the Turkmen Women Active Rights Association (TWARA), was born in

northern Afghanistan but immigrated to Pakistan. He learned carpet weaving from his mother, and in 2005, helped found

TWARA and its affiliated handicraft association, which supports 300 minority Turkmen women artists who make felt rugs, jewelry, hand-loomed textiles, embroidery, and carpets.

The group identifies communities with low literacy rates in remote areas of Afghanistan, helping women to promote

traditional crafts while teaching them health care, parenting, and other life skills.

Turkmenistan

Mamur RakhmanovUzbekistan

Year(s) attended: 2009, 2010Jewelry

Uzbek women throughout the ages have adorned themselves with jewelry, not only for beautification and defining status, but also for protection from illness and the evil eye. Today, Mamur continues Uzbek traditions of producing finely made jewelry by incorporating designs of the past for decorative and ceremonial

purposes. Mamur uses both gold and silver and incorporates semi-

precious stones to add bold, rich accents. He is famous for using fine filigree in many of his pieces. He was taught by one of the well-known jewelry masters of the region and owns his

own shop where he produces and sells his wares.

Nodir Bakhshilloevich DjumaevUzbekistan

Year(s) attended: 2010Jewelry

Nodir Djumaev’s jewelry is luxurious and sophisticated. Using techniques dating back to the 8th

and 9th centuries in Bukhara, Located in Uzbekistan along the

Silk Road, Bukhara has long been a crossroads for culture, religion

and trade. The jewelry, replete with its precious and semi-precious

encrusted stones such as rubies, sapphires, cornelian, agates,

jasper, corals, pearls, turquoise, opal and tourmaline, represented rare objects fit for royalty. While silver was used throughout the

region, gold was used only in the court of khans and in the court of the Bukhara Emir. The work Nodir produces retains that certain royal

significance today.

Women’s earrings from Kokand, Uzbekistan, 19th

century

Ben-Zion DavidNear East Israel

Year(s) attended: 2010Jewelry

For hundreds of years, Yemenite Jews have maintained a closely-guarded tradition of jewelry-making using precious

metals. Their tools and techniques have been passed down as

family secrets from one generation to the next, protecting a heritage and a livelihood that has constituted a special role

for Yemenite Jews in spite of their low social status. In his workshop and gallery in Old Jaffa, Israel, Ben-Zion

David is seeking to revive this disappearing art form, which he learned from his father and grandfather.

David uses traditional tools to shape sterling silver, semi-precious stones, lava, coral and archaeological artifacts into filigree jewelry of all sorts, including ceremonial items that

have been used for centuries by Yemenite Jews. Today, this jewelry continues to play an important role in

Jewish Yemenite culture, particularly in the elaborate, layered headdresses worn by Yemenite brides in Israel.

Yemeniwoman wearing

full wedding celebration attire

Wu Yong ShengChina

Year(s) attended: 2010Jewelry and Silver Work

Among the Miao People of Guizhou Province, the tradition of silver work

dates back to the Ming Dynasty of 1368-1644, when silver coins were

melted down and turned into jewelry.

The work of master silver artisan Wu Yong Sheng features images

stamped out into positive relief using a technique called repoussé.

Gui WuChina

Year(s) attended: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010Minority People Silversmith Folk Artists Cooperative

of Southwest China Silverwork

Silver jewelry represents social status in southwest China, and traditionally, all ethnic minority families

might work for years to make a whole set of sterling silver accessories for their daughters to wear on

special occasions such as weddings or festivals. The Minority People’s Silversmith Cooperative of SW

China represents master craftsmen of the region who carry on their history, customs and religion through

the elaborate and symbolic designs of their silverwork.  Wu Gui is a nationally award winning

cooperative member from the Miao minority in Guizhou Province whose intricately designed earrings, bracelets, necklaces, hair pins and

ornaments have been collected by major national museums in Japan, India and England.

Bottom Line………………

You will have a spectacular visual experience……………….

Enjoy!