artisan resource
Taller Maya and the
Fundación Haciendas
del Mundo Maya
The Foundation oversees several projects,
in areas such as education, housing, and
environmental conservation. One of these,
the Taller Maya workshop, not only preserves
traditional handcraft techniques and materials,
but also employs hundreds of local artisans.
Currently, some 200 women and men in 16
rural Mayan communities work alondside
designers to create high-quality contemporary
design products, including: jewerly, soaps,
baby clothes, tabletop, and even Panama
hats and cotton hammocks. These handmade
products showcase Yucatan techniques such
as silver filigree, foot loom sisal, handmade
embroidery, weaving, and horn carving.
Berenice Lujan is a sales manager who has
worked with the Foundation for two years,
representing Taller Maya at Artisan Resource
twice. “It is a great forum for the artisan
enterprises to get access to bigger markets,”
she says. At the winter market in February, she
will be presenting the new
Aves Collection
of
home décor products – table linens, cushions,
beach chairs, and quilts – inspired by the bright
plumage of five birds native to the Yucatan
Peninsula: the Flamingo, Toh Bird, Monte
Turkey, Woodpecker, and Yucatan Swallow.
In 2002, Hurricane Isidoro passed over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula,
leaving destruction in its wake. Seeing the need to support the
recovery of the local economy, a development company called Grupo
Plan created the
Fundación Haciendas del Mundo Maya
. The mission of
this non-profit is to generate sustainable, micro-regional development
in Mayan rural communities that elevates the quality of life through
cultural and tourism development.
Tallermaya.org
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