Finger Puppets from Peru

Karuna Village offers a range of great craft items alongside the fine art. I particularly love these - they are finger puppets and are made by a number of women artists from Peru. They come from a tiny mountain village called Chucuito, some 12,500 feet above sea level and near Lake Titicaca. Textile making has a long history here and knitting is a skill that is learned at a young age. It is a seasonal occupation that takes place after the planting and harvesting seasons are over. Traditionally the women take care of the farms animals, llamas and alpacas and help out with the barley and potato crops as needed so knitting is very much an occupation for the winter months before planting season comes round again.


The leader and designer for the group is called Tomasa. She leads her group of knitters who each will bring in approximately half the annual income for the family, and allows them to work from home so they can look after their children, and giving them a sense of independence.

There are all kinds of finger puppet characters to chose from - we even have some Halloween-themed characters which I am sure will find a new home very quickly. There is even a little puppet theatre to go with them - our cafe patrons will be able to put on their own shows!

Guatemalan Oil Paintings Have Arrived

It wasn't only oil rubbings that arrived from Guatemala last week - we also received a couple of oil paintings from Santiago artist Martin Chavajay. We have a couple of these enigmatic paintings on sale at the Fair Trade Cafe, the above example entitled "Corn Harvest Scene" is oil on canvas, 11" X 9" in size, and is on sale unframed at $95. We currently have two of Martin's oil paintings on sale and hope to have some more paintings from a variety of Guatemalan artists in the near future.

In other news, our first Nicaraguan painting will be heading to the printers this week as the first in our range of limited edition prints. The aim is to have these on sale, online through the blog as well as in the Fair Trade Cafe, hopefully by the end of November.
We are also expecting our first three Australian Aboriginal pieces this week, plus some very cute Peruvian finger puppets - more of which next time!

New In - Mayan Oil rubbings from Guatemala

This weekend will see several new pieces of art on display at the Fair Trade Cafe, including this unusual Mayan Oil Rubbing from Guatemala, one of several by artist Antigua. This particular rubbing is from the Temple of the Cross at the Mayan city of Palenque in Mexico. 'El Fumador', or 'The Smoker' is and aged deity of the West, known as "God L" who has been identified as an important Underworld and War god. He appears on the sanctuary jamb of the Temple of the Cross smoking tobacco and wearing a jaguar cloak and headress made from the feathers of the mythical Mayan Moan bird.

The rubbing is made by stretching cloth (100% cotton) over a mahogany reproduction of the original stone carving, and applying oil paint to the raised areas.
This particular piece is 22.5" X 15" in size These are very unusual and enigmatic pieces which I am sure will be popular with our customers! At the moment you can get a voucher for 15% off when you get your picture framed by our friends at The Art of Framing (located at Central & Camelback).

October Sidewalk Art Sale Update

Just a quick update on the Sidewalk Art Sales for our October Fair Trade Month - due to outstanding commitments we shall not be holding an art sale on the 11th. Our next Sidewalk Art Sale will be on Saturday October 18th between 9am and midday. The Roosevelt Market is hosting the Harvest Festival celebrations just down the road from the cafe (there will be a Fair Trade Cafe stall serving coffee there as well). So once you have visited the market come on up and see our art and craft display. We will have new art from Guatemala, Peru and Vietnam for you to see and buy, so come by and see us then if you can.

Information on our final October Sidewalk Art Sale will be posted nearer the time, by which time we should have received even more new art! For details and a map check in with the Fair Trade Cafe website at http://azfairtrade.com

Karuna Village Moving Away From Online Sales

Much planning has been going on at the Fair Trade Cafe over Karuna Village over the last couple of months. The online art sales have been disappointing and with Michele's move to the cafe full time we want to place much more emphasis on sales of fair trade fine art and crafts from the cafe itself. We shall still host monthly exhibitions of local artist's work but Karuna Village art will be given much more wall space than was previously given.

In the end, people like to see the art they are buying. It is very difficult to get a real appreciation of the quality of a piece of art from a picture alone. As a consequence we shall be discontinuing the online art sales and selling exclusively from the Fair Trade Cafe. In place of the online shop we are going to upgrade this blog with a brand new, professionally designed blog, courtesy of Dave Kellett of dudeblogyourbusiness.com. The blog will then become the online presence for Karuna Village. We are hoping this transition will be completed by the beginning of November.

That is not to say that there won't be any online art for sale. Blogs are clever things these days and we are looking at one particular widget that will allow individual items to be sold. One line we think might be suitable for such online sale is the Limited Edition Print range we are currently negotiating for. More on that soon.