Valladolid’s handmade arts & crafts offer high quality

VALLADOLID — Sunday is the best day for Valladolid’s vendors who offer handmade crafts to tourists in the central plaza.

Aselma Poot Moo, artisan from Dzitnup, says it takes her almost one day to make a bracelet or necklace, but it takes her at least eight days to embroider “hipiles” and blouses. The length of the process, she says, depends on how complicated and large the design is.

Hilda Casgalla, a resident of Valladolid, sells her arts and crafts in the main plaza every Sunday, weaving something different every week.”Not only with the knitting needle, but also with my hands and mind. It takes me about a month to make a bag, it depends on how big and complicated the stitches are,” she adds.

Jose Balam has dedicated his life to carving stone and bone to make earrings and key chains, among other pieces. “It takes me a day to make some of the figurines, but when I am learning a new design it can take weeks to get it done,” he says.

In Valladolid’s central plaza one can always find craft vendor Arsenio Avila, who has worked in woodcarving for over 20 years. The craftsman says he can come up with a piece in a day and a half; but then he needs to add paint and enamel it, which takes him at least two more days to finish the product.

Abraham Pomol, an artisan from Popola who makes sandals of henequen fiber, said, “first we interweave the sandal and then we have to put a sole on it, and finally finish the top,” he says. “I have a good competitive advantage over other artisans because I’m the only craftsman who makes these sandals”.

Valladolid’s hat vendors expressed that they only produce fine handmade pieces of straw, while other hats that can be purchased in Mérida and all over the state, are factory made (and sometimes even made in China).

A hammock seller who also declined to give his name, indicates that even when most of his items are purchased, he only makes a few pesos because people are always bargaining and do not want to pay a fair price for his high quality handmade products.

Source: blog.valladolid.mx

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