Talleria Artesania and Artes en Las Calles!
Trip Start
Jun 13, 2009
1
9
17
Trip End
Jul 26, 2009
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Valparaiso,
Chile
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Yesterday, I went to my classes, home for Almuerzo in between classes, and afterwards to a talleria artesania de cuero (leather making workshop). This workshop is part of my ISEP program, and there are two parts to the workshops. One week, a group makes something out of leather while the other group makes something out of glass. Next week I will be doing the glass workshop, but this week I had a blast making a bracelet and a key chain out of leather. First, we went into this little workshop/store/house where we were taught how to go about making designs in the leather. We were able to hammer the stencils into the leather to make designs. Thankfully, we practiced on scraps of material before beginning our projects.
My work station
The first step is to wet the leather in order to make it soft and easy to hammer the designs. Next, you get creative and make the designs. Then, you die the leather and attach the fasteners for the bracelet or the chain for the key chain. It was so much fun. Even though some of my designs didn't turn out the way I expected, I am still proud of the finished products because they are mine (and not everyone can say that they've made something from a scrap of leather before)!!!As mentioned before, I spent the rest of that night on school work. :( Unfortuneately, I'm not sure my studying made a difference on my grammer test today. It was a bit difficult, but hopefully my score won't be so bad. I stayed at school over lunch today to work on presentation stuff in the computer lab. After my second class, our Chilean culture professor and his friend - Charkypunk (an amazing graffiti artist) - took us on a walking tour through Valparaiso to view some of the most incredible works of graffiti around! Graffiti here is known as las artes de las calles (the arts of the streets). We walked up many hills, many stairs, down the hills, and up again. It was very tiring, but well worth the effort! (Just check out the pictures - I took lots, but there was so much more I didn't have time to capture in a photograph. That's okay, the photos probably wouldn't have done the graffiti justice.)
Well, wish me luck on my presentation, and I'll be sure to fill you in on my weekend adventures soon! This Saturday I will be traveling to Ritoque for a horse ride through the dunes. (Hopefully it doesn't rain on us!) Enjoy the 4th of July and be safe!
Erin
Comments
Beautiful artwork! Can't wait to see your leather projects. Happy horseback riding! Happy 4th of July to you too. love, mom & dad