Embera/Wounaan Basketwork - Galeria Namu

Oversize Basket - Flora and Fauna Rainforest Design

Code: IEWV016 Size: 33 3/4" (86 cms) tall This particular beauty represents the apex of Wounaan basket making: the monster, oversized scale (standing at nearly 3 feet tall!) combined with the intensity of the tapestry-like rainforest composition is visually overwhelming. This masterpiece indigenous basket took the artist more than three years to complete (just the weaving alone, not to mention the preparation of the natural raw materials from her rainforest surroundings for her piece). Almost narrative and yet abstracted at the same time, this flora and fauna-inspired design is sublime with a pleasing geometric finishing flourish around the lip. Like most of these indigenous Darien rainforest baskets, the underside of the piece features a beautiful design resolution: a kaleidoscopic mandala, or some culminating motif (decorating tip: these basket vessels are best displayed on a glass shelf in order to appreciate the incredible work on the underside! These impressive rainforest baskets are made by virtue of two key elements: the endemic, wild palm tree species that provide the young fronds that are split and are the basic structure of the baskets, plus ancestral knowledge.

Woven Embera Mask - Miffed Crest-up Parrot

Code: IEWM014 Size: 12 1/2” long x 8”wide (32 x 20 cms) Said to be inspired by the carved wooden masks and effigies of local fauna and forest spirits fashioned by their 'jaibana' (traditional medicine men) inside the healing enclosure, Embera women - whose media is weaving, not wood carving - are creating these wonderfully inspired forest beings. Some are obvious what animals they depict (as this piece is: a parrot whose crest is up showing some strong emotion as they do naturally!), while other masks are not as obvious regarding the precise mammalian, or avian type. Then some of these masks seem to be altogether fantastical creatures of myth, or artisan’s imagination. The raw materials employed (split, dried and naturally dyed wild 'chunga' and 'naguala' palm fronds) and the weaving technique are offshoots of the traditional indigenous 'hosig di' baskets of the Darien, Panama.

Woven Embera Masks - Anteater

Code: IEWM013 Size: 14” long x 8”wide (36 x 20 cms) Said to be inspired by the carved wooden masks and effigies of local fauna and forest spirits fashioned by their 'jaibana' (traditional medicine men) inside the healing enclosure, Embera women - whose media is weaving, not wood carving - are creating these wonderfully inspired forest beings. Some are obvious what animals they depict (as this piece is: a rather stylized anteater), while other masks are not as obvious regarding the precise mammalian, or avian type. Then some of these masks seem to be altogether fantastical creatures of tribal myth, or artisan’s imagination. The raw materials employed (split, dried and naturally dyed wild 'chunga' and 'naguala' palm fronds) and the weaving technique are offshoots of the traditional indigenous 'hosig di' baskets of the Darien, Panama.

Large Plates/Disks - Geometrics and Butterflies

Code: IEWP011 Size: 20" (51 cms) diameter These two aboriginal groups are residents of the incredibly dense forest and abundant biodiversity found in the Darien region of Panama. Women basket weavers of the indigenous Embera and Wounaan are creators of the, arguably, finest traditional baskets in the world. This example of such stunning design and technique is a large woven plate (perfect artwork for wall display) with a dazzling 'mandala' consisting of tropical rainforest foliage and butterflies swirling within traditional geometric edge ring. The raw materials employed (split, dried and naturally dyed wild 'chunga' and 'naguala' palm fronds) and the weaving technique are offshoots of the traditional indigenous 'hosig di' baskets of the Darien, Panama.

Flora and Fauna Design - Tropical Rainforest

Code: IEWV010 Size: 4 1/1" x 6 1/4" (11 x 16 cms Museum quality traditional basketwork created by two related tribes of the Darien region between Panama and Colombia, the Embera and Wounaan. These women weavers are making, arguably, the finest autochthonous baskets in the world. These impressive rainforest baskets are made by virtue of two key elements: the endemic, wild palm tree species that provide the young fronds that are split and are the basic structure of the baskets, and of course the ancestral knowledge of these women of the Darien region expressed in the dyes obtained from their surroundings and the complex stitching techniques employed since time immemorial. This particular beauty represents the apex of Wounaan basket making. Almost narrative and yet abstracted at the same time, this flora and fauna-inspired design is sublime with a geometric finishing flourish around the lip. Like most of these indigenous Darien rainforest baskets, the underside of the piece features a beautiful design resolution, a kaleidoscopic mandala, or some motif, as the hibiscus flower represented on the base of this piece.

Basket Vessels - Geometric Spiral

Code: IEWV009 Size: 6 3/4" x 7 1/2" (17 x 19cms) At this level, this beautiful marvel of technique and design represents the apex of Wounaan basket making - an activity as old as ancestral memory itself. Like most of these indigenous Darien rainforest baskets, the underside of the piece features a beautiful design resolution: a kaleidoscopic mandala, on the base of the piece (decorating tip: these basket vessels are best displayed on a glass shelf in order to appreciate the incredible work on the underside!). The perfection in the tessellation of this geometric swirl design is mind boggling! From 2 related tribes of the Darien region between Panama and Colombia, the Embera and Wounaan, these women weavers are making, arguably, the finest traditional baskets in the world. These impressive rainforest baskets are made by virtue of two key elements: the endemic, wild palm tree species that provide the young fronds that are split and are the basic structure of the baskets and of course the ancestral knowledge of the Native women of the Darien region expressed in the dyes obtained from their surroundings and the complex stitching techniques employed since time immemorial.