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POPULAR NATIVE CRAFTS OF
IBIZA
Mountains, rivers, seas, and
all of nature, transmit the
smallness and the insignificance of humankind. The wilderness has now
undergone major transformations due to the influence of man.
We are in an era of technology and forget that humanity made many
strides in ancient times.
There are discoveries and inventions of men that have been accepted as
fact, except something marked a turning point in our evolution: the
fire, the
turn, the
wheel,
cooking, etc..
In remote rural communities
such as
Ibiza, people learned to observe the environment and lived by it,
drawing from nature everything
they needed for their livelihood, that is the origin of popular crafts.
The stones, the juniper, pine, clay, agave, rope, sugar cane, for
centuries, have nourished the imagination of farmers and herders, and
their wise and patient hands have shaped objects that have the beauty of
simplicity and ingenuity to build on what nature offered.
These parts are currently considered as
ancestral
ornaments or as souvenirs of
places visited and we forget that it was a fundamental part
of local people’s everyday life.
Ibizan crafts have
features that differentiate them from the rest of the
Balearic Isles, and of course
from the rest of Spain.
That’s what an island is about, isolation.
In the era of globalization, it can be a very interesting option to
discover a place through their crafts and find that what it has to
offer, is different, indigenous and authentic.
Many civilizations and cultures have lived in our island.
These peoples are now long gone, but the objects that they produced
remain, and speak to us about our past and the harmony that prevailed on
the island at the time.
It is not just craft,
it’s art, it is our
inheritance.
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Dear reader, no
more clues.
You have to discover it for yourself.
But when you come to
Ibiza, do not leave without moving heaven and earth to
provide yourself with a pair of “espardenyes”
(espadrilles)
typically made of agave fiber.
It will be hard to find them because not too many people make
them nowadays, but it is a unique product of the island and,
that way, you will be taking a little bit of the
heart of
Ibiza with you.
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by IBIZA
GUIDE: Maria Luisa Huerta
Member
of the A.P.I.T.I.F
- Association of
OFFICIAL TOURIST GUIDES for Ibiza and Formentera
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