Professor of Object Design conducts training in Esmeraldas

Teacher of the School of Design of Objects trained 25 artisans of communities of the province of Esmeraldas that are dedicated to the crafts in straw shawl and chocolatillo.

The project was carried out within the framework of the cooperation agreement between the Inter-American Center of Popular Arts (CIDAP) and the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Art of the University of Azuay.

It was CIDAP that requested the support of a teacher from the School and the training was held in late July and early August, with work days of 8 hours per day.

"We talked about the importance of identity, creative techniques and design, the importance of cultural context and creative exercises with paper, also reviewed images of various objects made with straw shawl and other natural fibers," explained Alfredo Cabrera and added:

"At the end we worked on experimental proposals with straw shawls that are attached to the objects that they use every day and that meet their needs."

In order to establish good communication with the artisans, it was necessary to take into account that -although they speak Spanish- the most used language in their area is the chapalá. Many of the indications were translated although not always the teacher knew what kind of translation was.

"When I said something, there always appeared some restraint that I repeated it in chapalá and they laughed, I assume that they did have fun in my ribs," recalls Alfredo with a smile.

"We had to be clear that we did not teach Design, we taught techniques to improve creativity, maintaining the identity but looking for new needs in the users", concluded the professor.

The next training will be between the 4 and the 8 of September in Pichincha.