#brillo nuevo

[amazonecology]

Bringing artisans together and getting out of the way

Bringing artisans together and getting out of the way

Ampiyacu skill-sharing workshop. Photo by Campbell Plowden/CACE

One of CACE’s most successful programs working with artisans in the Ampiyacu River region has been to organize skill-sharing workshopswhere five or six veteran artisans show other artisans how to make a new special kind of handicraft.  While these workshops have steadily increased the number of native artisans who know how to make…

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[amazonecology]

Producing the first essential oil from rosewood trees at Brillo Nuevo

Producing the first essential oil from rosewood trees at Brillo Nuevo

Heliconia flower montage at Brillo Nuevo. Photo by Campbell Plowden/CACE

Three years ago we began an exciting joint project with our partner Camino Verde by planting almost 1000 seedlings of rosewood trees in the Bora native community of Brillo Nuevo (see Global Giving Report #8). Our aim was to help families create a long-term sustainable source of income by carefully harvesting leaves and…

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[amazonecology]

Listening to artisans in the Ampiyacu

Listening to artisans in the Ampiyacu

Angelina Torres and her family of artisans in the Bora community of Brillo Nuevo. Photo by Campbell Plowden/CACE

The Center for Amazon Community Ecology aims to promote conservation, create sustainable livelihoods and build stronger communities in the Peruvian Amazon by helping native and mestizo artisans to develop and market innovative handicrafts and novel essential oils.

We began working with…

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Breakthroughs with three artisan communities - October 15, 2015

Breakthroughs with three artisan communities – October 15, 2015

Bora artisan planting chambira seedling in 2013. Photo by Campbell Plowden/CACE

We have had growing success helping artisans in the Ampiyacu develop and market innovative handicrafts, but our efforts to catalyze significant reforestation of chambira palms used to make woven crafts has been frustratingly slow.  While we have also promised to reinvest part of our craft sales in the US to support…

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Ines – the laughing and feisty artisan from Brillo Nuevo - July 27, 2015

Ines – the laughing and feisty artisan from Brillo Nuevo – July 27, 2015

Ines lighting copal incense. Photo by Campbell Plowden/CACE

I first became aware of Ines during my second visit to the Bora native community of Brillo Nuevo in 2009 because she was enthusiastic about everything.  When we first tried to make incense candles from copal resin, she immediately got her hands blackened with the burnt sticky stuff and suggested they might look nice in the half-shells of…

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Guisador (Curcuma longa) - the golden yellow dye plant

Guisador (Curcuma longa) – the golden yellow dye plant

Curcuma longais a herbaceous perennial plant in the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) whose rhizomes (roots) are used to dye fibers and foods yellow and to make a spice/medicine (turmeric). The plant originally came from India, but it is now widely used as well throughout the Amazon. Native and campesino artisans from Peru usually call this plant “guisador” and use it to transform white chambira palm…

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[amazonecology]

Grasshoppers and other critters in a Peruvian Amazon field

by Campbell Plowden

Our mission for the day was to check on the status of rosewood seedlings…

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[amazonecology]

Bora artisans make new hair barrettes for CACE

This summer the Center for Amazon Community Ecology (CACE) worked with a dozen native artisans from…

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