Panama's handicrafts
The Wounaan and Emberá in the Darién create carvings of jungle wildlife from cocobolo , a handsome tropical hardwood, and tiny figurines from the ivory-colored tagua nut. Image of carved tagua nut by brian.gratwicke The Emberá and Wounaan are most renowned for producing beautiful woven baskets of incredibly high quality. There are two types: the utilitarian and the decorative. The utilitarian baskets are made primarily from the chunga palm, but can contain bits of other plants, vines, bark and leaves. They are usually woven, using various plaiting techniques, from single plant strips of coarse texture and great strength, and are rarely dyed. These baskets are often used for carrying seeds or harvesting crops. The decorative baskets are much more refined, usually featuring many different colors and are created from palm materials of the nahuala bush and the chunga palm. The dyes are 100%...