Taller de Creatividad

Nacio para esto. Tu, tambien, naci para esto. - You, like me, were born for this kind of work. -Margarita

In partnership with Green Design Link, we recently held our first experiment in teaching design and creativity to local artisan leaders. The theme of the workshop was to use nature to inspire and inform new design. 

La inspiración para diseñar cosas nuevas se encuentra en todos tus alrededores. - Inspiration for new design is all around you.

We went shopping in the local markets to grab fruits and flowers to remind the artisans to start paying more attention to items they encounter everyday. 

And covered the workshop walls with Peruvian plants, animals, and landscapes.

The session was designed for the artisans’ context recognizing:

• that time at the workshop was time away from home and familial responsibilities, and therefore, needed to be high impact and limited.

• that I needed to develop a theme/assignment that was authentic to the artisans’ access to information or lack thereof

• that our workshop would be held simultaneously with the chaos of winter production taking place in the room next door

• that the artisans’ regular tools and mediums wouldn’t all translate to creating during the workshop (i.e. knitting machines, and large looms)

But, I neglected the basics. It never occurred to me that most of the artisans had never even had an opportunity to use a paintbrush.

And, for a moment, they did hesitate with the paint and with the assignment. But by the end of the session, every single artisan explored color, texture, or pattern using paint.

We never had any opportunities to learn design or any other profession when we were growing up. We could only sew. We are so excited for this. - Margarita