The XXXIX Canary Islands Craft Fair opened its doors at the Fairgrounds, located in the Chicharrera capital, last Tuesday and, until tomorrow, you can still admire and purchase the various artisan products exhibited in a total of 140 stands of up to 53 different trades from all the islands, such as openwork, weaving, basket weaving, pottery or cigar making, to chandlery, soap making, jewelry or crochet, among many others, as well as food products, such as sweets, cheeses, honey or oils.
In this way, you can find everything from the most traditional crafts of Canarian culture to crafts that are committed to innovation, drawing on traditional crafts to evolve towards new artisanal creations.
This 39th edition of the fair, organized by the Cabildo of Tenerife and the Government of the Canary Islands, It can be visited from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., with free entry. This year it is dedicated to weaving.
Ana Denis comes from La Palma and is, at almost 80 years old, one of the embroiderers who keeps the trade alive, which she learned when she was about 12 or 13 years old. “I learned alone because it was a way to earn money, and then I took courses. It is a profession that is being lost,” she says, since she does not see the youth interested in continuing, “and the old one is already retiring.” “Fairs like this help you, because they pay for your ticket and hotel. “I come from La Palma, but people buy very little,” she admits.
Alfredo García, who has been making traditional pottery since 2012 with his wife in Puerto de la Cruz, is another of the artisans who recognizes that “traditional crafts are being lost.” “We don’t see continuity, because right now all of us who are in pottery are of a certain age, from 50 up, and there are hardly any young people,” he points out. In addition, to this is added that the majority of people “do not buy, right now, as the situation is, things are weak.”
Likewise, this artisan considers that “all fairs help, but we have to do more advertising and perhaps remove it from the Fairgrounds and put it in another more attractive place,” and adds that “a little more help would be needed through the Government to promote tradition and that it is not lost.”
Roxana Vega has been in charge of La Patrona Puros for 15 years, in Candelaria: “I joined just at the time when all the smoking prohibition laws began, so it has been a bit uphill. I have had quite a few adversities, but I have been overcoming them and I am one of the few that remain, nowadays there are not so many cigar rollers.” She acknowledges that her business is doing well, and that she also makes shipments to the Peninsula and works for weddings, but admits that “the youth, today, is not interested in crafts, we are becoming older people.”
Innovation
But at the fair you can also find more innovative craftsmanship, which draws on traditional crafts to offer new creations, such as Síbisse Fayna, 36, with her jewelry brand. “I work with the filigree technique, which is very old, and I use enameled copper and the enamel is a protector, so it doesn’t cause allergies or rust, and sterling silver. And then I have another electrochemical technique, where I also work with sterling silver and pure copper,” she explains. She considers that “thanks to traditional craftsmanship it has been possible to evolve into something more modern; In fact, in my case, my base is a very old technique and it has allowed me to renew it in another way.” “I think there should be a balance between one and the other, but it is true that more and more artisans are being seen with different creativity and ideas and that also brings a renewed air to the fair,” she points out.
Lorena Neumann is another young woman who has opted to give a new look to the candle shop with her brand of candles Iranti Candles, from Lanzarote. “Traditional chandlery is always very popular, what happens is that times are changing and we are moving towards another point of view and that today’s public can connect through other types of candles,” she explains. Thus, she affirms that “logically” craftsmanship has to evolve and, furthermore, “we have entered a stage in which sustainability” also plays a very important role.
In this sense, she makes candles “from low-melting soy wax and when I flavor I make pure essential oil, which is also something new, because it is normally flavored with synthetic. What I really do with the brand is use crystal therapy and ethnobotany.”
But there are still young people who decide to bet on the continuity of more traditional crafts, like Francisco Santana, 28 years old, who is dedicated to traditional weaving. “I was immersed in the world of folklore and one year I decided to talk to a lifelong weaver from Tenerife, Tomás Hernández Negrín, so that he could teach me, and that’s where I stayed. I dedicate myself to making fabrics for folklore: skirts, vests, sashes, jerkins, and other related things,” he explains. He still recognizes that, although he has an audience, “which is very small because they are the people who are dedicated to folklore,” weaving is “one of the trades that is on the verge of disappearing.” “People have to love it so that the craft lasts, not just the traditional one but all weaving,” he points out.
Weaving
Precisely, this XXXIX edition is dedicated to weaving. For this reason, within the institutional stand there is a space where a loom is installed so that the weaving artisans, both participants and guests, can work on site, making, among other things, traditional costumes.
In addition, a screen has been placed on which images and videos are projected that have been contributed by all the Councils in relation to the topic. The exhibition space also includes artisanal pieces made with the weaving trade that have been awarded by the Government of the Canary Islands.
In the Archipelago there are 87 trades declared as artisans, according to the current repertoire of trades, approved by Autonomous Decree in 2011. Of those 87, 43 are declared as traditional and 31 as trades at risk of disappearance.
