Celebrating our new Etsy Store - Panama Art - with a Giveaway!

We opened our new Etsy store a few months ago. It has been loads of fun for the kids to visit the local shop and learn how to bead and macrame. They love making jewelry! It really is an amazing art. No two items are exactly alike.

Meet Eliab and his beautiful wife...he is one of the main designers and artists of our shop! He is from the Kuna tribe and has learned his art from his parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts before him! He even knows his ancient Kuna language as well as Spanish! His cousin sells his jewelry and art at the local Tuesday farmer's market in Boquete!



The Panamenos here are so talented you can even have a name beaded into a bracelet! We have lots of new items to share and it is high time for a giveaway! Check out some of the new items we will be adding to our store this week!

Hand painted feathers...

Beautiful macrame necklaces with stones and other types of necklaces made out of local seeds and tagua .

What is tagua? It is a nut that comes from a tree that is similar to a palm tree. It is also know as a kind of ivory. This is what the seeds look like before they are shaped and shined. ( Sorry the teacher in me couldn't resist to give you a little tagua lesson:)

Here is what they look like after they are prepared for jewelry.

Here are some beautiful butterfly necklaces...(perfect for our butterfly unit:)

Hand beaded bracelets...



Beautiful hand made molas...





Now for our giveaway! You can win one of these hand- made Chaquira glass beaded bracelets.   These are made by local Indigenous Indians of Chiriqui, Panama. One bracelet can take many hours of work. The triangular pattern is representative of the mountains that surround the area and are a beading pattern of the Ngobe. The flat Panama and shape patterns are characteristic bead work of the Kuna Indians.



Which one is your favorite? ( I am kind of partial to the flowers:)




Can't you just see yourself sharing some of this amazing art with your students, friends, family, &...????

Every time I see these beads it reminds me of the beads Laura would find on the ground in The Little House on the Prairie books!

I love the fact that the Indians here are not assimilated into the culture completely. They still walk around town in their traditional dress and some still can speak their tribe's language! Not only that, many are still artists making their crafts that their ancestors have made for generations before them! I am so glad to know these amazing people and to be able to share their art with you!

So what are you waiting for ??? Enter the giveaway so you can win!

The Indians of Panama Grupos Indígenas de Panamá

Today I wanted to share a little about the local Indian population that still lives here.  They are an ancient people group that have blended with other people groups around them but have still been able to maintain their culture and languages.

The Panamian Indians Or "the indigenous " people of Panama make up about 8% of the total population of Panama.  There are approximately  nine tribes here.  They are classified into seven different types of cultures.  They are called the Kunas, Ngobe, Buglé, Emberá, Wounaan, Talamanca, Bokotas, Teribes and Cricamola.  The comarca Indigegna is the official territory given to the Indigenous peoples here.

Something I think is a really neat characteristic of Boquete, Panama is the distinct presence of Indigenous peoples everywhere.  They wear distinct clothing.  Some of the clothing is representative of their tribes.  Others have meanings through the colors and shapes that they are adorned with.








These are hand beaded necklaces done by the Choco and Ngobe Indians in Panama. The beads are made of coral, seed or plastic beads. They are called Chaquiras.  They have been handcrafted here for hundreds of years, maybe longer.

This particular necklace has the characteristic shapes of triangles that represent the mountains here in Panama with the red representative of the blood shed in the early 1900's when the Spanish came to Panama.  (This was told to me by the indigenous artist of this particular piece - Eliab Davis of  Tienda Davis)

You can visit him here in his local shop in Boquete, in the Los Establos  shopping area.  He sells various different types of Indigenous art.  At his store you can also find molas, jewelry, beaded works, wood works, clothing, and more. This is a mola...

and a squirrel  carved out of  a coconut!

This is the plaza where his store is


and this  a picture in front of his store...


and a peak inside:)  You can also visit our etsy shop if you can´t make it to Panama!


Below are pictures we took on a local Field Trip.

These are called the Guaca mountains by the locals...

These are petroglyphs here in Boquete, Panama.

 We were only able to see two of the four today.  The others are on private property and we were not able to see them.

We were told they were maps or guides that are about 1000 years old.  The circular sections are pictures of mountains.  The wandering lines are possible pictures of trails or local rivers . 

Both of these places are great Family Friendly Field Trips!  You can learn and see the hand crafted items of the indigenous and see real artifacts over 1000 years old!  I hope you get to visit.  I love to hear your comments if you get to go visit:) 

Hope you enjoyed learning a little more about the local people here:) 

If your interested in a teacher giveaway or two you can find some good ones here, just click on the pictures below!

As the locals say here,  "Chow":)