I have had a long relationship with herons and egrets. It began when I did a canoe trip through the Okeefenokee swamp in Georgia during college. The abundance of long-legged water birds in this wetland could make anyone a life-long bird enthusiast.
Thirteen years later, my mother painted a beautiful design of a great blue heron on a piece of fabric that my fiancee (now wife) Yuri sewed onto the back of the raw silk jacket I wore when we got married.
When I first visited the village of San Francisco on the Maranon River in 2015, I was enchanted seeing their early efforts to weave figures of colorful herons.
It, therefore, seemed appropriate to choose the name Garza Viva (lively heron) for the company and store we opened in Iquitos to sell innovative crafts made by our artisan partners.
At our Artisan Facilitator workshop in Amazonas, the group making the great blue heron finished their first samples by lunch of the second day. Since they didn't have enough chambira with the colors needed to make another blue one, they accepted a challenge to make 3 snowy egrets with small touches of black and yellow.
Four hours later they called me over to show me the four snowy egret ornaments they had lined up on the table. It only took a few seconds to realize I was witnessing a golden moment I had never experienced before. This group had embraced the lessons we had been encouraging to work together to perfection. Before me stood four perfect and identical beautiful birds. There was not a single comment I could offer to help them improve the quality or consistency of their collective creative efforts.
I motioned the group together for a group hug. Pushing through tears and my throat welling up, I could only whisper "gracias." Thank you. I sense they also felt pride for their accomplishment. I sense the experience gave them all a taste of what it felt like to join their heads, hearts and hands.
New groups that made macaws, woodpeckers, and cock of the rock made awesome crafts in days 3 and 4. The aracari group greatly improved their colorful birds in their second try.
Chestnut-eared aracari woven with chambira palm fiber
Blue and gold macaw ornaments woven with chambira palm fiber
Lineated woodpecker ornament woven with chambira palm fiber
Andrea spent months working with this designer and four artisans to make dozens of colorful balsa wood birds and giant chambira butterflies. The birds included an egret, tiger heron, toucan, macaws and a kingfisher. When we stopped at the mall after visiting the aquarium, I loved seeing these creatures twirl around in a mild breeze.
I was most happy to hear the Chino artisans wanted to resume attending our bird ornament workshops. Half of them have made some birds based on what they learned five years ago, but they were eager to improve the quality of these woven animals they could sell to their visitors and have secure sales to us.
I selected a few baskets laid out on benches and placed an order for elegant two-color models. Lindy reported good progress making lady bug ornaments and planned to attend our artisan facilitator training. We were happy the group looked forward to hosting a bird-making workshop in July with artisans from 3 Tahuayo communities.
