Art Crafted from Recyclables Handwoven Textiles, Tierra Wools, Inc. Handwoven Textiles, Jose Isabel Quiroz Garcia Industrial Technology and Traditional Knowledge |
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The following is an interview transcription from the 1998 Smithsonian Folklife Festival with participant, Dolores Venegas, an artist who crafts art from recyclables. Translation and interview by presenter and interpreter, Juanita Garza. Dolores Venegas is referred to as DV and Juanita Garza as JG in this transcription.* | |
Science,
Technology & Invention in The Rio Grande: Crafting Art From Recyclables |
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JG: Que vas a
hacer hoy en la mañana? DV: Voy a hacer una corona de muertos, con flores la hoja de maíz reciclable. JG: Dolores is making a corona or a wreath for placing at the cemetery at a gravesite. She starts off by using a styrofoam base and then she will use different materials to make the corona. DV: Son de diferentes colores. Se lleva naranja, rosa, morado. La tradición para El Dia de Muertos casi solo usamos el negro y naranja y morado. JG: Dolores says that the corona will be very colorful. It will be in orange, red and purple. Traditionally for the Day of the Dead they are orange with black ribbon. DV: Usamos hojas de maíz para hacer tipo de corona navideña o para hacer un esta corona de muertos. JG: Dolores also uses the corn-shucks to make Christmas flowers -- sometimes for the wreaths but more often for decorations or other types of decorations, and for the Christmas poinsettia. DV: Cuando vamos a hacer una corona de hoja de maíz, usamos pintura, alambre, cartoncillo. JG: For creating the corn-shuck flower she uses paints, depending on the color she wants to use, wire, and maybe cardboard. DV: De cosa reciclables uso el sobrante de la bolsa de dispensa para hacer flores. JG:
Dolores uses a lot of recyclable materials. She is
showing me the little tabs that hold the plastic bags
together [these tabs are left over from plastic grocery
bags] that she then makes into flowers that may be
different colors. The plastic that she has here is
yellow. And so a lot of the materials that Dolores uses
are throwaway things.
Its really ingenious how Dolores has used the things that people throw away to make commodities that are sellable because they are really pretty. The piñata--she made that piñata--that piñata she made in three or four days. She starts off with a balloon and inflated balloon--that one took two balloons--one for the head and one for the body. And then the rest of it is simply newspaper that has been shaped to create the clown. It is a gorgeous looking piñata. * transcription edited for clarity |
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