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Handmade Wood Mask with Glass Beads, 'Smiling Nature'

Product ID: U79637

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Handmade Wood Mask with Glass Beads, 'Smiling Nature'

Delivery Estimate

This item is available for pre-order and will ship within 2 to 8 weeks. Learn More

Available in 2 to 8 weeks. Learn More

Details

This irresistible smiling mask is crafted by the artisans of the Kamsá Biyá Community in the southern Colombian Andes. In keeping with their cultural and spiritual traditions, they use such masks in ceremonies where they ingest ayahuasca, a native plant with medicinal and psychoactive properties. Artisans carve the mask by hand from basket willow wood, covering one side with tiny black and gold glass beads in elaborate patterns. The Kamsá or Kamëntsá are an indigenous people living in the Sibundoy Valley.

Made in Colombia

  • Basket willow wood, glass beads
  • Intended as wall decor
  • Hand-crafted item -- color, size and/or motif may vary slightly
  • Free Gift Wrap? Yes
  • Premium Gift Wrap? No
  • 0.15 kgs
  • 0.3 lbs
    • 25 cm H x 8 cm W x 4.5 cm D
    • 9.75" H x 3.1" W x 1.8" D
View in metric units View in US/English units

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Kamsá Biyá Community

Meet the Artist

Artfully crafted by Kamsá Biyá Community from Andes.

 

Meet the Artist

Kamsá Biyá Community

Kamsá Biyá Community

"Learn to do something with your hands. Keep them busy so you are not tempted to do harm with them."

"Learn to do something with your hands. Keep them busy so you are not tempted to do harm with them." —Kamsá Biyá... proverb

Galería de Arte Mutumbajoy is an art gallery and workshop located in San Juan de Pasto, a small city in southern Colombia. It is focused on preserving the ancient and ethnic woodwork of the Kamsá Biyá people, a Tribe who inhabits their native land in the Sibundoy Valley of southwestern Colombia.

"The Mutumbajoy Art Gallery has been reviving the Kamsá Biyá people's ancient and ethnic woodwork since its inception," director Carlos Alberto Mutumbajoy says. "Our artisans learned woodcarving from their families, i.e., grandparents and parents, and by observing the work of other community members. Much of the Kamsá Biyá legacy can be seen in cedar woodwork, whereby we carve masks with faces that reflect our own spirit and that of our living and ancestral community. Before starting a craft piece, an artisan will picture a human emotion or visualize an imaginary being's expression to be manifested on the mask. Then he starts carving.

"Our masks are associated with numerous Indigenous rituals and celebrations. For example, in the ancient Yagé ritual, participants use the masks as a medium to communicate with the spirits of their ancestors. And at the Clestrinye Carnival, a yearly carnival that celebrates tribal unity and bountiful harvests, performers wear the masks during traditional dances and live painting sessions.

"Normally, the whole craft process—including carving, dehydration, and veneering—takes a woodworker fifteen days to complete. The beads used to decorate the wood carving are imported from the Czech Republic. During the art gallery's first years, we used native seeds that were collected from the harvest, but due to a community-led seed-conservation initiative, we decided to switch to the use of beads.

"A project the art gallery has been really excited about is our partnership with Fundación Sol de los Andes, a mental health clinic in Pasto Nariño that helps Indigenous youth with substance abuse and addiction. The clinic is known for its unique integration of scientific and ancestral knowledge. From the ancestral standpoint, our artisans teach therapeutic activities such as art therapy, music therapy, and ergotherapy to the clinic's patients. One of these activities is teaching students how to work wood and carve masks. Because our masks have traditionally been used to portray and express human emotions, patients can use the wood as a canvas to literally wood-carve their emotions and, in turn, release some of their trauma."

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Return instructions

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This item is available for backorder and will ship within 2 to 8 weeks. Artists love to get backorders. Placing a backorder ensures that the artisan will do their best to create and deliver your item to our local office for shipment.

Although we cannot guarantee availability, we do expect to be able to fill the order within the timeframe indicated. But sometimes life happens - special materials may not be immediately available to the artist, or there might be some other circumstance beyond our control that could delay the shipment.

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WOMEN S M L XL XXL
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
BUST 35 - 36 37 - 38 39 - 41 42 - 44 46 - 48
WAIST 27 - 28 29 - 30 31 - 33 34 - 36 38 - 40
HIPS 37 - 38 39 - 40 42 - 43 45 - 46 49 - 50
MEN S M L XL XXL
CHEST 36 - 38 39 - 41 42 - 44 46 - 48 50 - 52
WAIST 30 - 32 32 - 34 35 - 37 38 - 41 43 - 45
NECK 14 - 14.5 15 - 15.5 16 - 16.5 17 - 17.5 18 - 18.5
SLEEVE 32.5 33.5 34.5 35.5 36.5
FINDING YOUR SIZE

Take your measurements with the tape measure over your under garments. If your measurements fall between sizes you may prefer the next larger size. Inseam, skirt and dress lengths vary by style and will be listed in the item description. Our sweaters are knit in standard American sizes, however actual measurements vary by style.

BUST / CHEST

Measure around the fullest part of chest under the arms and over the shoulder blades keeping the tape measure level.

WAIST

Measure around the smallest part of the waist keeping the tape measure comfortably loose. Most garments use the low waist measurement noted below.

LOW WAIST

Measure around the body approximately 1.5" below the natural waist (above). This is the area where most pants and skirts actually fit.

HIPS

Standing with your heels together, measure around the fullest part of the body approx 7"-8" below the waist.

NECK

Measure around the base of the neck keeping the tape measure comfortably loose.

SLEEVE

Bend elbow slightly and starting at the center back of the neck, measure across the shoulder, to the elbow and down to the wrist.

INSEAM

Our standard inseam length for women is 32" and 34" for men; however inseam measurements will vary slightly by style.

 

Belts with buckles are measured in inches that correspond to a waist size however, most people do not wear belts on the waist, they wear them closer to the hips. A buckle belt measurement is take from the end of the "pin" of the buckle to the middle hole on the belt. Generally there are 5 holes for size adjustment, with a 1" space between each, so the middle hole will the be average size of the belt.

For at tie belt (no buckle) measure the belt portion end to end and half of the tie portion. This again is the medium size of the belt.

For a soft fabric tie belt it can be called "1 size fits most" and the entire length of the belt should be measured and listed.

See buckle/tie belt size standards below.

WOMEN S M L XL  
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
inches 26 - 30 28 - 32 31 - 35 34 - 38 38 - 42
cm 76 - 86 81.5 - 91.5 86.5 - 96.5 91.5 - 101.5 96.5 - 106.5

+/- tolerance: 0.5 inches or 1.25 cm

MEN S M L XL XXL
inches 30 - 34 32 - 36 35 - 39 39 - 43 43 - 47
cm 81.5 - 91.5 86.5 - 96.5 91.5 - 101.5 96.5 - 106.5 109 - 119

+/- tolerance: 0.5 inches or 1.25 cm

Sash tie length

Lay sash/tie out flat away from the garment and measure from end to end.

Belt with buckle

Measure from the end of the pin of the buckle (where it touches the buckle) to the middle hole.

Belt without buckle

Measure from the belt portion end to end and half of the tie portion. This is will give you the medium size of the belt.

Download our printable ring sizing chart to find the perfect fit!

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