art decor

A long process ensures a high-quality design handcrafted in Nicaragua by Arlen Estrada, drawing inspiration from the ancient pottery works of the region. The artisan works with ceramic to form a fish-shaped vase, ideal for adding a mystic touch to your home decor.

Pre-Hispanic motifs cover a vase of smooth terracotta, and the stylized face of a fox emerges from it. Taught by their father, Gregorio Bracamonte, Bracamonte Family artisans craft this handsome design. Inspired by Nicaragua's legendary pre-Hispanic ceramics, the vessel takes its colors from crushed stones mixed with slip.

Nicaraguan artisan Miguel Angel Calero handcrafts this decorative ceramic vase with a wide-mouthed round bowl. The vase is glazed a mottled brown for the background and red in the design from pigments made from cobalt oxides and pulverized rock. The artisan etches the surface to reveal the natural sand color of the ceramic and creates images of Quetzalcóatl, the feather-headed serpent deity representing man's duality--the serpent symbolizing the physical limitations of the human body and the feathers symbolizing spirituality.

The stunning colors of this decorative vase are achieved by pulverizing rocks to obtain natural pigments that are mixed with water and then set on the vase with the help of traditional wood-burning brick kilns. Costa Rica's Nury Marchena masters the ancient Chorotega pottery technique and crafts a lovely ceramic vase featuring abstract motifs as well as a pair of toucans perching on a tree branch.

This ceramic decorative vase is handcrafted by Chorotega pottery artisan Harry García of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. The round vase is hand-painted with bands of dark brown featuring a variety of linear and geometric motifs whose etching lets the natural ceramic sand color show through.

Chorotega pottery is completely handmade with traditional techniques passed down through the generations for 3,000 years, and one of the last surviving cultural elements of the Chorotega people indigenous to Costa Rica’s Guanacaste region and Nicoya Peninsula. Chorotega pottery is made from local clay mixed with a very fine freshwater sand. The artisans shape the clay on hand-operated pottery wheels and hand-polish the art piece to give it a smooth texture and luster. Designs are etched by hand and the pieces are painted with natural pigments made from pulverized local colored rocks mixed with water, then fired in traditional wood-burning brick kilns. The result is a beautiful, earthen pottery unique to this region.

Walking on three legs, an ancient serpent coils around the neck of this ceramic vessel. Interlaced spirals crown the mysterious creature with its long fangs and dark, intelligent eyes. Arlen Estrada finds endless fascination in Nicaragua's pre-Historic past. She conveys years of research in her ceramics, which masterfully reinterpret ancestral motifs, colors and legends.

Inspired by the mixture of pre-Hispanic cultures that characterizes Nicaragua, Arlen Estrada designs a stunning decorative vase to add to your home decor. The round vase is handcrafted of ceramic in earth tones, and features the image of two figures in relief holding hands. This design is repeated on the reverse side. The vase stands atop a hollow base with beautiful cutwork. Says Estrada, "I love crafting these pieces, since they have a touch of Nicaraguan ceramics, and they show scenes of our ancestors from their daily lives."