gift guide

Balinese artisan Komang Sulaksana uses natural kupu-kupu leaves, dyed a deep red, to craft the cover on his pretty photo album. Bound with agel grass, the album opens to 20 pages of rice straw paper that hold up to 20 vertical photos. On the cover, a cinnamon stick perfumes the pages with a warm, spiced scent.

Dogs as domesticated pets held a place of importance throughout many of Mexico's pre-Hispanic cultures. Always loyal, the dog was trusted to lead its master's soul to the realm of the dead, for dogs were believed to see spirits. Artisans from the Angel Cerón Artisan Association craft this extraordinary ceramic sculpture, a replica of the museum piece dated between 950 and 1521 AD.

From Gunadi, these decorative bowls showcase the ancient Javanese art of batik. Three centerpieces in graduated sizes are carved from native wadang wood. The motif is called truntum, and represents the jasmine bud. This motif is usually worn by the parents of the bride and groom, as its meaning is "to guide."

The set is for decorative use only.

Guided only by the radiant glow of moonlight, the nocturnal owl takes to the sky, led by her natural instinct to seek a quick meal for her and her young. The fly-by-night nature of the wise bird is captured in this pendant necklace in beautiful detail by Made Wardika. The circular pendant features a smiling crescent-moon hand-carved from bone, with a sterling silver owl family perched beside on a blooming branch. Below sits a faceted one-carat garnet in a setting of Balinese swirls and granules.

Mexico’s Angel Ceron Artisan Association presents a remarkable ceramic figurine that pays homage to the ancient Colima terracotta figurines depicting the Comala dog, a hairless native species known as Xoloitzcuintli, wearing a human face mask. It symbolized a spiritual guide for the deceased's journey to the underworld, a potent symbol of loyalty and a connection to pre-Columbian beliefs about death and the afterlife. These expressive figures served as funerary art in elite tombs, believed to lead souls across a river to the underworld, much like later Huichol beliefs, and sometimes served as a food offering.