Jaguar - Hand Carved Gourd Ornament
This new handmade Jaguar ornament highlights the skill of our Peruvian partners and our in-house design team. Shop this exclusive design for your store. Designed and hand-crafted by artists in Peru, our fair trade gourd ornaments bring a modern flair to a 4,000-year-old traditional hand-carving and burning technique. These ready to hang ornaments average 2”-2.5” tall. Details will vary as nature and the artists intended. Price displayed is for one.
A Lucuma Designs exclusive. Copyright 2024. All rights reserved.
Peruvian Gourd Tradition
A humble fruit becomes a canvas for storytelling.
For thousands of years, Peruvians have transformed gourds into useful and expressive objects, using them to store food, make music, celebrate life’s moments, and tell stories.
In the Andean village of Cochas, in Peru’s Mantaro Valley, this tradition is still very much alive. Artists use the dried shell of the mate, or gourd, as a natural 3D canvas, carving intricate designs with a fine tool called buril. Their motifs are often inspired by nature, daily life, celebrations, and imagination.
Each gourd is shaped by nature and finished by hand, becoming an ornament, box, or keepsake with a character and story all its own.
Peruvian Craft Traditions
What makes Peruvian craft traditions special is the extraordinary continuity between ancient culture and contemporary artistry. For thousands of years, Peruvian makers have refined techniques in carving, knitting, pottery, weaving, and jewelry making, passing their knowledge from one generation to the next.
Inspired by a rich cultural heritage that includes ancient civilizations such as Caral, Machu Picchu, the treasures of Sipán, Paracas, or the Nazca Lines, today’s artisans continue to reinterpret traditional materials, symbols, and techniques in new and creative ways. The result is craft that feels deeply rooted in tradition while alive and evolving.
Lucuma Designs is proud to work with talented Peruvian artists and help preserve craft traditions, skills, and knowledge that have endured for generations.