Introduction Ceramics Cigars Textile Baskets Wood Silk

1. Introduction

La Palma came part of Spain and the spanish influence after being conquered in 1493. Due to the long isolation, adapted techniques have been conserved for long times. Today, many of those techniques are still alive and used for the manufacturing of many different products.

2. Ceramics

Ceramics are very important and popular on la Palma but this tradition has to be recovered in the 70d because it was neraly wiped out before. Most popular is potery made in the colors of the islan red, yellow and mainly black. Those products often are decorated with line symbols from the guanches. But also scraps which are made to decorato them. Many shapes are dating back to the conquest. They are also quite different than other canarian potery.The restart of the production of ceramics are in 1975 in the city of Mazo. In an old windmill "El Molino". Emigrants from Venezuela came back and ceramics, which had almost been lost, becaim an important money streem. Today, the manufacturing "El Molino" is producing more than 100 different products with many shapes.El Molino is open from Monday to Saturday from 09:00h till 13:00h and from 15:00h till 19:00h. Telephone number 44 02 13.

3. Cigars

Cigars production has been imported in the late 14. Century when emigrants came back from Cuba. They imported the techniques to la Palma. The good image of Palmerian cigars are dating back to 1862 where Esteban Abreu Lacouona won a silver medal in Gran Canaria for his cigar.The seeds for Palmerian cigars came from Cuba in the frorties and they are known as pelo de oro. The manufacturing of cigars is for many families an important part of their incom. Many cubanian words around cigar production have also been imported and are still in use such as sorullo, which means fool person today but was the word for the soft part of the tabaco leaves.A tabacco manufacturing site in El Paso which mostly made cigarettes from many kind of brands was bought by a Japanese investor in 2000 was centraliced to Germany and closed down end of 2000. Aproximately 200 Palmeros lost their jobs.

4. Baskets

Basket production is the oldest craftmanship on the island. There are many different shapes of baskets existing. The baskets maker have been traditionally men, but also women are more and more opting for this. Local materials such as afollado an endemic bush, tagasaste - also an endemic bush loved by the goats - as well as chestnut's fibres and others are used in the production process. Palmeros do look for good quality and therefore take an eye for the landscape where the material is harvested but also when the material is obtained. Not only the month is important but also the moon would be taken into consideration.

5. Textile

Somewhere in the sixteen century the loom was introduced in la palma and changed the production of cloths originally made of leather and vegetable fibres dramatically towards wool, silk and linen. Today, it is not possible anymore go gain enough money to live from textile production therefore those techniques are close to forgotten. Embroidery still is alive. A statistic going back to 1945 says that out of the sixty thousand inhabitans of the island more than twent thousand women have dedicated time to embroidery. Still today most of the women on la Palma can embroid. Typical clothes can be found in Breña Baja, Julia A. Caprera Pérez, San José 182. Tel. 43 42 45 or in Sta. Cruz Avd. El Puente 48 pta. 56. Maria Esther Espinosa Hernández. You can also get more information in the Cabildo Insular de La Palma, Craftmanship department Tel 442 31 00.

6. Wood

After being conquered, a deforstation of the island began. The wood has been used for the production of roofs, houses and ships. This devasting deforstation was brought to the attention in 1866/1867 where many articles in the newspaper "El Time" criticized the general and the slow destruction of the island and especially of its forests.Today you will find many productions from Wood, for example the balconies which are a must on the traditional houses. The technique of Canarian roofs still are used while building new houses. A nice example is the airport of la Palma where a very big canarian roof is build over all the counters.

7. Silk

Portuquese as well as andalusian techniques of textile after the conquest. For many years the silk production increased and helped the economy of the island to improve. Palmerian silk and silk products has been exported to Spain but also to Flandres and the old empire of Austrians. But by the end of the eighteenth century, those activities started do decrease. Palmeros used cotton for making their clothes. Despite of this, by the nineteenth century, a textile industry equipped with new machines and also new techniques was built on the island. An old machine can be seen in the Museo Insular in the old San Francisco convent in Sta. Cruz de la Palma. On la Palma, the silk production is still in the way as they did in the middle ages.At the beginning of this century, natural dyes was substituted by chemical ones exept one made with almond shells but in the 80's, those dyes were recovered again and many optained from more than 80 endemic plants started being unsed again for example eucalyptus to obtain a grey color.Main Products are corsets and firdles for the typical dress of the island as well as foulards, ties, scarfs shirts.

Impressum