Colombian handicraft

Handicraft

Handicraft, more precisely expressed as artisanic handicraft, sometimes also called artisanry, is a type of work where useful and decorative devices are made completely by hand or by using only simple tools. It is a traditional main sector of craft. Usually the term is applied to traditional means...

history can be traced back to the stone age

Stone Age

The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...

 to the lithic

Stone tool

A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric, particularly Stone Age cultures that have become extinct...

 instruments in El Abra

El Abra

El Abra is an archaeological excavation site, located in the valley of the same name, east of the city of Zipaquirá, department Cundinamarca, Colombia; in the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, at an altitude of 2,570 m...

 stadial

Stadial

A stadial is a period of lower temperatures during an interglacial separating the glacial periods of an ice age. Such periods are of insufficient duration or intensity to be considered glacial periods...

. Some of the first pottery

Pottery

Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

 samples known in Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 were found in the Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

 3 — Pottery Neolithic (PN) Zipacón

Zipacón

Zipacón is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca....

 settlements. The earliest examples of goldwork have been attributed to the Tumaco

Tumaco

Tumaco is a port city and municipality in the Nariño Department, Colombia, by the Pacific Ocean. It is located on the southwestern of Colombia, near to border with Ecuador, and enjoys of hot tropical climate...

 people of the Pacific coast and date to around 325 BCE. Gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 would play a pivotal role in luring the Spanish to the area now called Colombia during the 16th century (See: El Dorado

El Dorado

El Dorado is the name of a Muisca tribal chief who covered himself with gold dust and, as an initiation rite, dived into a highland lake.Later it became the name of a legendary "Lost City of Gold" that has fascinated – and so far eluded – explorers since the days of the Spanish Conquistadors...

).

Colombian arts and crafts

Arts and crafts

Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into handicrafts or "traditional crafts" and "the rest"...

 can be categorised into two major divisions:

Contemporary/Modern

patina

Patina

Patina is a tarnish that forms on the surface of bronze and similar metals ; a sheen on wooden furniture produced by age, wear, and polishing; or any such acquired change of a surface through age and exposure...

 products, puzzle toys, macramé

Macramé

Macramé or macrame is a form of textile-making using knotting rather than weaving or knitting. Its primary knots are the square knot and forms of "hitching": full hitch and double half hitches...

 (knot crafts), fique

Fique

Fique is a natural fibre that grows in the leaves of the fique plant, Furcraea andina, a xerophytic monocot native to Andean regions of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. From here it was extended to Venezuela and the east coast of Brazil. Common names: Fique, Cabuya, Pita, Penca, Maguey, Cabui,...

products, leather products, modern silver jewellery gift ware, decorative items, dolls & puppets, bead Crafts, bone & horn pharoducts, natural buttons etc. are some of the modern forms of Colombian handicrafts.