Linden art and craft designers in hot competition with foreign items

By Vanessa Braithwaite
In every Guyanese home, housewives are looking to give their living rooms a face lift with new ornaments and over all décor. Ticked off on many lists are flowers, vase, table bottles, centre tables, wall pictures, corner stands etc. In recent years however, we have seen the advent in decorating styles and for many 21st century housewives, less is defined as more. It is about quality, oppose to quantity and elegance oppose to iridescent colours. Homes now are no longer filled with lots of flowers and low-end decoration, leaving limited space for family members to even walk comfortably, but are sparsely and elegantly decorated with high end décor such as table bottles and other ornaments, oppose to floral, greenery and other stem like particles, oppose to flower petals, amongst others.

Keeping up with this revolution however, are local art and craft designers, who are making it easier for housewives to source their décor, with durable and locally sourced material, opposed to synthetic and foreign items. One of these is popular designer, Monica Higgins, who has been evolving her designs to suit the needs of housewives. Her luxurious, unique and elegant designs of floor and table vases, table bottles along with other locally made ornaments, are a must have for the living room, for the holidays.

Many decades ago, Monica was sitting in her home and decided to experiment with some waste material that she had previously discarded and that decision has landed her many years of success in the local craft industry. “My mom was abroad and she use to send home these little things and you know kids would just play with them but I would just sweep them under the table and one day I say let me check these things and I realised it was fabric paint and that is where it started, no body taught me to do this,” Monica related.

Little do the housewives know, that many of her luxuriant designs are made from items sources right in her yard or close by, items that are often discarded and it is therefore safe to say that her designs are from trash to treasure. “I make things out of coconut shell, coreo seeds, and pieces of wood, it’s like from trash to treasure, it’s like from ordinary into extraordinary because we do throw away these coconut shells and these things and you know when you see them in the yard you look at them and right away you get ideas on what you can do with these things,” she explained.

Realising that she is ‘moving on up’ with her designs, Monica has been showcasing same at every exhibition and event possible, the latest being at the Region Ten Tourism Exhibition. There she joined many other local designers who are providing stiff competition for imported craft items, especially during this festive season.

Another of these is Lindener Sonia Sanchara- Profitt who has specialised in table bottles for the Christmas season. She is recycling regular wine and champagne bottles and is transforming them into beautifully arrayed ornaments for only $3,000. Her neutral choice of colours would allow them to fit in with the already purchased curtains and florals.
It was only two years ago, that Sonia started the bottle design business as a hobby and now it is her Christmas hustle, as she would have raked in dozens of customers during this time. As Higgins, Profitt sources her decorative materials, right in her home. She spray paints the bottles, then designs them with marbles, decorative stones, ribbons, beaded chains, flowers, sticks, Christmas balls and the seed of our National Flower. The hard work of these designer, truly shows that even decor for the Christmas can and must be sourced locally, since they are not only beautiful, but durable.