Nicaragua had long been a destination of mine. Years before, looking for adventure in unknown places, I literally spun a globe to choose where I'd go. My finger landed on a small island in the Caribbean off Nicaragua's eastern shore - Little Corn Island.
I've been back so many times that the faces of the island are familiar and Granada feels like another home. Taking in the pulse of the plaza and getting lost in a mercado quickly became my favorite things to do. On each of those trips, I shipped home countless souvenirs and collectibles. The more I visited, the more refined and specific my choices became. My favorite travel companion, CJ, was always impressed with what I sent home and encouraged me to get more. He'd never been to Nicaragua and I was excited to get his take on everything the artisans made.
As I generally do at the beginning of each trip, we visited the Mercado de Artesenias in Masaya. Here is where you get the best sense of the country's crafts. You can also get a very good sense of what styles, colors and techniques are new. The nearby town of San Juan de Oriente is a community of artists and many of them bring their latest batch of goods to sell to these market vendors. They specialize in all sorts of ceramics and that's what we were after!
Almost immediately, CJ called out a vase near a young vendor. I had never seen this style before; the design and use of color was new to me -- and to the vendor, who was excited to purchase this the day before. We took a photo of this piece and the signature on the bottom and headed immediately to San Juan de Oriente. We were on a hunt to find an artist to work with and knew we needed to find them.
In the village we just began asking everyone we saw if they knew the artists. Sharing our photos, nobody seemed to recognize the style or the names. Walking street after street, up hills and back down and a few false leads. Eventually, we were pointed around a corner and toward a doorway near the only bar in town. The door was open and we peeked in... recognizing the vases on a shelf near the doorway. We found them!
The family of Aracely Salazar and Félix Bracamonte have been making ceramics in their home for generations. As husband and wife, they create and sign each piece together. The pieces we liked so much were a recent departure from their typical style and they were excited to have sold the latest batch to several local markets. Their shelves were nearly empty and they had little to sell us. We decided to place an order for whatever they could produce in the week we would be in the country.
Nothing shows your lack of a language than negotiating! My Spanish has improved quite a bit since, but I quickly realized I'd need a translator... who happened to be in the bar next door. That's how I met Luis, which is another story altogether.
We learned that the day we wandered into their home, Aracely and Félix had actually planned to take their two young daughters on a trip to the beach using some of the money they just earned. The bus they were scheduled to take broke down and they were unable to catch another, so the trip had to be postponed. Later that morning, we walked into town looking for them. They called this a blessing in disguise since we’ve now developed a great relationship and have since placed much larger orders with them.
In case you’re wondering, the original piece that struck our attention that day in the market is the piece we now call Cascada, in blue.
