Paraguay's Craftsmen Still Produce Filigree Gold

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30809, 22 July 1965, Page 12

Paraguay's Craftsmen Still Produce Filigree Gold

(N-.Z. PA.-Reuter) ASUNCION (Paraguay) Modern production methods have not yet reached the craftsmen who produce Paraguay’s famous filigree gold and other handwork. But social changes are beginning to have their effect. Today more than 300 small workshops throughout this city work in much the same way as they did 100 years ago. They usually consist of one man with a shop window on the street and his workshop and living quarters behind. The goldsmith makes traditional filigree earrings and other jewellery, often to order, when not serving customers in the front shop. Typical of this one-man operation is Mr Amudio Caceres who has set up shop recently on one of Asuncion’s main streets. He buys his gold in small bars as and when he needs it. and works with machinery which dates back to last century. The most modern piece of equipment is a footoperated blow torch with which he heats the metal. When warm, the gold is cast

into tube-shaped moulds and then passed through rollers which gradually spin it into fine wire, as thm as the threads of a spider’s web. The ancient cast-iron moulds appear incapable of producing the delicate flower and leaf shapes typical of Paraguayan jewellery. Day’s Work On an average. Mr Caceres will take the whole day to make one pair of earrings. The most popular line is probably a special ring made up

of some eight small circles of gold which can be separated and twisted apart to form a bracelet. Such a combination takes about three hours of careful work if the goldsmith works fast and has no interruptions in the front shop. The return for such skill is not large. Most buyers are local Paraguayans, who pay less than the occasional tourist But even a tourist can buy a set of hand-made filigree gold earrings for less than £3. The same sort of workmanship would command five times that price in any capital in Europe. Paraguayan harps, a cross between a modern harp and a guitar, are also made entirely by local craftsmen from local wood. Of excellent quality, these instruments sell locally for one quarter of the price they would fetch in the United States. Order For Guitars One small factory, which produces about three harps and a dozen guitars a week, was recently offered an order from the United States. But the owner turned it down. He had been asked to turn out 500 guitars a year, but felt that this would be impossible. “How could 1 expand my factory with the little capital I have and keep up the quality?” he asked. Fine lace, nanduti, is also suffering because local production cannot keep up with demand. Similar in workman-

ship to Brussels lace, or the fine lacework produced from pineapple fibre in the Philippines, nanduti is usually made by families who work at home. Experts say that quality is suffering because the families need more money to supplement their incomes and are using thicker thread to produce the same amount of lace. But in spite of this, a tablecloth large enough to cover a dining table seating eight persons can still be bought for less than £lO. Many Paraguayans are worried lest these arts slowly die out as the craftsman becomes less content with what he receives for his work. More and more visitors to these small goldsmiths are people who want their watches or some other mechanical device repaired. Changes Expected Although the stubborn individualism of the Paraguayan will probably help to keep the small workshops alive, many Paraguayans feel that changes will have to come.

Whether the crafts can be maintained with the advance of mechanisation is a doubtful question. As one prominent Paraguayan commented: “We shall probably all have to adjust to the time when the local goldsmith will stop producing jewellery and turn to repairing television sets.” However, at the moment there is no television station in the country.