Switzerland · Mask making; Carnival craft; Swiss heritage
Basler Fasnacht — Larvenmacher
The making of Larven (masks) for the Basel Fasnacht — the three-day pre-Lenten carnival that is the largest carnival in Switzerland (UNESCO ICH 2017) and unique in being celebrated after Ash Wednesday rather than before it, and in being performed exclusively at night with illuminated lanterns. The Larvenmacher reads the correct painted finish on the paper-mâché Larve through the same press-and-tap consolidation assessment documented for the Rhineland carnival mask (CRAFT-1207), but the Basel tradition adds a specific lantern-light assessment — since the masks are worn exclusively at night under lantern illumination, the painted colors must be assessed under lantern-equivalent lighting, not daylight.
Risk level: Stable · Basel Fasnacht is UNESCO ICH Switzerland (2017)
The making of Swiss milk chocolate through the conching process — the technique invented by Rodolphe Lindt in Geneva in 1879 when he discovered that extended mechanical agitation of chocolate mass produces the characteristic smooth,…
The making of the Alphorn — the wooden natural horn of the Swiss Alps, typically 3–4 meters long, made from a single curved spruce log that is split, hollowed, rejoined, and shaped into the characteristic curved tube.
The making of the Trychel (Swiss cowbell) — the hand-hammered sheet-steel cowbell that is a distinctly different tradition from cast bronze church bells, using forged and welded steel sheet rather than casting.
The silk weaving tradition of Zürich — historically one of Europe's most significant silk textile centers from the 16th century, when Huguenot and Italian refugees brought silk-weaving knowledge to the city; at its peak the Zürich silk…
The painted furniture tradition of the Bernese Oberland — the Bauernmöbel (farmhouse furniture) decorated with the characteristic Bernese floral and pastoral painting style whose vocabulary (roses, tulips, birds, farmyard scenes in clear…
The making of Emmental AOP — the original holed Swiss hard cheese whose name has become generic worldwide for holed cheese but whose authentic AOP version is made exclusively in the Emmental valley and surrounding areas of Canton Berne.
The carving and kaolin-whitening of okuyi (mukudji) masks by Punu carvers of southern Gabon, representing an idealized female ancestral spirit and worn exclusively by male members of the mwiri society during acrobatic stilt-dance…
The Czech tin toy making tradition — the production of the specific Bohemian pressed-tin and lithographed-tin toys that from the 19th century made the Czech lands (together with Nuremberg and Saxony) one of the primary toy-producing…
The carving of wooden Mwana Pwo masks and seated ancestor-figure statues (popularly known by their Portuguese name, O Pensador, 'The Thinker') by the Chokwe people of northeastern Angola, extending into the southern Democratic Republic of…
Tibetan cham (འཆམ) masks are the ritual performance masks of Tibetan Buddhist monastery dance — related to but distinct from the Mongolian tsam (CRAFT-0612) in using a papier-mâché and lacquer construction rather than the Mongolian…
The carving and polychrome painting of round, flat disc masks by the Teke Tsaye people, a subgroup of the wider Teke ethnic group, in the Zanaga region of the Republic of Congo.
The Czech marionette making tradition — the production of the distinctive Czech string puppet (marioneta) that has been the defining form of Czech popular theater from the 17th century to the present, and whose specific Czech character…