Uruguay · Cross-disciplinary ceramics, goldsmithing, and ground-glass jewelry and sculptural practice
Orfebrería con Vidrio Molido
Goldsmithing in which ground glass is fused to lay a transparent, colored layer directly over metal, developed in Montevideo through research into glass and metals. Its originator, Águeda Dicancro, trained as a ceramicist at the Instituto Pedro Figari (UTU; diploma in Plastic Arts, 1964) and, on an OAS scholarship, in ceramics, metals and goldsmithing at Mexico's Universidad Autónoma; her teacher Eduardo Yepes encouraged the experiment and urged her to exhibit it abroad. Her ground-glass jewelry won the Grand Prize and First Prize for jewelry at Montevideo's 1st Salón de Artes Decorativas in 1966, after which she left jewelry for glass, mastering serial production with the lighting house Artesanos Unidos before opening her own workshop for architects and interior designers. Her work, shown in more than 50 exhibitions, is held in collections in eleven countries.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not Applicable — no UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage inscription exists for this individual practice at time of writing
Leaded stained-glass windows for buildings, which in Montevideo flourished in a documented boom of 1920–1940, when a prosperous city favored interior courtyards crowned with glass.
Mixed-media ceramics that combine Raku-fired clay with welded and hand-forged iron and, later, kiln-fused glass (vitrofusión).
Standing figures sculpted from leather in two 'lenguajes' (languages) of the material: fine, malleable sheep leather for softly draped figures and thick, rigid sole leather for stiffer forms.
Carved and finished objects in Uruguayan timbers (poplar, ash, marupá and cedar, chosen for the fine finish they take), combined with cowhide leather and virgin wool whose texture contrasts with the polished wood.
The candombe tambor — a lightweight, single-headed, barrel-shaped drum built from wooden staves (duelas), open at the end opposite its stretched hide head — is the essential instrument of candombe, the Afro-Uruguayan musical and dance…
Saddlery (talabartería) and artisanal fine leather goods (marroquinería) such as bags, satchels and belts, hand-sewn in quality leathers with the structural stitching deliberately left visible on the surface (costuras vistas) rather than…
The hand-forging of Korean bronzeware (yugi) from a precisely alloyed copper-tin mixture into tableware, vessels, and — using the identical technique and material — traditional percussion instruments.
The forging of the dha (da) — the single-edged, guardless curved sword or long knife that is Myanmar's most historically significant edged-weapon tradition and one of the ten canonical 'Pan Sel Myo' craft categories (Panbe, blacksmithing).
Okir (or ukkil) is the defining visual language of Maranao culture — an intricate flowing arabesque composed of interlocking naga (serpent), pako rabong (fern frond), and geometric forms carved into wood, incised into metal (brassware),…
Baguio City — UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art since 2017 — is the center of Cordillera metalwork tradition, bringing together the silversmithing and jewelry-making traditions of the Ibaloi, Bontoc, Ifugao, and other Cordillera…
The Yi people — one of China's largest ethnic minorities with over 9 million, concentrated in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan — produce an elaborate silver jewelry tradition that serves as the primary marker of Yi identity and social status.
Thewa is a technique unique to Pratapgarh, Rajasthan, in which an intricate filigree design is wrought in 24-carat gold sheet, fused directly onto colored Belgian or Bohemian glass, and set in a gold frame.