Platería de Taxco
A fine silver jewelry and holloware tradition in a Guerrero mining town whose silver-working knowledge, cultivated by pre-colonial Mesoamerican groups and continued after Spanish colonization began mining there in the 1520s, had largely died out by the early 20th century until American architect William Spratling arrived in 1929 and, working with local plateros, single-handedly rebuilt the town into what became known as the silver capital of Mexico.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not currently inscribed on a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list; Mexico is a State Party to the UNESCO 2003 Convention (ratified 14 December 2005) and could nominate this technique in the future.
A leather-embroidery technique in which pita or ixtle — fine, strong thread hand-processed from agave (maguey) leaf fiber — is stitched directly into leather in dense decorative patterns, developed in Colotlán, Jalisco, from the late 19th…
A chisel-and-mallet paper-cutting technique developed in San Salvador Huixcolotla, Puebla, in which artisans stack up to fifty sheets of colored tissue paper and punch elaborate symmetrical designs through the entire stack at once,…
A wool wearing-blanket tradition developed when Spanish colonial authorities resettled Tlaxcalan weavers to Saltillo, Coahuila, in 1591, combining pre-Hispanic backstrap-loom textile knowledge with Spanish-introduced treadle looms and wool…
A beeswax candle-sculpture tradition in which thin, hand-shaped and hand-dyed wax petals are individually formed and assembled into elaborate flowers, ruffles, birds, and other figures built directly onto standing candles, historically…
A hand-spun cotton embroidery tradition of the Totonac people of Papantla, Veracruz, applying dense floral and figurative surface embroidery to huipiles and everyday and ritual clothing, sustained today through a dedicated Indigenous arts…
The carving of extremely dense, water-sinking ironwood (Olneya tesota) into smooth, minimalist animal and plant sculptures, developed by the Comcaac (Seri) people of coastal Sonora from a pre-existing utilitarian tradition (bowls, tools,…
Koto Gadang village in Agam district is the hereditary silver filigree center of West Sumatra — producing delicate wire-work jewelry and decorative objects that have been exported since the colonial period, when Dutch colonial officials…
The smelting and forging of iron by Ovimbundu blacksmiths of the Benguela Highlands, central Angola, documented in exceptional ethnographic detail by Field Museum anthropologist Wilfrid D.
The crafting of fine jewelry directly combining antique bronzes and archaeological artifacts with wood, carved mother-of-pearl, goldwork, and colored gemstones, a technique developed by Lebanese jewelry designer Nada Le Cavelier, who began…
The tin streaming tradition of Cornwall — the extraction of alluvial cassiterite (tin ore) from stream gravels by washing and gravity separation, the oldest documented mining craft in Britain (Bronze Age tin was exported from Cornwall…
Bastar iron craft is the traditional blacksmithing and decorative metalwork tradition of the Lohar (blacksmith) community of Bastar division, Chhattisgarh, practiced in the dense forested region historically governed by the Bastar kingdom.
The forging of the shibriya, a traditional Bedouin dagger that has armed nomadic tribes across the Jordanian desert for centuries, carried on today by a small number of remaining family workshops.