Hands Around the World

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The owner and staff of Hands Around the World  travel all over the world looking for the best in hand made crafts from many Native American and ethnic groups, particularly in the Far East and Latin America. We go directly to the artist's home and personally hand-select crafts for quality as well as for cultural and artistic merit. Getting to know the artist personally and being able to relay the story of their life and art is an important aspect of our business. We strive to honor the individual artist and their culture as well as their art. In this way, we endeavor to help preserve their Native American culture as well as their crafts. The goal of Hands Around the World is to bring unique Indian art to you while helping to improve the economic situation of the artists living in their communities. These hand made imported Native American Indian and ethnic crafts make unique artwork gifts. Our one-of-a-kind hand-crafted art are conversation pieces, becoming focal points in any home decor. They are time-tested treasures to be passed from generation to generation.

In South America we provide Native American Indian craft offerings from such countries as Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, and Bolivia. From the Amazon's Yekuana  Indian tribe we offer hand woven baskets, blow guns and dart quivers, hand-carved wooden ritual weapons, sculptures, rattles trimmed with feathers, hand-beaded necklaces and other jewelry, hand-carved ceremonial masks, and a hand-carved shamans stool. We offer baskets, dolls made of pounded bark and fiber, beaded necklaces (many with animal teeth of various kinds), blowguns, and shaman's rattles trimmed with feathers from the Guahibo Indians of the Amazon. You will enjoy bow and arrow sets, baskets (both the burden baskets or "witts" and the tray baskets or "shotos") and other crafts by the Yanomamo Indians. From the Piaroa Indian tribe we have wooden carvings and animal sculptures, hand-carved shaman's rattles trimmed with feathers, combs, wooden utensils for the camp fire, beaded necklaces and other jewelry, and dolls with bees wax heads for the Huirame ceremony. From the Penare Indians of the Amazon we offer woven loincloths, baskets, and beaded necklaces, many with alligator or tapir teeth or claws. The Andes Mountains of Venezuela are known for their pottery artists who produce many unique items of clay such as pottery boxes, vases, jewelry, and nativity scenes. Crafts from the Native American Indian tribes in Brazil include Wai Wai shamans stool and woven rattles, Karaja baskets, and Ticuna funeral masks and wood carvings.

From the Peruvian Amazon of South America we have Native Americans crafts such as Shipibo pottery and pottery animal sculptures, Shipibo textiles in the traditional hand painted manner, and Yagua blowguns. From the Andes mountains of Peru and Bolivia we offer textiles such as pillow covers and wall hangings by the Native American Uros Indian tribe around Lake Titicaca as well as woven finger puppets and hats, tiny pottery nativities and angels, tiny gourd nativities, hand made chess sets featuring the Incas and the conquistadors, hand carved stone animals, wooden flutes, worry dolls, rattles made from nuts or llama hooves, large calabash rattles, small pottery animal beads, and pottery ochirina flutes. In the Ecuadorian Amazon we find such hand made items as necklaces and dance belts from the Shuar Indians, Shuar spears, and Achuar pottery and hand woven baskets. The Andes in Ecuador live the descendants of the Incan Indians, spelled there as Quichua. From the Quichua peoples we have many kinds of textiles such as embroidered blouses, woven shawls, coats, hats and purses as well as pottery items such as ochirina flutes. They are also adept wood carvers producing such items as colorful parrots and toucans and nativity sets.

Hands Around the World makes regular trips to Mexico. From the well known traditional Native American Huichol Indian tribe of Mexico we have gorgeous yarn paintings, God's eyes, and shaman's feather wands. The Huichol Indians are also known for making intricate pictures, eggs, or animal sculptures by inlaying tiny glass beads into beeswax layered over wood. Another product of the beading skills of the Huichol Indian tribe is their beautiful jewelry. Many other wonderful hand made crafts come from Mexico including the intricately painted  wooden sculptures from Oaxaca, black pottery from Santa Clara, colorful pottery folk art sculpture from the Purepeche Indians of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, many other kinds of pottery including Talavera items such as sinks and tiles, masks, tile mirrors, metal items such as star lamps from tin, textiles such as woven shawls, hand blown glass, Day of the Dead items such as the skeleton ladies known as "Catrinas", items of straw such as crucifixes and angels, sterling silver jewelry, and paper mache figures.

Places we regularly visit in the far East include Indonesia and the Indonesian islands of Bali, Java, Lombok, Borneo, and Sulawesi. Also in the far East you can find crafts from Thailand, including the Hill Tribes of Northern Thailand, Laos, Burma, India, and China. Many Northern Thailand Hill Tribes are known for their exquisite handwork and textiles. We offer coats and jackets from the Akha, Hmong, Black Lahu, and Lisu. The Lisu, Hmong and Akha also make beautiful purses, pillow covers, and hats. Other crafts from Thailand include wood carvings, wooden candle sticks, mobiles, chop stick sets, and hand made paper articles such as pads, address books, photo albums and journals. On the island of Borneo or Kalimantan, Indonesia we have crafts from Dayak tribes including wood carvings and sculpture, textiles including embroidery and textiles woven from grasses, carved wooden baby carriers, and bead work including hats, beaded dance belts and bead necklaces. The Dayak also make beautiful hand woven baskets. On the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, the Dayak tribes of the Bugis and the ethnic peoples of Toraja or Toraja land create interesting hand made art such as the Tau Tau, which are the sculptured effigies used to bless the home or the graves of their relatives. Tora-tora, which are the necklaces of the Sulawesian warrior, are a very interesting hand made craft along with warrior helmets and hand made swords with carved wooden sheaths. Other crafts from the Toraja area of Sulawesi, Indonesia include carved wooden boxes and medicine containers, and hand carved bone necklaces. Bali is the "island of artists". They produce wood carvings and sculptures of every imaginable kind including ornate carved doors, rocking horses, puppets, and totem poles. They also make beautiful Celadon pottery, hand made paper photo albums and journals, incense and ceramic incense burners, masks, Balinese sterling silver jewelry, and musical and rhythm instruments such as didgereedoos, rattles, flutes, and gongs. On the Indonesian island of Lombok we find many very ethnic traditional crafts such as medicine containers from hand carved bamboo topped with wooden sculptures, baskets topped with wooden sculptures, wooden "croaking frog" sculptures, bowls and drinking cups made of gourds and carved wood,  and wooden tapestry hangers. In Lombok they also are very adept at using inlaid mother of pearl in such items as decorative boxes, containers, and masks.

From India we offer silver boxes, mirrors, trays, vases, pencil holders and mail and key hangers. Also from India we have stained glass crosses, gorgeous chunky glass bead jewelry, and beautifully colored small glass jars with silver lids.

Another of our specialties is hand made religious art. We offer nativities and angels made of pottery and carved from wood. Some of our more unusual additions to our collection are straw nativities and angels as well as tin nativities and angels. One popular item is glass angel bottles. Additionally, we also collect large carved wooden crucifixes or crosses, and religious jewelry such as rosaries and crosses.